Israel, instead of teaching the Gentiles, prefers gain by commerce and sails in merchant vessels far away from the sacred soil; to punish Israel, God sends them into exile, which is indicated by the great fish devouring Jonah; in their misery they pray to God, who releases them from captivity, that is, the fish casts out Jonah-and so on in numerous minute details and parallels. But this 'interpretation of the symbol,' which is confidently maintained to be in the spirit of the Old Testament,' appears simple in comparison with the very elaborate and comprehensive deductions of Kaulen, a thoughtful Catholic scholar, who explains the Book not only literally' and 'morally,' but also 'allegorically' and 'mystically,' and who comes to the conclusion that in the small Book of Jonah the profoundest mysteries of the Christian faith are wonderfully pre-figured, nay, that the whole history of the New Testament is delineated in these few chapters' (Kaulen 1. c. pp. 85-113; on the mystic exposition see ibid. pp. 140-145, 'nobis enim visus est Jonas, postquam novissimis Dei monitis emendatus divinae voluntati acquievit, quasi imaginem ejus animae praebere, quae est, ut dicitur, in statu unionis; quippe quae nullis passionum et errorum praestigiis turbata se totam in contemplanda divina natura ac voluntate collocat,' etc.).

That the ideas of repentance and Divine mercy form the kernel of the Book, has been recognised by many ancient and modern expositors, although by few only in that remarkable comprehensiveness which is indicated by Jonah's rescue after his flight, since most of them lay almost exclusive stress on the deliverance of the Ninevites; comp. Philo, De Jona c. 22, 'salutarem profecto manum tuam et os promptum ad peccatores profugiumque fugientibus et benignitatem erga eos, discant per mea scripta aures hominum;' Kimchi on i. 1, the story has been written to 'teach that God has compassion upon penitent sinners, to whatever nation they may belong, especially if they are many;' to which Lightfoot (Opp. i. 201, 202) quaintly observes, ‘An expectanda fuit veritas a Judaeo, aut solatium ab Hispano?

Et Judaeus tamen Hispanus hic exhibet utrumque, veritatem solabilem et solatium verum;' Möller, Jona, eine moralische Erzählung, pp. 159 sqq.; Stäudlin, Symbolische Handlungen. der Propheten, pp. 224 sqq.; Gesenius 1. c.; De Wette, Einleitung, § 291; Nöldeke 1. c. p. 75; Ewald, Propheten, ii. 557, 558. The objections that have been raised against the view that the Book illustrates more than one instance of expiation and forgiveness, are extremely weak (see e. g. Friedrichsen 1. c. pp. 123-127), since they chiefly consist in a doubt. whether so much art may be attributed to a Hebrew writer in the author's age. But to about the same age belongs the Book of Job.-Many have ascribed to the work such a variety of tendencies, that it would be difficult to find a central point or to establish a unity (comp. e. g. Carpzov, Introd. iii. 362, the narrative treats 'de vocatione ministrorum verbi, de gentium ad communionem ecclesiae vocatione, de lapsibus sanctorum, et quam tumida caro etiam in sanctis hominibus existimationem suam salvam cupiat,' etc.), though the story is indeed fruitful in incidental lessons of the highest interest, and has therefore given rise to a homiletic literature of vast and uncommon extent (comp. Carpzov 1. c. pp. 367-370; Kleinert 1. c. p. 221; etc.).

It has often been maintained and allowed that 'in no part of the Old Testament is God's paternal love, without respect of persons or nations, brought before us in a manner so impressive and so nearly approaching Christianity as in this Book' (so e. g. Bleek, Einleitung, p. 574; Davidson 1. c. p. 277; Huxtable 1. c. p. 577, etc.). But this view has not seldom been repeated with modifications implying an unjust principle. The chief ideas of this little Book,' it is affirmed, 'are greatly exalted above the ideas of the Jews, and it was only by Divine illumination that such truths could in that time be conceived and conveyed;' nay it has been plainly asserted that 'the tendency of the Book is un-Jewish' (so Preiswerk, Morgenland, 1841, pp. 36, 50; Davidson 1. c. p. 281, etc.). How is this to be understood? Are the Jews to be made responsible for the narrow or imperfect

