Jonas is swallowed up by a great fish: he prayeth with confidence in God; and the fish casteth him out on the dry land.
Ionas is swallowed by a great fish; 3. prayeth with confidence in God; 11. and the fish casteth him on the drie land.
1Now the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonas: and Jonas was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.E il Signore avea preparato un gran pesce, affinchè questo ingoiasse Giona: e Giona stette nel ventre del pesce tre dì, e tre notti.AND our Lord prepared a great fish to swallow done Ionas: and Ionas was in the bellie of the fish three dayes and three nightes.Et præparavit Dominus piscem grandem ut deglutiret Jonam: et erat Jonas in ventre piscis tribus diebus et tribus noctibus. 2And Jonas prayed to the Lord, his God, out of the belly of the fish.E dal ventre del pesce Giona ricorse al Signore Dio suo;And Ionas prayed to our Lord his God out of the bellie of the fish.Et oravit Jonas ad Dominum Deum suum de ventre piscis, 3And he said: I cried out of my affliction to the Lord, and he heard me: I cried out of the belly of hell, and thou hast heard my voice.E disse: Nella mia tribolazione ho alzata la mia voce al Signore, ed egli mi ha esaudito: dal seno del sepolcro ho gridato, e tu hai esaudita la mia voce.And he sayd: I cryed out of my tribulation to our Lord, & he hath heard me: out of the bellie of hel cried I, and thou hast heard my voice.et dixit: Clamavi de tribulatione mea ad Dominum, / et exaudivit me; / de ventre inferi clamavi, / et exaudisti vocem meam. 4And thou hast cast me forth into the deep, in the heart of the sea, and a flood hath compassed me: all thy billows, and thy waves have passed over me.E tu mi hai gettato nel profondo, nell'abisso del mare, e le acque mi circondarono; tutti i tuoi gorghi, e tutti i tuoi flutti mi han ricoperto.And thou hast cast me forth into the depth in the hart of the sea, and a floud hath compassed me: al thy surges, & thy waues haue passed ouer me.Et projecisti me in profundum in corde maris, / et flumen circumdedit me: / omnes gurgites tui, et fluctus tui super me transierunt. 5And I said: I am cast away out of the sight of thy eyes: but yet I shall see thy holy temple again.E io dissi: Sono stato gettato lungi dal guardo degli occhi tuoi: con tutto ciò io vedrò di bel nuovo il tuo tempio santo.And I sayd: I am cast away from the sight of thine eyes: but yet I shal see thy holie temple againe.Et ego dixi: / Abjectus sum a conspectu oculorum tuorum; / verumtamen rursus videbo templum sanctum tuum. 6The waters compassed me about even to the soul: the deep hath closed me round about, the sea hath covered my head.Mi han circondato fino all'anima le acque; l'abisso mi ha serrato, il pelago ha sepolto il mio capo.The waters haue compassed me euen to the soule: the depth hath inclosed me, the sea hath couered my head.Circumdederunt me aquæ usque ad animam: / abyssus vallavit me, / pelagus operuit caput meum.
7I went down to the lowest parts of the mountains: the bars of the earth have shut me up for ever: and thou wilt bring up my life from corruption, O Lord, my God.Sono sceso sino ai fondamenti delle montagne: le sbarre della terra mi hanno rinchiuso per sempre; ma tu dalla corruzione trarrai la mia vita, o Signore Dio mio.I am descended to the extreme parts of the mountaines: the barres of the earth haue shut me vp for euer and thou wilt lift vp my life from corruption, ô Lord my God.Ad extrema montium descendi; / terræ vectes concluserunt me in æternum: / et sublevabis de corruptione vitam meam, Domine Deus meus. 8When my soul was in distress within me, I remembered the Lord: that my prayer may come to thee, unto thy holy temple.Nelle angustie dell'anima mia mi son ricordato del Signore, per rivolgere la mia orazione a te, al tuo tempio santo.When my soule was in distresse within me, I remembred our Lord: that my prayer may come to thee vnto thy holie temple.Cum angustiaretur in me anima mea, / Domini recordatus sum: / ut veniat ad te oratio mea, / ad templum sanctum tuum. 9They that in vain observe vanities, forsake their own mercy.Coloro, che inutilmente rispettano le vanità, abbandonano la loro misericordia.They that kepe vanities in vaine, forsake their mercie.Qui custodiunt vanitates frustra, / misericordiam suam derelinquunt. 10But I with the voice of praise will sacrifice to thee: I will pay whatsoever I have vowed for my salvation to the Lord.Ma io la voce di laude offerirò a te in sacrifizio: renderò al Signore tutti i voto fatti per la mia salvazione.But I in the voice of prayse wil immolate to thee: what thinges soeuer I haue vowed I wil render for saluation to our Lord.Ego autem in voce laudis immolabo tibi: / quæcumque vovi, reddam pro salute Domino. 11And the Lord spoke to the fish: and it vomited out Jonas upon the dry land.Or il Signore fece comando al pesce, e questo vomitò Giona alla riva.And our Lord spake to the fish: and it vomited vp Ionas vpon the drie land.Et dixit Dominus pisci, et evomuit Jonam in aridam.
