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Jonah Is Thrown into the Sea

And they said to one another, “Come, let us ncast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear othe Lord, the God of heaven, pwho made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that hhe was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, qfor I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard2 to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and rlay not on us innocent blood, sfor you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, tand the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, uand they offered a sacrifice to the Lord vand made vows.

A Great Fish Swallows Jonah

17 3 And the Lord appointed4 a great fish to swallow up Jonah. wAnd Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

n [Judg. 20:9]

o Rev. 11:13

p Ps. 146:6

h [See ver. 3 above]

q [Josh. 7:20]

2 Hebrew the men dug in [their oars]

r Deut. 21:8

s [Ps. 115:3]

t Ps. 65:7; Luke 8:24

u [Gen. 8:20; 31:54]

v See ch. 2:9

3 Ch 2:1 in Hebrew

4 Or had appointed

w Matt. 12:40; 16:4; [Luke 11:30]

 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 욘 1:7–17.

 

7 그들이 서로 이르되, 자 우리가 제비를 뽑아 이 재앙이 누구로 말미암아 우리에게 임하였나 알아 보자 하고 곧 제비를 뽑으니 제비가 요나에게 뽑힌지라

8 무리가 그에게 이르되 청하건대 이 재앙이 누구 때문에 우리에게 임하였는가 말하라 네 생업이 무엇이며 네가 어디서 왔으며 네 나라가 어디며 어느 민족에 속하였느냐 하니

9 그가 대답하되 나는 히브리 사람이요 바다와 육지를 지으신 하늘의 하나님 여호와를 경외하는 자로라 하고

10 자기가 여호와의 얼굴을 피함인 줄을 그들에게 말하였으므로 무리가 알고 심히 두려워하여 이르되 네가 어찌하여 그렇게 행하였느냐 하니라

11 ◎바다가 점점 흉용한지라 무리가 그에게 이르되 우리가 너를 어떻게 하여야 바다가 우리를 위하여 잔잔하겠느냐 하니

12 그가 대답하되 나를 들어 바다에 던지라 그리하면 바다가 너희를 위하여 잔잔하리라 너희가 이 큰 폭풍을 만난 것이 나 때문인 줄을 내가 아노라 하니라

13 그러나 그 사람들이 힘써 노를 저어 배를 육지로 돌리고자 하다가 바다가 그들을 향하여 점점 더 흉용하므로 능히 못한지라

14 무리가 여호와께 부르짖어 이르되 여호와여 구하고 구하오니 이 사람의 생명 때문에 우리를 멸망시키지 마옵소서 무죄한 피를 우리에게 돌리지 마옵소서 주 여호와께서는 주의 뜻대로 행하심이니이다 하고

15 요나를 들어 바다에 던지매 바다가 뛰노는 것이 곧 그친지라

16 그 사람들이 여호와를 크게 두려워하여 여호와께 제물을 드리고 서원을 하였더라

요나의기도

17 ◎여호와께서 이미 큰 물고기를 예비하사 요나를 삼키게 하셨으므로 요나가 밤낮 삼 일을 물고기 뱃속에 있으니라

 The Holy Bible: New Korean Revised Version, electronic ed. (South Korea, n.d.), 욘 1:7–17.

 

 

7-10절) 심한 폭풍으로 인하여 배안의 사람들은 제비를 뽑아 이 재앙이 누구로 말미암은 것인지를 알고자 하였다. 이에 제비를 뽑았더니 요나가 뽑혔다. 그러자 무리가 이 재앙의 이유가 무엇인지를 요나에게 물으며 그의 생업이 무엇이며 어디서 왔으며 어느 나라이며 어느 민족에 속했는지를 물었다. 

이에 요나는 자신이 히브리 사람이며 바다와 육지를 지으신 하늘의 하나님 여호와를 경외하는 자인데 지금 여호와의 얼굴을 피하였기에 폭풍이 임했음을 말하자 무리가 이를 알고 심히 두려워하였다. 

