Jonah.
God's mercy extends to the nations, including Israel's worst enemies.
Who wrote Jonah?
Anonymous; tells the story of the prophet Jonah son of Amittai.
Who was it written for?
Israel — confronting its own attitude toward outsiders.
Structure
- The flight (1): Jonah runs from his commission
- The fish (2): prayer from the depths
- Nineveh repents (3)
- Jonah pouts (4): God's lesson with the plant
Key verses
Why Jonah matters
Jonah is the funny book in the prophetic corpus — a reluctant prophet, a great fish, repenting Assyrians, a sulking prophet under a plant. The joke is on Jonah and on every reader who shares his attitude. God cares about the people we wish he didn't. Jesus identifies his own death and resurrection with Jonah's three days in the fish (Matthew 12:40).
Related tools
Read the book, then test it.
Kerygma's trivia rounds cover Jonah in the Minor Prophets stream — once you've sat with the overview, the questions go deeper into the text. Free for seven days.
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