2:1
Haydock
Fish. Hebrew dag: afterwards daga occurs, ver. 2; (Haydock) on which Leusden observes, the Jews infer that Jonas was first swallowed up by male and then by a female fish, which being full of young he was much straitened, and prayed from the belly of that (hadaga) female fish! He alludes to Rabbi Jarchi. (Haydock)
Thus nar, puer, is put for a girl, to imply that Rebecca was prudent and Dina rambling. (Buxt. Tib. 13.) See Kennicott, Dis. 2., p. 417 and 552.
Menochius
Noble discoveries! Many suppose (Haydock) that this fish was a whale, as it does not live on flesh; (Calmet) but its throat being so narrow, as hardly to suffer a man's arm to pass, it is more probable that it was the sea-dog, lamia or canis chariarias, (Bartolin 14.) which may easily contain a man. (Aldrovandus 3:32.) (Menochius)
Button
This sea-dog, or shark, has five rows of teeth in each jaw. Human bodies have been found entire in the stomach. (Button.)
Worthington
Our Saviour calls the fish a whale, Matthew 12:40. (Worthington)
Calmet
But that term is given to any great sea monster. Yet it is not of much importance what species of fish be meant, provided the miracle be admitted. (Calmet)
St. Augustine
The pagans ridiculed it. (St. Augustine, ep. 102. q. 6. 30.)
St.. Jerome
Yet they believed many of a similar nature, alleging the omnipotence of God. (St.. Jerome)
Calmet
This reason accounts for all the miracles recorded in Scripture. But might not God have chosen some easier expedient? We must not dive into his reasons. The impression which such a fact would make on the Ninivites, and the prefiguring of Christ's burial, might suffice. Jonas was not a type of his death, as some have imagined, Q. ad Orthodox. (Calmet)
Calmet
Nights, or as long as our Saviour was in the monument, (Menochius) which was about thirty-four hours. (Calmet, Dis.)
2:2
Sanct. xiv
Prayed. He entertained these sentiments. (Sanct. xiv.)
Calmet
He afterwards wrote them down. (Calmet)
2:3
Haydock
I cried. These five verses (Haydock) express his thoughts while he was in the sea, (St. Jerome; Calmet) or in the fish. (Haydock)
Worthington
He doubtless prayed before, when he was cast into the sea, and also in the whale's belly, having then greater confidence that he should arrive safely on dry land, (ver. 5.) and therefore vowing sacrifices of thanks, ver. 10. (Worthington)
Hell; the whale's belly, (Theodoret; etc.) or rather the depth of the sea. It may denote any imminent danger.
2:5
Eyes, in a sort of despair, like the psalmist, 30:23. Yet he presently resumes fresh confidence in God, notwithstanding the greatness of his offences.
2:6
Haydock
Sea. Hebrew, "weeds entangled," etc. (Haydock)
The Mediterranean has a great deal of sea weed. He speaks of the time before he was swallowed up by the fish.
2:7
Lowest. Hebrew and Septuagint, "clefts."
