JONAH CHAPTER 1 - 4

BOOK OF JONAH

The prophecy of Jonah is a tale
Couched as bare history that might avail,
Except resemblance to the pagan rite
Of three days for the resurrection’s sight
And the sun pattern of the gourd as well
Suggest the mythological in spell.
Sweet Jesus seems to make a parallel,
Which may well be exact: he too was one
Whose story was over-covered and spun
According to the dying, resurrecting
God-men of Middle Eastern folks’ selecting.
But my Beloved, I love the final twist
Against the racist calling I have missed,
And even animals at last are kissed.

JONAH 1

1 There was a word of YHWH that came
To Jonah Amittai’s son’s claim,
To say: Get up and go your way
To Nineveh, great city’s sway,
And shout against it, for their sin
Has come before Me in a din.
3 But Jonah got up then to flee
Into Tarshish, lest YHWH should see,
And went down to Joppa, and he
Found a ship to Tarshish and free,
And so he paid the fare and went
Down into it, to go as meant
To Tarshish so YHWH would not see.
4 But YHWH sent great wind on the sea,
And there was a fierce storm to be
Upon the waves, so that the ship
Was near to break up on the slip.
5 And so the sailors were afraid,
And prayer each man to his god made,
And threw out the cargo that weighed
The ship into the sea and stayed
To lighten it. But Jonah’s wreck
Went to lie down under the deck
And he was fast asleep and laid.
6 The captain came to him and said,
”What’s wrong with you here still in bed?
Get up and pray to your own God,
It may be God will take a prod
And think of us to save from dread.”
7 They said to each other “Come now,
Let us cast lots to show the prow
For whose sake this calamity
Has come upon us in the sea.”
So they cast lots and the lot fell
On Jonah who had caused the spell.

It seems that there are fish, and big enough,
To swallow up a man and one so tough,
So that is not a thing too wild to rough.
What makes me doubtful of this word and stuff
Is that it rings as true the divination
Of every heathen folk and pagan nation.
In the name of the gods that You declared
Should not even be mentioned or repaired
They cast their lots, and You, Beloved, did not
Come intervening in the wicked plot.
They meant to make a human sacrifice,
And that is something You do not think nice.
Perhaps the Gospel word is right to say
Like Jonah from the cross three night and day.

8 Then they asked him, “Tell us now, please,
What made this evil hit our knees?
What is your work? Where are you from?
Your nationality in sum?
And of what people do you come?”
9 He answered them, “I’m a Hebrew,
And I’m a fearer of Lord YHWH,
The Ælohim of heavenly crew,
Who made the sea and dry land too.”
10 And so the men became afraid,
And said to him, “Why have you stayed
To do this?” For the men knew well
That he had fled from YHWH a spell,
Because he had blabbed that as well.
11 Then said they to him, “What shall we
Do to you then, so that the sea
May be calm for us?” For the sea
Was furious and was stormy.
12 And he said to them, “Take me up,
And throw me in the sea like pup,
And then the sea will calm for you,
For I know that for my sake true
This great storm has come down on you.”
13 But still the men rowed hard to bring
It to the land, but failed the thing,
For the sea raged with tempesting.
14 So they prayed to YHWH and they said
“We beg you, O YHWH, as we’re bred,
Don’t let us die for this man’s life,
And do not count us in the strife
Guilty of innocent blood rife,
For You, O YHWH, do as You’ve said.”

I’ve often blamed the Christian for the bill
Of pagan commentary on the hill
Of Calvary in human sacrifice.
But here the heathen do not think it nice,
And try their best to avoid cross in sight,
While Jonah, Hebrew faithful, brings to light
Expedience of crucifixion’s bite.
The heathen pray to You not to accuse
Them when they resort to sacrifice’ ruse.
Beloved, let me not blame the heathen crew
For human sacrifice, but rather You
And Your own people in the sacred pew.
The mess of mass is justified I think
By Jonah on the ship’s tossing at brink.