 

7절의 제비는 히브리어 ‘고랄’로 몫, 제비(물건), 분깃, 운명등의 의미로 사용되었다. 본문에서는 무작위로 나온 결과를 통해서 결정을 내리거나 하나님(신)의 뜻을 결정하기 위해서 사용되는 작은 물체를 의미한다. 당시 고대 세계에서는 신의 뜻을 알아내기 위해서 이러한 물건을 사용하였다.(민 16;8, 수 18:6, 수 21:4) 또한 이스라엘 백성들은 하나님께서 그 결과를 주장하신다고 생각했다.(잠 16:33) 

잠언 16:33 (NKRV)

33제비는 사람이 뽑으나 모든 일을 작정하기는 여호와께 있느니라

The casting of lots was a widely used method in the ancient Near East.37 The most common word used for “lot” indicates that they were either stones or pebbles38 that were painted or colored. When the stones were thrown, if two dark sides landed up the usual interpretation was no. If two light sides landed up, that meant yes. A light and a dark side meant throw again. Using this system, the sailors dealt with each individual until the color revealed the guilty person.39 This specific means of discerning the Lord’s will is found many times in Scripture. For example, the casting of lots was the means for determining the guilt of Achan (Josh 7:14–18), for distributing the land to the tribes of Israel (Josh 18:10), and for selecting Saul as king (1 Sam 10:20–22). As Prov 16:33 says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”

37 Sasson, Jonah, 108–10.

38 J. Lindblom, “Lot-Casting in the Old Testament,” Journal of Theology 12 (1962): 164–78.

39 Stuart, Hosea-Jonah, 459–60.

 Billy K. Smith and Franklin S. Page, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, vol. 19B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 232.

 

이 제비뽑기의 결과로 요나가 뽑히자 배안의 사람들은 요나에게 주목한다. 그가 어느 민족이며 누구이기에, 또한 무슨 일을 하였기에 지금 이런 심한 재앙이 임하였는지가 궁금했기 때문이다. 

9절에서 요나는 자신이 히브리 사람이라고 대답한다. 이 ‘이브리’라는 표현은 

히브리인을 지칭하는 표현이다.(창 14:13, 출 1:16) 요나는 하나님을 바다와 육지를 지으신 하늘의 하나님 여호와라고 표현한다. 말 그대로 하늘과 땅과 바다를 모두 지으시고 주관하시는 분이라는 것이다. 그는 지금 분명히 여호와가 어떤 신인지 분명하게 고백한다. 또한 그 여호와를 경외하는 자라고 말한다. 하지만 아이러니하게 지금 요나는 그 하나님의 얼굴을 피하여 배를 타고 다시스로 도망가고 있는 것이다. 그의 고백과 행동이 일치하지 않고 있는 것이고 이로 인해서 바다를 지으신 하나님께서 폭풍을 통해서 그의 걸음을 멈추신 것이다. 

At first, Jonah, who here speaks for the first time in the story, appears to ignore the first question and merely answers the last one. He replies “I am a Hebrew.” This is a term which is seldom used in the Old Testament, which prefers the expression “Israelite.” It is frequently used by foreigners, especially Egyptians and Philistines, or by Israelites in speaking to foreigners, as these sailors were.* This is the only place in the Old Testament where someone says “I am a Hebrew,” though Joseph implies it in Genesis 40:15. In the New Testament, Paul describes himself as a Hebrew in Philippians 3:5. There is a tendency among translators to render I am a Hebrew as simply “I am a Jew” (for example, lb). Such a rendering is of course technically incorrect, because the term “Jew” refers essentially to persons from the southern part of Israel, not from the northern kingdom. It is important, therefore, to reproduce some kind of transliteration of Hebrew even though this may not appear to be the more common designation of present-day Jews.

The statement I am a Hebrew may, however, require some expansion in certain languages, for example, “my race is Hebrew” or “I belong to a family of Hebrews” or “my nation is called Hebrew.”

* Compare Gesenius-Kautzsch section 2b.

lb Living Bible

 Brynmor F. Price and Eugene Albert Nida, A Translators’ Handbook on the Book of Jonah, UBS Handbook Series (Stuttgart: United Bible Societies, 1978), 61.

 

이에 무리가 알고 심히 두려워 하였다. 앞서 5절에서 심한 폭풍으로 인하여 두려워했다면 이제 이 심한 폭풍의 원인이 바로 여호와 하나님으로 인한 것임을 알았기에 더욱 심히 두려워하고 있다. 

 

우리는 본문속에서 요나와 무리(선원)들의 차이를 발견한다. 요나는 하나님의 주권을 알았지만 순종하지 않았고, 무리들은 하나님의 주권을 인식하지 못했지만 두려워하고 있다. 

