The beginning of this chapter seems to be anticipated (per anticipationem dici), since the same is repeated afterwards, where he returns to the order of the history. 1) For this is the way of the Hebrew language, that
1) Weimar edition: ersdlt instead of reäit.
it has a ponderous (taediosam - morose) sentence structure and often repeats the same, as in the first Psalm [v. 4., according to the Hebrew): "Like chaff the wind scatters them." In this speech the pronoun "they" is entirely superfluous. And what she does in any abbreviated sentence, she does also in a
long continuous speech, as can be seen in the fifth book of Moses, where Moses often makes many words when describing some history, which he then tends to repeat again completely, even in one and the same context. So I think that also this passage at the beginning of this chapter is anticipated, so that this is the order of history: God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and did them no evil. These words were not spoken immediately by Jonah, but after some days, after the sermon was completed, when he saw that what he had predicted would happen did not happen. And then follows what is written at the beginning of this chapter: Since Jonah waited thus some days, and that which he had foretold did not come to pass, since the Ninivites repented, Jonah [as it is said in the Vulgate] was afflicted with a great plague. But the Hebrew word rather means, "It grieved Jonah greatly." Christ also used this word in the Gospel, Matt. 6:34: "It is enough for every day to have its own plague." But he was unwilling because, before he went, he had set aside the command of the Lord, because he was frightened by the danger of death, as I said above, then because he did not want those to be saved etc. And so he is angry that the Assyrians do not perish, the destroyers of the people of God. Here we see again what I have often said at the beginning of this prophet and elsewhere, and what the Scriptures everywhere indicate, that in the saints there are still remnants of the flesh left, which they do not lack until the old Adam perishes altogether. There is an excellent passage in the 14th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles [v. 15], where Paul and Barnabas say: "We are also men, subject to the same evils as you. And the author of the epistle of James says in the last chapter [v. 17] of Elijah: "Elijah was a man like us." They had flesh and blood just like us. Therefore, no matter how holy they may be, they sometimes fell out of weakness of the flesh, and most shamefully, as Jonah did here, who, though wonderfully proven and exercised in the faith, nevertheless did not gladly submit his will to the will of God.
can. The dear God wanted the Ninevites to be preserved; but Jonah is not the same, but he is angry and grumbles. No suffering, no challenge is sufficient to kill the old man; the old Adam does not cease to be like himself, no matter how great the challenge may be, if he does not finally perish completely and is strangled all at once. This is therefore written for our consolation, that just as divine grace did not impute sin to them, however great it was, because they were chosen and transplanted into the kingdom of grace, so sin will not be imputed to us either. Rom. 8, 1.: "There is therefore nothing condemnable in them that are in Christ JEsu", [v. 28.:] "to them all things must be for the best" etc. And as they are saved under the shadow of the hand of the Lord, so shall we also be saved, and not despair if we still feel the remnant of the old flesh in us, which shall not cease [in us], even as it hath not ceased in the most holy people, until this old Adam also be utterly put to death; meanwhile we shall cleave unto Christ our Head. And this is the preaching of the kingdom of grace, that though sin remain in the saints, as it cannot be otherwise, yet it is not imputed to them, but is forgiven, as they pray daily etc.
V. 2. Ah, Lord, this is what I said (hoc est verbum meum).
The Hebrew word dabar means a cause, a thing, a speech. So it says 5 Mos. 16, 19.: "The gifts blind the wise, and pervert the things (verba) of the righteous," that is, they pervert righteous things. This is how Jonah used it here. The Latin would simply say: "This is when I was still in my country, therefore I also wanted to flee to the sea.
For I know that you are gracious and merciful.
In the Psalms these words are often connected. And what he translates here by misericordia, the same word is also found in Moses
1) In both the Erlangen and Weimar editions: äissinailis, where we think killlilis should be read.
[Ex. 33, 19.], whence the apostle Paul says in the letter to the Romans Cap. 9, 15. "Whom I have mercy on, I have mercy on" etc.
And of great goodness (misericordiae).
This word actually means charity. Christ also used this expression in the Gospel [Matth. 9, 13]: "I am pleased with mercy and not with sacrifice", that means, I want you to do good to others etc.
And let yourself repent of the evil.
[Here it says: ignoscens super malitia, elsewhere (Joel 2, 13.)] praestabilis super malitia, sanderswo:] p06uit6U8 8up6rmalitia, that is, who is wont to revoke the plague which he had decided to lay out. These are all surely words of faith; if one can grasp and imagine GOt in this way, that is surely life and blessedness. And this right and sincere faith is with Jonah, and yet he is angry with GOtte. Thus the flesh and the spirit clash. This is the battle in the saints and an irreconcilable war, as I said above.
V. 3. Now therefore, O Lord, take my soul from me.
These are also words of a great spirit, that he desires to be dissolved, desires death; but nevertheless this is also a carnal heart movement, for he feared the shame if that did not come to pass, which he had predicted would come to pass according to the word of God.
V. 4. Do you think you are justly angry?
As if to say: this is not the case.