notions found in their writings, but to be regarded as passive, if not unwilling, instruments in expressing noble thoughts and sentiments? He who, in the Book of Jonah, illustrates the beautiful doctrines of repentance, mercy and toleration, was no less an Israelite than the prophet Jonah whom he rebukes and corrects. Down to a very late period, the Hebrews possessed that self-regenerating vigour which, by its intrinsic energy, discovers and removes error. Would it be right to declare that the philosopher Anaxagoras was unGreek, or Marcus Aurelius un-Roman, because the one, by his conception of the Universal Mind (Nous), approached closely to a monotheism, and the other, in his elevated ethics, is acknowledged to have often risen to the moral teaching of the Bible? If the Book of Jonah is 'un-Jewish,' then all the Hebrew prophets are 'un-Jewish;' and yet the prophets, as unbiassed critics will be the first to admit, were the true Israel, the very flower and essence of the nation, guiding, teaching and incessantly training their less enlightened fellow-citizens (see Bible Studies, i. pp. 195, 196). It would be unfair, in estimating a people's character, not to give due consideration to the highest spirits and to those directing influences which impressed upon the nation the characteristic stamp, and through which it has become the teacher of later generations.

Next to the lessons of charity, no doctrines have, perhaps, been developed by Jewish tradition so admirably and so successfully as those of repentance; and in these efforts the Book of Jonah has almost uniformly been taken as the foundation and starting point. Besides referring to the beautiful chapters bearing on this subject in the first part of Maimonides' great work Yad Chazakah, we may quote a passage from the Mishnah (Taanith i. 3-ii. 4), which will best show the nature of the Rabbinical ordinances. If rain does not fall in the desired season, the authorities proclaim a three days' public fast of a lighter and then a three days' fast of a severer kind, and if rain still fails to descend, the following observances are to be repeated during

the next seven days: "The ark enclosing the scrolls of the Law is brought out to a large and open place in the town, and strewn with ashes. Ashes are also strewn on the head of the Chief (nasi) and of the first of the Rabbis, while all private persons themselves put ashes on their heads. Then the eldest in their midst addresses them in words of contrition thus: "Our brethren, The Scriptures do not say with respect to the people of Nineveh, God saw their sackcloth and their fasting, but, God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and through His inspired prophet (ap) He has commanded, Rend your heart and not your garments (Joel ii. 13)." Then the people pray, while one of the elders, familiar with the subject, having children and bearing a name without reproach, pronounces twenty-four benedictions,' that is, besides the eighteen contained in the principal daily prayer, six special blessings appended mostly to Psalms (cii., cxx., cxxi., cxxx., etc.), and framed on the formula, 'May He who answered Abraham on Mount Moriah, answer you;' in which respect it is noteworthy that, with a reversion of the chronological order, the supplication of 'He who answered Jonah in the fish's belly,' precedes that of 'He who answered David and his son Solomon in Jerusalem;' and the Talmud (Taanith 17 a) thoughtfully explains this irregularity by remarking that, while David and Solomon prayed merely for the land of Israel, Jonah desired to conclude all his invocations with the words: Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who showest compassion to the whole earth' (onnph "ya¬

whence the prophet takes precedence before ;(המרחם על הארץ

the Kings. We may add that, in later Rabbinical literature, Jonah, identified with the widow's son resuscitated by Elijah (supra p. 120), is, like some others, considered to be the 'Messiah the son of Joseph,' and is supposed to have been angry at the preservation of Nineveh because he apprehended that, as that Messiah, he would have to fight against Gog and Magog (comp. Tosephoth in Talm. Bab. Mets. 115 b, n

ידוע,1868 .and Yallk. Chad. 12 a ed ;תינוק משיח בן יוסף היה !(305 .see Comm. on Lev. i ; שאותו התינוק היה יונה וכ'

T

11. VEXATION AND ANGER. IV. 1-3.

1. But it annoyed Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 2. And he prayed to the Lord, and said, I pray Thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before to Tarshish; for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest of the evil. 3. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die. than to live.

It might be supposed that the author has completely accomplished his task. He has exhibited the power of true repentance both by the example of Jonah and of the Ninevites; in the course of his work, he has collaterally illustrated the truths that the chosen messenger of the chosen people is no less liable to disobedience than the reckless population of a luxurious heathen empire, and that the God of the Hebrews, who is the God of the whole world, does not pardon the one more readily than He pardons the other; and he has, moreover, poured out over his narrative that exalted spirit of toleration, which he evidently prized most highly and which prompted him not only to paint the Gentiles throughout in the brightest colours, but to make them stand forth in the most favourable contrast to the Hebrew. Was all this not sufficient to impart to his production significance and value? What, then, was his purpose in adding a supplementary portion? He evidently desired to impress several points connected with the pith of his composition still more distinctly and more forcibly. Those points are the longsuffering of God and the dignity of man, and they are indeed weighty enough again and