 

Many interpreters have identified vv. 4–16 as a chiasmus, that is, the recurrence of a series of terms and themes in reverse order. In all of these analyses vv. 9–10 are viewed as the center, focus, and turning point. D. Alexander has followed and refined the analyses of Lohfink, Pesch, and Fretheim in producing the following analysis that shows the relationship between the various parts:46

A Yahweh hurls a wind on the sea; the storm begins; sailors fear and cry to their gods (vv. 4–5a)

B Jonah sleeps; cry to your god; we shall not perish; divine sovereignty (vv. 5b–6)

C that we may know on whose account (v. 7)

D the sailors question Jonah (v. 8)

E I fear (v. 9)

E′ the sailors fear (v. 10)

D′ the sailors question Jonah (v. 11)

C′ I know that it is on my account (v. 12)

B′ sailors strive for land; sailors cry to Yahweh; let us not perish; divine sovereignty (vv. 13–14)

A′ sailors hurl Jonah into sea; the storm ceases; sailors fear Yahweh and sacrifice (vv. 15–16)

46 Alexander, Jonah, 106–9.

 Billy K. Smith and Franklin S. Page, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, vol. 19B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 234.

 

11-13절) 바다가 점점 사나워지자 무리가 너를 어떻게 해야 바다가 잔잔해 지겠느냐고 묻는다 그러나 요나는 이 큰 폭풍의 원인이 바로 자신 때문인 줄 알고 자신을 바다에 던져야 잔잔해 질 것이다라고 답한다. 하지만 그 사람들은 요나를 던지지는 못하고 힘써서 노를 저어 배를 돌려 육지로 향하고자 하지만 바다가 점점 더 사나워져 능히 그러지 못하였다. 

 

사람들은 이 폭풍의 원인이 바로 요나의 불순종이라는 사실을 알았다. 또한 요나도 그것을 인정하고 이것을 해결하기 위해서는 자신을 바다에 던져야 한다고 말했다. 하지만 사람들은 선뜻 그럴 수 없었다. 그래서 힘써 노를 저어 육지로 향하기 위해서 노력하지만 아무 쓸모가 없었다. 

 

12절에서 요나는 자신을 들어 바다에 던지라라고 말한다. 이 던지다라는 표현은 이미 앞서 여호와께서 바다에 큰 바람을 보내실 때(4절), 선원들이 배의 물건을 바다에 던질 때(5절) 사용한 표현이다. 이제 요나가 바다에 던져질 차례가 된 것이다. 요나는 이 큰 폭풍의 원인을 분명히 알고 있었다. 하지만 그는 회개하거나 하나님께 뜻을 돌이켜 순종할 생각을 하고 있지 않다. 아직까지 그는 니느웨에 가서 회개의 말씀을 전하느니 그저 죽는 편을 택하고 있는 것이다. 이처럼 요나가 자신을 바다에 던지라고 한 것은 자신으로 인해서 애꿎게 죽게될 사람들을 위한 양심의 가책 때문이지 이방인에 대한 연민 때문은 아니었다. 

The unnatural ferocity of the storm and the casting of the lot only confirmed what Jonah already knew. So now he resigned himself to his “fate.” He did not exhibit repentance for fleeing from the Lord but merely resigned himself to the only seeming solution. In v. 6 the captain had already asked Jonah to pray. Jonah did not seem so inclined but gave the sailors instruction on what to do so that they might possibly be saved from the ferocious tempest. It is interesting that Jonah did not offer to jump overboard on his own. Perhaps he was too frightened, or perhaps at this point he was merely asking for them to be the instrument of God’s punishment.

 Billy K. Smith and Franklin S. Page, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, vol. 19B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 235–236.

 

14-16절) 이에 할수 없다라는 것을 깨닫고 그들이 요나로 인하여 자신들을 멸망시키지 말 것을 여호와께 청하면서 요나를 들어 바다에 던지자 바다가 뛰노는 것을 그치게 되었다. 이에 사람들이 여호와를 크게 두려워하여 여호와께 제물을 드리고 서원을 하였다. 