15 They grabbed Jonah and threw him out
Into the sea, the sea and shout
Ceased from her raging all about.
16 The men feared YHWH exceedingly,
And offered sacrifice in fee
To YHWH and made their vows freely.
17 Now YHWH had prepared a great fish
To swallow Jonah up in dish.
And Jonah was in the fish belly
For three days and three nights like jelly.

The worship You accept, Beloved, I trash
As worthless as the charcoal and the ash:
The thought that any such catastrophe
Must be the fault of someone on a spree;
The divination in the heathen name
Of gods and goddesses You say are shame;
The execution of the sacrifice
Of humankind to atone for the nice;
The fearing You without the circumcision
And without rational in their decision;
The offerings of such sent up with prayers
Appealing to Your name upon the stairs
Of heathen vows. All this I here condemn.
And yet You take it all in stride and hem.

It’s fine enough to rate upon the crew
Of ancient ships for superstitious view
That their calamity is the result
Of human action amid the tumult.
At least they took responsibility,
Even if they scapegoat calamity.
The world is now in greater storm and crisis
Polluting and disturbing to suffice us,
And with the fair knowledge it is our fault,
We still do nothing to repair the malt.
We’d best follow example of those men
Who shipped a ship to Tarshish back again:
Throw overboard every oil company,
And go back to the sail and horse feet free.

JONAH 2

1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord YHWH
His Ælohim from fish’s stew,
2 And said “I call for what I felt
Of my affliction and my welt
To YHWH, and He even hears me
Out of Sheol and its belly.
I cantillated to rejoice,
And You have come to hear my voice.
3 ”For you had thrown me in the deep,
In the midst of the seas to weep,
And the floods came to surround me,
All Your billows and Your waves free
Passed and passed and passed over me.
4 ”Then I said ‘I’m cast from Your sight,
Yet I’ll look toward Your temple bright.’

Some people say it matters not a whit
In which direction prayer is made to fit.
Others say prayer must be made to the east,
So in the church and synagogue at least.
Good Jonah in the belly of the fish
Was not prone to disobey divine wish
That prayer be made toward the holy house,
Your temple, prayer made by a man or mouse.
If even in the fish’s belly he
Thought it worth trying to establish where
Your temple lay, in order to agree
To make his prayer correct and done with care,
Then I today, cast on a further shore,
Turn to Your house, Beloved, and seek its door.

5 The waters compassed me about,
Even to the point to make doubt
Of my survival. The deep closed
Me all around, the seaweeds posed
Around my head. 6 I went down to
Foundations that the mountains drew,
The bars of the earth kept me in
All the time, yet out of that bin
You brought up my life not to seem
Corruption, YHWH my Ælohim.
7 When my soul fainted in me, I
Remembered YHWH, my prayer came nigh
To You, into Your holy house.
8 Those who follow the lying grouse
Of idols leave their own mercy.
9 But I’ll sacrifice to You by
The voice of thanksgiving, and I
Will pay my vow and faithfully.
Salvation is of YHWH to be.”
10 And YHWH spoke to the fish, and it
Threw up Jonah and so he lit
Upon the dry land from his fit.

At last I find the true faith in this story
That started out to strike me as quite gory,
With human sacrifice and slaughtered goats
By mariners to keep afloat their boats.
The service of remembrance is not vain
When it’s directed to Your name and reign,
And not to vanities decked out in praise
As gods and goddesses with names in craze.
Beloved, though I am not set in the tomb
Of fish’s belly, but the gallows room,
I too lift sacrifice, not one of doom,
But of thanksgiving’s voice, until I find
Myself thrown on the beaches where I mind
The shore is hallowed by the ice-plant lined.