V. 5. And Jonah went out to the city.
Here he returns to the order of the history. And if everything in this chapter, which now follows, should be connected with the preceding zttsammen, it would be so to connect: For Jonah had gone out of the city etc. But behold the extraordinary forbearance and goodness of the dear God, behold the admirable kindness of the divine majesty, how he deals and plays with the foolish and angry Jonah, as he bears his displeasure and convicts him by his own saying. That is, of course, treating sinners sweetly and fatherly. Here is certainly a
An excellent example of divine kindness to those who, after being justified, still sin. See how he closes his eyes, how he argues with the grumbling Jonah! In order for Jonah to completely abandon his anger and stop grumbling, divine goodness provides him with an arbor or a small hut under which he can sit and enjoy the shade until the heat of the sun breaks.
V. 6. 1) And delivered him from his evil.
[Instead of et protegeret eum, laboraverat enim in the Vulgate] the Hebrew says: that he saved him from his evil (a malitia). This saying can be understood in two ways: first, that the Lord provided an epheu (hederam) that grew up over Jonah, so that the shadow of the epheu delighted him and saved him from his evil, that is, from his affliction, so that Jonah would no longer be distressed by the conversion of the Ninivites. For it is the same Hebrew word here as above [v. 1]. The other opinion, which I like better, is this: so that the Lord would punish and chastise him for being so evil-minded, so that Jonah, instructed and convicted by his own example, would confess that his unwillingness and murmuring was foolish. I accept this second view; if someone does not like it, he may follow the former. Incidentally, among the holy people there has been an extraordinary and certainly distasteful dispute about the word hedera [epheu]. For this is how Jerome translates it, while the old translation before Jerome had "gourd". It is useless to argue about a trivial matter, since the Hebrew word means neither epheu nor a gourd, but it is the name of a tree unknown to us, peculiar to that country. But Jerome gives the reason why he translated epheu. See the interpretations of Jerome.
V. 7. But the Lord provided a worm.
By doing this, the Lord wanted to refute the unjust displeasure of Jonah, but the divine majesty does this by a very fatherly and kind example, as I have said.
1) This verse number is missing in the Weimar edition.
V. 8. 1) That he became dull.
The Hebrew word actually means: to sink down powerless, which the Germans express by "verschmachten". It is the same word above in the eighth chapter of Amos [v. 13], where we read: "At that time beautiful virgins and young men will pine away because of thirst.
Then he wished death to his soul.
Here he returns to order again. For of course I cannot believe that the Lord spoke to Jonah twice like this: "Do you think that you are justly angry?
V. 9. I will be angry with you until death.
Behold the obstinate murmurer, who will not desist from his ways! This prophet is certainly strange: since he has been provoked by the Lord, his anger grows. Thus sin tends to be heaped upon sin, thus one sin tends to give birth to another.
V. 10. The gourd mourns you because you have not worked on it.
As if he wanted to say: You grieve for your gourd, which is now withered, which you man did not prepare, and even though you did not prepare it, you are displeased that the worm has eaten it. I God, who created Nineveh, and in it so many men and animals, should not spare them, should not be patient, should not rejoice in their salvation? This is a glorious and exceedingly sweet word of the divine majesty, this is an exceedingly rich promise of the incomprehensible goodness and mercy of God. He does not want the sinner to die, but rather to be converted and to live. This praises God's grace to us, that he grieves over our destruction and rejoices over our salvation, as the parable of the Prodigal Son in the Gospel [Luc. 15, 11. ff.] shows. In the same way as here, Christ spoke in Matth. 7, II: "If you, who are evil, can still give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven" etc.
V. 11. who do not know difference what is right or left?
I): This verse number is missing in the Weimar edition.
This is a way of speaking of the Hebrew language; we speak differently, in such a way: They know nothing, neither this nor that, and as we say in German, "They know not what is white o.der black," namely, as to blessedness;. they know no difference between godliness and godlessness, they have not the word of God.... Therefore, if they only knew as much as you know, dear Jonah, they might be better than you are, as has happened. For after they heard the preaching of Jonah, they were immediately converted, believing the word and repenting, while Jonah meanwhile grumbled and railed against the Lord.
I leave the secret interpretation to your reflection and diligence. For Christ Himself refers in the Gospel [Matth. 12, 39. 40. 16, 4.] this example of Jonah to Himself, namely that He is depicted in Jonah, as He says: "This wicked and adulterous kind seeks a sign, and no sign shall be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights" etc. This history is extraordinarily glorious, so that Christ also seems to have delighted in it, which can be seen in this very [twelfth] chapter of Matthew, where he remembers the people of Nineveh, where Christ certainly speaks gloriously of this history. And so this history is praised in both Testaments. Now Christ came upon the sea, that is, into the world. And since he had come into the world, the sea becomes void for his sake, since the Son of God is received by some, but not by others in the same way. He is swallowed up by the whale, that is, by the devil, the prince of this world. For the devil and hell and death devoured Christ while he was hanging on the cross, as if they wanted to destroy him, but he could not be kept [from death], for that was impossible, as Peter says Apost. 2:24. 2, 24. Therefore he had to spit him out again, and so he became alive again, and this became the cause of life, what before was the cause of death. Thus death has become the door to life for us, shame is a promotion to glory, condemnation and hell to blessedness, and that through Christ who was innocent etc.
To Christ be praise and glory..;