 

앞서 선원들은 5절에서 각자 자신들의 신들에게 기도했지만 이제는 여호와께 부르짖고 있다. 아이러니하게 요나가 기도하는 것이 아니라 이방인 선원들이 여호와께 기도하고 있다. 그러면서 이들은 주 여호와께서 주의 뜻대로 행하시는 주권적인 능력의 하나님이심을 고백한다. 그리고 요나를 바다에 던지는 것이 주님의 뜻임을 알고 그를 바다에 던지게 된다. 선원들의 막연한 두려움(5절)은 이제 실체적인 두려움, 여호와를 크게 두려워하게 되었고(16절) 이제 나아가 그 두려우신 여호와께 경배하는 것으로 나아간다. 

 

17절) 여호와께서 이미 큰 물고기를 예비하셔서 요나를 삼키게 하셨고 요나가 3일 밤낮을 물고기 뱃속에 있었다. 

 

선원들에 의해 사나운 바다에 요나가 던져졌을 때 큰 물고기가 그를 삼켰다. 이 물고기는 우연히 이곳을 지나가던 물고기가 아니라 여호와께서 요나를 건지시기 위해서 미리 예비하신 물고기였다. 하나님께서는 주의 뜻대로 행하시는 분으로 이미 큰 물고기를 예비하셨다. 이 예비하다라는 히브리어, ‘마나’가 피엘형으로 사용될 때 ‘예정하다, 임명하다’라는 의미로 사용된다. 이 표현은 이후에 4장 6-8절에서 세 번 더 언급된다. 큰 도시(1:2), 큰 바람(1:4), 큰 두려움(1:10, 16)처럼 요나를 삼킨 물고기는 ‘큰 물고기’였다.  또한 본문에서 말하는 물고기가 무엇인지는 분명하지 않다. 사람을 통째로 삼킬 수 있는 향유 고래와 같이 거대한 물고기라고 말하지만 이 표현은 수생 동물을 의미하는 일반적인 표현이다. 

지금 우리에게 주어진 자료로 이 물고기가 어떤 물고기인지를 알 수 없다. 중요한 것은 바로 하나님께서 이러한 초자연적인 기적을 통해서 요나를 죽음가운데서 살리셨다는 것이다. 요나는 이 물고기 뱃속에서 3일 밤낮을 보냈다. 이는 죽었다가 다시 되살아나는 시간을 상징하는 표현일 수도 있다.(호 6:2) 예수님께서 자신의 부활에 대한 이야기를 하시면서 요나가 물고기 뱃속에 있었던 시간을 언급하신 것도 바로 이런 이유일 것이다.(마 12:40)

마태복음 12:40 (NKRV)

40요나가 밤낮 사흘 동안 큰 물고기 뱃속에 있었던 것 같이 인자도 밤낮 사흘 동안 땅 속에 있으리라

 

1:17 appointed. This is the first of four uses of “appoint” that underscore God’s sovereign control over creation (cf. 4:6–8). Fish (Hb. dag) is not limited to what is called “fish” today (generally cold-blooded vertebrate sea creatures with fins and gills) but is a general word for an aquatic beast, which cannot be identified further. However, a large whale such as a sperm whale could easily swallow a man whole. three days and three nights. Though this may be a symbolic expression for a time of dying and rising (cf. Hos. 6:2), it more likely describes the actual number of days, or parts of three days, according to accepted reckoning of days at that time (cf. 1 Sam. 30:12; 2 Kings 20:5, 8). In either case it has associations with return from death or near-death—which perhaps is why Jesus likened the time between his own death and resurrection to Jonah’s time in the fish (Matt. 12:40).

 Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1688.

 

1:17 This verse, which begins chap. 2 in Hebrew, is perhaps the most famous verse in the Book of Jonah. Rimmer ironically says: “This is the first of 2 verses which ‘ruin’ the narrative. If this verse and 2:10 were removed, then the prophecy would be plausible for modern readers.”1 It probably is true but tragic that many point to this verse as their “reason” for not believing God’s Word. This miracle is singled out, even though it is simply one of several in the book (see p. 215 in the Introduction).