Worthington
Bars, or prisons, in the abyss, (Calmet) farthest from the heights. (Worthington)
2:8
Menochius
Me, at the last gasp, (Calmet) and oppressed with grief. (Menochius)
2:9
Theodoret
Mercy. He alludes to the sailors. (Theodoret)
Calmet
Hebrew also, "let them forsake their worship," (Drusius, Leviticus 20:17.) or they are guilty of impiety. They neglect their vows, ver. 10., and Jonas 1:16. (Calmet)
2:11
Worthington
Spoke to the fish. God's speaking to the fish was nothing else but his will, which all things obey. (Challoner) (Worthington)
Calmet
Land. Josephus says near the Euxine Sea. But thus it must have travelled 800 leagues. Others fix upon different places, without any proof. (Calmet)
2:11
Spoke to the fish.... God’s speaking to the fish, was nothing else but his will, which all things obey.
2:1
That this great fish vvas a vvhale, our Sauiour plainly expresseth. Mat. 12 v. 40.
2:2
The prophet doubtles prayed before & vvhen they cast him out of the shippe, and continued the same prayer being in the vvhales bellie, vvith more confidence, that he should be safly cast on the brie land v. 5 And therfore rendereth thankes, vowing sacrifice of thankes geuing. v 10.
2:3
Concordance Psal. 119. & 129.
2:7
Fu•thest that can be from mountaines, euen into the depth of the sea, vvhich is lower then any other valleyes.
2:11
Gods vvil is his vvord by vvhich al creatures vvere made, and to vvhich, as vvel liuing, as sensles thinges obey.
2:1
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 43.74
… I mean in the multitude of temptations, and his escape through fire, which burnt, but did not consume, the mystery of “the bush,” and the fair cloak of skin from on high, his indifference to the flesh. I pass by the rest, the three young men bedewed in the fire, the fugitive prophet praying in the whale’s belly,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 3.5
… In a word, Satan will assail him, but Christ will defend. Thanks be to Thee, Lord Jesus, that in Thy day I have one able to pray to Thee for me. To Thee all hearts are open, Thou searchest the secrets of the heart, Thou seest the prophet shut up in the fish’s belly in the midst of the sea.
2:2
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.20.1
… “I cried by reason of mine affliction to the Lord my God, and He heard me out of the belly of hell;”
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 14
20. Of this our Saviour the Prophet Jonas formed the type, when he prayed out of the belly of the whale, and said, I cried in my affliction , and so on; out of the belly of hell
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 39.3
… Mourning is for those who wear silk dresses. In the midst of your tears the call will come, and you, too, must die; yet you flee from me as from a cruel judge, and fancy that you can avoid falling into my hands. Jonah, that headstrong prophet, once fled from me, yet in the depths of the sea he was still mine.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 130.1
1. “Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice” ( ver. 1 ). Jonas cried from the deep; from the whale’s belly.
2:4
St Alexander of Alexandria † AD 326 Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius 5.5
… and that He exclaimed, as in the words of the prophet, “I have endured as a travailing woman.” In very deed did He endure for our sakes sorrow, ignominy, torment, even death itself, and burial. For thus He says Himself by the prophet: “I went down into the deep.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 20.21
… What could be more stupid than the Ninevites? What more devoid of understanding? Yet, nevertheless, these barbarian, foolish people, who had never yet heard any one teaching them wisdom, who had never received such precepts from others, when they heard the prophet saying, “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,”
2:6
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 14
… out of the belly of hell , and yet he was in the whale; but though in the whale, he says that he is in Hades; for he was a type of Christ, who was to descend into Hades. And after a few words, he says, in the person of Christ, prophesying most clearly, My head went down to the chasms of the mountains
2:8
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 14
… And though he was in the sea, Jonas says, I went down to the earth , since he was a type of Christ, who went down into the heart of the earth. And foreseeing the deeds of the Jews who persuaded the soldiers to lie, and told them, Say that they stole Him away , he says, By regarding lying vanities they forsook their own mercy
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 124
… We have indeed shared between us the words and the trials of the prophet; your holiness has used the words; I am buffeted by the hurricane and billows, and against the rowers of the ship I exclaim in his words “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.”
2:11
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.5
… any one imagine it impossible that men should survive for such a length of time, and that Elias was not caught up in the flesh, but that his flesh was consumed in the fiery chariot, let him consider that Jonah, when he had been cast into the deep, and swallowed down into the whale’s belly, was by the command of God again thrown out safe upon the land.
