Last month I examined the usage of the Greek verb “to glorify” (δοξάζω) in the New Testament. This month I want to do something similar with Hebrew. But I am not going to take one particular Hebrew word and see how it occurs with different meanings in various contexts in the Hebrew Bible. Rather, I am going to take one small book of the Old Testament and show how several different words are woven into the story to craft the story in a most remarkable way.
The book is the book of Jonah. I am not going to claim that I have, through a thorough examination of this four-chapter book, discovered these intricacies of word usage on my own. I have just finished editing at Zondervan a commentary on Jonah done by Kevin Youngblood, a young scholar with a remarkable eye for Hebrew word usage. The way in which the narrator of the Jonah story has crafted this book is indeed exciting. A variety of words are sprinkled throughout the book to give it a hidden and enriching unity. I can only give a couple of examples.
I begin with Jonah’s resistance to God’s initial command to go to Nineveh. It is not unusual for a prophet to resist God’s call to be his spokesman. Moses certainly did (Exod 3–4), as did Jeremiah (Jer 1). Jonah, however, did not object verbally; rather, he simply decided to flee in the opposite direction. As a result, God could not respond to Jonah’s resistance with words, as he did with Moses; rather, he decides to “send a great wind on the sea.” The verb used for “send” here is the Hebrew verb טול, which means “to fling,” as in “to fling a sword” (1 Sam 18:11). In other words, Yahweh becomes a divine warrior against Jonah. As a result of the storm, the sailors start to “fling [יטלו] the cargo” (1:5) into the sea. And after the storm gets worse and Jonah finally admits why this storm has come, he tells the sailors to “fling him” (same verb) into the sea (1:12), which they finally did (1:15). (By the way, have you ever wondered why Jonah didn’t just jump into the sea?) So this particular Hebrew verb (טול) gives an interesting unity to what happens in Jonah 1. Notice, however, while we in the NIV read the verbs “send” and “throw,” the Hebrew reader hears only one verb.
Or take the Hebrew verb קרא, which is often translated “to cry out.” This is another word that the narrator of Jonah plays with, this time throughout much of the book. God’s instruction to Jonah is to “cry out against” (1:2) the great city of Nineveh as the mouthpiece of Yahweh. Jonah, as we know, refuses, but when the storm comes, the sailors urge Jonah to “cry out” to his God (1:6; by the way, we don’t know if Jonah ever does at this point, partly because he already knows why the storm has come, and partly because he had earlier refused to cry out for his God, so how could he cry out to him now?). When the sailors finally realize why the storm has developed and that the only way to calm the storm is to throw Jonah in the water, the sailors, of all people, “cry out to the LORD” (1:14). Then, when the fish swallows Jonah, who then realizes God has spared him, Jonah finally does “cry out” to the Lord (2:2). Then in 3:2, the Lord again comes to Jonah and commands him to “cry out” to the city of Nineveh, and this time he obeys. And when he does “cry out” against the city (3:4), the people “cried out for [NIV proclaimed] a fast” (3:5). And when the king hears about Jonah’s message, he issues a proclamation, part of which is an instruction to “cry out” to God (3:8) and plead for his mercy.
Note, again, that the NIV uses different words to translate these words: “preach against it” (1:2), “call on” (1:6; 3:8), “cried out” (1:14), “called” (2:2), “proclaim” (3:2, 4, 5). But the Hebrew listeners will not hear five different verbs; they will hear one verb, the verb קרא. This word ties all of these various nuances together in the narrative. We as English interpreters can only discover that linkage when we study the Hebrew text.
I have only traced two words. We could do a similar analysis with the verb ירא (“fear”: 1:5, 9, 10, 16), the adjective גדול (“great”: 1:2, 4 [2x], 10, 12, 16, 17; 3:2, 3, 5, 7; 4:1, 6, 11), and the adjective/noun רע / רעה (“evil, disaster”: רע, 3:8, 10; רעה, 1:2, 7, 8; 3:10; 4:1, 2, 6). Another interesting exercise is to chart out the use of יהוה (YHWH) and אל / אלהימ (El / Elohim) by a variety of people in the book of Jonah: the narrator of the book, Jonah himself, the sailors, the people of Nineveh, and the king of Nineveh (you can do this using an English Bible). Not only is the artistry of the narrator amazing for such a short book, but such words as these give interpretive clues as to the messages that the narrator is trying to communicate. The book is far more than just an interesting story of a prophet being swallowed by “a huge [גדול] fish.”
Perhaps in some of your studies you have found, probably through the help of commentaries, how a Hebrew prophet plays with words in order to communicate his message. Can you share any of those passages with us?