Jonah, a Hebrew prophet, who lived in the eighth century before Christ, while Jeroboam II reigned over Israel. We are told in II Kings xiv: 25, that Jonah foretold the deliverance of Israel from Syrian oppression. The book of Jonah is in no

sense a prophecy, but a graphic story concerning the man himself.

It opens with God's command to Jonah to go to Nineveh and "cry against it." He disobeyed and attempted to escape by ship, which encountered a dreadful storm. Upon his confession that he was fleeing from God, Jonah was - at his insistence - thrown from the vessel by the unwilling sailors and was swallowed for three days by a great sea creature. Then Jonah was cast up on dry land, and, much chastened, hastened to Nineveh with his message, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown." But the king and all the people repented and were saved, much to Jonah's annoyance.

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