JONAH 3

1 YHWH’s word came to Jonah again,
Saying 2 “Get up, go to the men
Of Nineveh, that great city,
And preach there what I give in fee.”
3 So Jonah got up from his place
And went to Nineveh to race
According to the word of YHWH.
Now Nineveh was very great,
A city at three days’ in rate.
4 And Jonah started at the gate
Of the city and went a day
And cantillated on the way,
Saying “In forty days’ time then
Nineveh shall fall down again.”
5 So the folk of Nineveh heard
And took Ælohim at His word,
Proclaimed a fast, put on sackcloth,
From greatest to the least in froth.
6 For word came to Nineveh’s king,
And he got up from his throne’s thing
And put off his robe and put on
Sackcloth and sat in ashes drawn.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed
And published through Nineveh famed
By the royal decree and great,
“Let neither man nor beast of late
Nor herd nor flock taste anything,
Let them not feed nor drink in ring,
8 “But let man and beast stand beneath
Sackcloth for covering and wreath,
And cry greatly to Ælohim,
And let them all turn from the dream
And way of evil and also
From violence in their hands’ show.
9 “For who can tell if Ælohim
Will change His mind and turn the seam
Of His fierce wrath, so we shall not
Be destroyed by our evil plot?”
10 And Ælohim saw what they did,
Turning from evil ways in bid,
And Ælohim then changed His mind
Of evil that He had designed
And did not destroy combed and vined.

Repentance is enough to turn the rate
Of punishment even from pagan pate.
But beyond fasting and sackcloth come late,
There must be leaving off the wicked act
And violence, and that is just a fact.
The pagan earth today might well repent
And thus avoid the evils that are sent
Upon the earth from each polluted tent.
But that repentance would entail that all
Of Your ten commandments set on the wall
Be kept down to the last and to the best,
That Sabbath too be given as the rest
That’s not negotiable, for man and beast,
Not just for great, especially for least.

JONAH 4

1 Jonah was very displeased and
Angry about the countermand.
2 He prayed to YHWH and said “I pray
You, O YHWH, and what did I say
When I was still in my own land?
That’s why I fled to Tarshish: for
I knew that You’re a gracious El,
And merciful and slow before
Anger, and of great kindness’ store,
And turn away from evil spell.
3 ”Therefore now, YHWH, I pray You take
My life from me, and for my sake
It’s better to die than to live.”
4 Then YHWH said to him, “Now, what give?
When you’re so mad, do you do well?”
5 So Jonah went out of the town,
And sat at east side with a frown,
And made himself a shanty there,
And stayed under its shadow’s share,
Till he might see what would become
Of the town where he was a bum.
6 And YHWH Ælohim made a gourd
Grow up to cover Jonah’s sward,
That it might be a shade for him
To save him from his grief and grim.
So Jonah was exceeding glad
Because of the gourd’s shade he had.
7 But Ælohim also prepared
A worm when the morning repaired
The next day, and it struck the gourd
Which withered as though cut by sword.
8 It happened when the sun came up,
That Ælohim prepared like tup
A strong east wind, and the sun beat
Down on Jonah’s head and with heat
So that he fainted, and he wished
In his heart he might die as squished.
9 And Ælohim said to Jonah,
“Do you do well in anger’s claw
Because of the gourd?” and he said
“I do well to be mad as dead.”
10 Then said YHWH, “You had pity on
The gourd, for which you had not spun
Nor made it grow, that grew up in
A night and perished in night’s bin.
11 “And should not I spare Nineveh,
That great city in which the sway
Of more than sixty thousand men
Live that cannot discern again
Between their right hand and their left,
And also much cattle bereft?”

Beloved, You play with human feelings till
The man is like to go crazy as Bill.
The patience of Jonah is like to that
Described for Job upon the righteous mat.
You fling him in the sea, in fish’s belly,
Where he is three days without any telly
Or radio, then throw him on the beach
And tell him once more to go out and preach.
And then You change Your mind and let him take
The scoffing that accrues in mercy’s wake.
Beloved, it was no gourd that Jonah pitied.
It was himself, outcast and unremitted.
For that I don’t forgive: I take the job
In favour of animals worth a bob.

When Soma raised a wick, and Dagon sent
A torso from his mouth as Jonah went,
And sun rose from the park of night and lent
To Riding Hood and grandma something spent
In belly of the wolf, You would invent
A tale in the same vein of pagan rent.
The gourd is no exception, but is made
A parallel of the sun on parade,
An allegory of the god’s renown
Before Nineveh had become a town.
Beloved, the heathen story is a gain
Over the Nehemiad, which in vain
Is racist, not to speak of cattle where
The divine judgement once had deigned to spare.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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