2:1
Symbolically St. Jerome, in his Letter to Heliodorus, in the Epitaph of Nepotian, accommodates these things to death, which indeed swallows the faithful, but like Jonah keeps them alive as it were, on account of the hope of resurrection, by which they will shortly rise again alive. "You devoured," he says, "Jonah, but he was alive in your belly," according to that passage in Hosea XIII, 14: "I will be your death, O death." Finally, this miracle of the devouring and ejection of Jonah was accomplished not so much on account of Jonah, as on account of the Ninevites, so that they through this miracle of Jonah might believe allegorically on account of Christ and Christians, concerning which more in chapter III, 5. AND JONAH WAS IN THE BELLY OF THE FISH. — Many miracles are here: First, that the belly of the fish, being extremely hot, did not consume Jonah and convert him into chyle; second, that Jonah was able to live and breathe therein, and to draw in cold air; third, that the stench, which in the belly of the whale is most foul and intolerable, did not deprive Jonah of life, but rather he bore it comfortably; fourth, that in this most narrow and uncomfortable prison, he was not only in possession of his soul, but also of his mind, and being inspired by the Spirit of God, he sang a notable and pious hymn to God. This therefore was the work of God, who in a similar manner keeps the fetus enclosed in the maternal womb for so many months without food or drink, without evacuation, without the use of cold respiration. Thus Theophylactus. Which matter David, not without reason admiring its frequency, says: "In you I was cast forth from the womb: from the belly of my mother God is my God," Psalm XXI, 11. He therefore who kept the three boys unharmed in the Babylonian furnace, the same kept Jonah untouched in the belly of the whale. Thus St. Jerome. From Jonah the Gentiles appear to have taken the fable of their Hercules. For they feigned that Hercules was devoured by a whale, and came forth from it unharmed, except that he was made bald on account of the internal heat of the beast. Thus Theophylactus. And Lycophron, in the tragedy of Hercules, relates that Hercules, when he was returning from Colchis with the Argonauts, having found the golden fleece, suffered a storm, and fell into the sea and was devoured by a fish, and after three days was cast forth from it into the sea safe. I believe he took this from Josephus, book IX of the Antiquities, XI, who writes that Jonah was vomited forth by the whale into the Euxine Pontus. For it seems that Lycophron transferred this to the person of Hercules: for the voyage of the Argonauts was in the Euxine Pontus. Thus Salmeron, vol. VIII, tract. 17. Allegorically Theophylactus: Jonah is Christ, the ship is the synagogue of the Jews, the shipmaster is Moses, the sailors are the Prophets, the sea is the afflictions owed to us on account of our sins, the lot is the will of the eternal Father, the belly of the whale are the secrets of death, of the sepulcher and of hell, in which Christ was for three days, and after three days rising thence, he announced repentance and the Gospel of salvation to the Gentiles through the Apostles; then the winds, that is, the inspirations and most powerful temptations of demons, were calmed; the storms of the pleasures of the sea, that is, of this world, were laid low; peace and tranquility were restored to the bodies as well as to the souls of the faithful, Christ saying: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." Hence also Jonah in Hebrew is the same as dove, or as if יהוה יונה Jehova ione, that is, God laboring. Three days. — I have assigned the causes of this ternary in Hosea VI, 3. 2. And Jonah prayed unto the Lord. — Straits compelled Jonah to return to God and to invoke him. Thus God brings his own to narrow places, so that they may invoke him, and to those invoking he is immediately present and comes to their aid. It is commonly said: "He who does not know how to pray, let him go to sea;" for those who sail upon it, while they see nothing but heaven and the sea, and the winds and waves which seem to rise to the stars, and presently subside into the abyss, so that they seem about to be engulfed, and to descend to the depths of the sea, immediately learn to implore the aid of the divine power and of all the heavenly beings. Excellently the Nyssene in the Exposition of the Lord's Prayer: The prayer of Jonah, he says, made the whale a house, so that in the belly of the whale he dwelt and prayed as it were comfortably in a house. Tertullian marvels, in the book On Prayer, chapter XIV: "How," he says, "could the prayer of Jonah from the belly of the whale through the viscera of so great a beast, from the very abysses, through so great a mass of sea reach heaven?" This surely is the power of prayer, this is the power of God, who being present everywhere hears the prayers of the suppliant. 3. And he said. — This is a lyric hymn of Jonah, says Arias, a tricolon tetrastrophe, similar to that Horatian one, book I, ode XXXVI: And with incense and lyres it pleases To appease, and with the blood of the debt-owing calf The Numidian guardians of the gods. Except that the fourth verse is shorter in this manner: With narrow circumstances too much for me, You Lord with supplicating song From the lowest depths I call upon, and Hearing my voice. I CRIED OUT OF MY TRIBULATION. — When Jonah was cast into the sea, being aroused by so great a danger to himself, he immediately began to pray, and to cry out at least in mind to the Lord; but immediately being devoured by the whale, and seeing himself in its belly, he continued to cry out all the more. Whence St. Jerome says that Jonah, "from the moment he was cast into the sea and saw the whale, and so great a mass of body, and the huge jaws open to swallow him, remembered the Lord and cried out."