The text says that “the Lord provided” a great fish to swallow Jonah. The word “provided” (from mānâ) has been the subject of varying translations. In the KJV it is rendered “prepared.” This gives the perception that God created a special creature for the specific purpose of rescuing Jonah and providing a place for his training in humility and submission. But an accurate translation would be “ordained” or “appointed.” The word is used four times in the Book of Jonah and always points to the Lord’s power to accomplish his will. Here it shows his sovereignty over the creatures of the sea; in 4:6 it shows his power over plants; in 4:7 it shows his power over crawling creatures; and in 4:8 it shows his power over the wind. While God indeed may have prepared a special “fish” for Jonah, the text only indicates that God summoned the fish, common or special, to be at that place at the exact moment of need.

Conservative scholars throughout the years have spent a great deal of energy and time describing types of large fish that might have been capable of swallowing a human.2 But all we know for sure is that it was a “large fish.” The word translated “fish,” dag, is the general Hebrew word for any aquatic creature (cf. Gen 9:2; Num 11:22; 1 Kgs 4:33; Ps 8:8). The LXX uses kētos, which means a “huge sea-fish.”3 The KJV causes some misunderstanding, for in Matt 12:40, which quotes Jonah 1:17 (from the LXX), it translates the word as “whale.”

Trying to marshal evidence to confirm this Scripture may in fact result in the denigration of the miracle. Searching for historical incidents when people and large animals were swallowed and later recovered from sea creatures4 shows a posture of defensiveness that is unnecessary, counterproductive, and violates the nature of the biblical account. As D. Stuart says, “A miracle is a divine act beyond human replication or explanation.”5 On the other hand, it is hard to argue that the author invented the tale without presupposing the impossibility of the miraculous, which would be irreconcilable with Hebrew tradition. Also, as D. Alexander and others have observed: “The author’s portrayal of this most peculiar event is very low key; it has certainly not been included in order to heighten the dramatic quality of the narrative. This being so, why should the author have invented it, if it did not really happen?”6

Why did God use this specific means of returning Jonah to his appropriate place of service? For some the purpose of the fish was solely allegorical. Glaze states: “The literary apparatus rich in metaphors and poetic imagery indicates the broader purpose of the author, and the allusions are evident to the intended audience. The relationship to one of Jeremiah’s prophecies was clear: Israel, swallowed by Babylon, would be delivered.”7 In other words, the story had to present elements commensurate with the intended teaching lesson.

More fitting of the context is the view that the fish provided time for instruction from the Lord. R. T. Kendall says it well: “The belly of the fish is not a happy place to live, but it is a good place to learn.”8 Jonah was well aware of the numerous Old Testament reflections of chaos, pictured by the sea monster Leviathan (Pss 74:13–14; 104:26). During Jonah’s time in the fish he may have reflected on God’s dominance over every force in the world. Jonah had to learn that God’s purpose was serious and that his concerns as well as his power went far beyond the shores of Palestine.

Jonah was in the fish “three days and three nights,” although he would have realized this only after his removal from the fish. This phrase may be intended as an approximation rather than as a precise measure of seventy-two hours;9 however, the point of the fuller expression rather than simply “three days” would seem to be that Jonah was confined for “three full days.”10 Some think the expression reflects the ancient belief that death was permanent only after a body showed no signs of life for three days (cf. John 11:6, 14). If this interpretation is applied to the Jonah text, it apparently would mean that the fish was not primarily an agent of Jonah’s deliverance but an additional danger to his life. The “three days and three nights” phrase would point to his precarious state of existence, hovering between life and death.11 This interpretation, however, appears out of step with Jonah’s prayer of thanksgiving from inside the fish (2:2–9). Nevertheless, his thanksgiving probably was not solely for deliverance from drowning but was based on his anticipation of deliverance from the fish as well. Therefore the time frame perhaps should suggest that God’s power and grace retrieved Jonah as if from the dead (cf. 2:6), and the great fish was the vehicle God used.

A similar interpretation is that the expression alludes to a common motif in the ancient Near East of a three-day journey to the underworld and back. With that notion in mind, the readers of Jonah would have seen the fish as representing God’s rescue from the underworld, that is, death.12 Numerous texts in the Old Testament refer to three days as the period of a journey. For example, Moses asked that Pharaoh permit the Israelites to leave Egypt to go on a three-day journey into the wilderness (Exod 3:18; cf. also Gen 22:4; Num 10:33; Josh 9:17; 1 Sam 30:1; 2 Sam 24; 2 Kgs 2:17). Jonah’s preaching tour of Nineveh also took three days (3:3). Jonah later may have pondered regretfully upon his three days in the fish made necessary because he tried to avoid three days of walking and preaching in Nineveh.