2:2
Rabbi Solomon here fables in his usual manner, saying that Jonah was first devoured by a sea monster, and because he dwelt there sufficiently spaciously and loosely, he did not cry out to the Lord; God therefore commanded a male monster to vomit Jonah into a female monster, namely into a whale pregnant and heavy with young, in which when Jonah felt himself confined, he began to cry out. He proves this same thing, because in verse 1, this fish is called masculine דג dag: therefore it was a male monster, but in verse 3, where it is said: "And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish," in Hebrew it is feminine; דגה daga, that is, a female fish. But the fabulist errs: for that it was one and the same fish which swallowed Jonah, and in which Jonah cried out, and which vomited him forth after his prayer, is evident from the last verse, where the fish vomiting Jonah onto the shore is called dag masculine, not daga feminine. Dag therefore signifies a fish both female and male; just as the Latin words piscis, avis, ovis, camelus, equus, asinus, bos, vitulus, etc., signify both female and male: thus conversely the feminine daga signifies any fish whatsoever, both males and females, as is evident from Isaiah 50:2; Numbers 11:5; Ezekiel 29:4; Genesis 1:26; Exodus 7:20; Ezekiel 47:9. Thus the Latin words simia, mustela, vulpes, aquila, pica, columba, etc., although they are feminine, nevertheless signify both males and females of their species.
2:3
Tropologically St. Gregory, in Psalm. VI Penance: Out of the depths have I cried to thee, O Lord: "He cried," he says, "Jonas to God from the belly of the whale, from the height of the sea, from the depth of disobedience; and his prayer reached the ears of God, who drew him out from the waves, snatched him from the beast, absolved him from guilt. Let the sinner also cry out, whom the tempest of desires departing from God has broken, whom the malicious enemy has swallowed up, whom the waves of the present world have enveloped, let him acknowledge himself to be in the deep, so that his prayer may reach God." AND HE HEARD ME. — Note: Jonas sent into the sea and praying to the Lord, immediately felt His present help, by which he was preserved unharmed in the whale's belly from the sea, just as from the whale itself. Whence by the instinct of God, certain of his salvation, he gives thanks to God, and sings this song to God his liberator more as a thanksgiving than as a supplication. From the belly of hell, — namely from the belly of the whale, which he calls hyperbolically hell, on account of its magnitude, depth and darkness. 4. IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, — in the midst, or in the deepest sea; for whales love and inhabit that, as being most vast: for what the heart is in an animal, that the depth is in the sea, the center in the earth. Whence Christ, Matt. XII, 40, after death is said to have been three days in the heart of the earth, that is in the limbo of the Fathers, which is around hell and around the center of the world. Thus St. Jerome. "Just as the heart," he says, "is in the midst of an animal, so hell is said to be in the midst of the earth." River. — The Septuagint: rivers, not because the whale here passed through some river flowing into the sea, whose flowing sound Jonas heard in the whale's belly, as Arias and some others wish; but he calls rivers the very waves and the flowing of waters: for when the whale was now plunging into the sea, now emerging, an abundance of waters like resounding rivers flowed everywhere in the sea, Jonas hearing, says Theophylactus, Albertus and a Castro. For the very course and waves of waters are sometimes called a river, as in Martial lib. I: And he who first drinks the rivers of the captured Nile. Others understand by river the sea, so that it is a miosis. Thus Aristotle in Meteor. calls clouds an aerial river, or the ocean flowing through the air. Note: This song of Jonas is very akin to the words and sentiments of Psalm LXVIII of David, and appears to be drawn from it in good part. For what is said