Although the phrase “three days and three nights” may have had a variety of connotations both from other Old Testament passages and from extrabiblical writings, no compelling reason exists to disbelieve the literal span of time indicated. In fact, none of the Old Testament allusions of a similar nature are necessarily figurative. The major point is that God, through the fish, could sustain this pouting prophet during “unbelievable” circumstances and return him to the place where he could renew his commission to serve.

1 H. Rimmer, The Harmony of Science and Scripture, 8th ed. (Berne, Ind.: The Berne Witness Company, 1939), 169.

2 Ibid., 190–91. See also A. J. Wilson, “The Sign of the Prophet Jonah and Its Modern Confirmations,” in The Princeton Theological Review 25 (1927): 631–32. He discusses at length the physical characteristics of a number of sea creatures capable of swallowing a man.

LXX The Septuagint

3 T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Twelve Prophets) (Louvain: Peeters, 1993), 134.

LXX The Septuagint

4 Many historical instances are cited by Wilson (“The Sign of the Prophet Jonah,” 635–37). The most fascinating concerns James Bartley, who supposedly was swallowed by a sperm whale in 1891 and was recovered live but “raving.” Rimmer tells of other instances. One man was rescued alive and unhurt from the belly of a rhinodon shark but was “devoid of hair, and patches of a yellowish-brown color covered his entire skin” (Rimmer, Harmony of Science, 195–96). See also C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, “Jonah,” COT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 10:398. Such stories are doubted by E. B. Davis, who diligently attempted to unearth the facts of the “Bartley” story. He concluded that the story is “a whale of a tale” (“A Whale of a Tale: Fundamentalist Fish Stories,” in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, 43, ed. J. W. Hass, Jr. [Ipswich, Mass.: American Scientific Affiliation, 1991], 224–37).

5 D. Stuart, Hosea-Jonah, WBC (Waco: Word, 1987), 474.

6 T. D. Alexander, “Jonah,” TOTC (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1988), 111–12.

7 A. J. Glaze, Jr., “Jonah,” BBC 7 (Nashville: Broadman, 1972), 166.

8 R. T. Kendall, Jonah: An Exposition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), 101; Keil and Delitzsch, “Jonah,” COT, 10:398.

9 Ellison, “Jonah,” 375.

10 Stuart, Hosea-Jonah, 474.

11 G. M. Landes, “The ‘Three Days and Three Nights’ Motif in Jonah 2:1,” JBL 86 (1967): 446–50; id., “The Kerygma of the Book of Jonah,” Int 21 (1967): 11–12. While D. Stuart (Hosea-Jonah, 475) accepts this argument that “the Sheol journey motif is probably behind the author’s choice of words as a purposeful echo of the reference to the Underworld in the Psalm (v 7[6]),” Alexander considers that “there is insufficient evidence within the Old Testament itself to demonstrate that this is how a Hebrew reader would have interpreted the phrase” (“Jonah,” 112).

12 Landes, “The ‘Three Days and Three Nights’ Motif in Jonah 2:1,” 448. In the Sumerian myth “The Descent of Inanna to the Nether World,” Inanna instructs her divine minister, Ninshubur, to set up an elaborate lament for her after she has departed for the underworld. Then follows the text of the lament, the account of Inanna’s departure and reception into the lower realm, culminating in her death at the hands of the goddess Ereshkigal. At this point the text then reads: “After three days (and) three nights had passed, her minister Ninshubur, her minister of favorable words, her knight of true words, sets up a lament for her by the ruins” (Part II, lines 169–73). The “three days (and) three nights” are intended to cover the time of travel to the realm of the dead. It would appear this is a most promising clue for understanding the full import of the words “three days and three nights” in Jonah 1:17. They are used to indicate the period of time it took the fish to bring Jonah back from the deep, understood more explicitly in the following psalm as the netherworld (cf. 2:6). Thus, just as Inanna required three days and three nights to complete her descent into the underworld, so also the fish is assigned the same time span to return Jonah from “Sheol” to the dry land.

 Billy K. Smith and Franklin S. Page, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, vol. 19B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 239–242.

 

마소라 사본에서는 1장 17절이 2장 1절로 표기된다. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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