there, vers. 4: "I have labored crying out;" Jonas says: "I cried out from my tribulation." There, vers. 3, it is said: "I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep: and there is no substance," Jonas says: "Thou hast cast me into the deep in the heart of the sea." There, vers. 3, it is said: "I am come into the depth of the sea: and a tempest hath drowned me;" Jonas says: "All thy billows and thy waves have passed over me," which verse he borrowed from Psalm XLI, 8. There David says vers. 2: "Save me, O God: for waters are come in even unto my soul." Here Jonas says: "Waters have surrounded me even unto my soul, the abyss hath closed me in." Wherefore both David and Jonas bore a type of Christ suffering, and expressed in themselves His straits, prayers, vows and groans. ALL THY BILLOWS. — Pagninus: All thy waves; the Septuagint, All thy elevations; the Hebrews, משברים misbarecha, that is all thy breakings, namely all thy waves, which break and shatter ships and men sailing in them. Take conveniently the "all," namely which thou, O Lord, hast here stirred up on account of me; for Jonas did not feel others stirred up elsewhere. 5. I said: I am cast away, — as if to say: In so miserable a state being placed, I seemed to myself at first to be abandoned by thee, cast down and lost: but now by the revelation which thou suggerest to me, namely that from the whale's belly I shall soon come forth safe to land, raised up in sure hope, I recover my spirits, and give thee thanks as much as my mind can now hold, and shall give greater thanks in the temple of Jerusalem, to which I again destine myself and vow for this reason. Thus St. Jerome, Remigius, Hugo and Clarius.
2:4
Arias and Vatablus less correctly understand by the temple the heaven; for this is anagogical, not literal: nor did Jonas think that he would die and through death go to heaven, since he was certain that he would come out safe from the belly of the whale; whence there is no doubt that he returned to Judea and saw the temple, so that in it he might give thanks to God for so miraculous a deliverance, and might fulfill the vows which he had made to himself in the belly of the whale. 6. THE WATERS COMPASSED ME ABOUT EVEN TO THE SOUL. — The Septuagint: Water was poured around me even to the soul, that is to say, The waters so surrounded me on all sides that they seemed about to penetrate my whole body and to pass through my eyes and nostrils into my head, through my mouth into my stomach and all my intestines, through my pores into each of my limbs, so that they seemed about to reach even to my very soul itself, and to submerge and overwhelm it, had not God restrained them and preserved my soul: for the whale was continually drawing in waters, and filling its stomach with them, which surrounded Jonas dwelling in it on all sides, and almost submerged him. Whence Vatablus explains, "even to the soul," that is, even to the separation of the soul, that is, even to death, as the Chaldean translator rendered it, that is to say, I was in extreme peril of my life, when I was in the waters of the sea; for I thought that I would either be drowned by the waters, or certainly suffocated, inasmuch as I was deprived of air necessary for breathing in the belly of the whale, which was very hot, and filled with waters. THE ABYSS COMPASSED ME ABOUT. — Pagninus: The gulf surrounded me. For abyss is called water lacking a bottom, that is, the most vast and deepest, such as the sea is. He says the same thing, and exaggerates in various ways the vastness of the surrounding waters. Otherwise according to Castro: Abyss, he says, is the depth of the sea, namely the bottom, that is to say, He let me down even to the pavement of the sea. But the Hebrew תהום tehom properly signifies not the bottom, but the abyss already mentioned. THE SEA COVERED MY HEAD. — For sea in Hebrew it is suph, which properly signifies end and boundary; hence rush, sedge, reed, seaweed which is accustomed to be born at the extremity of seas and rivers, and because the Red Sea abounds in these, which at the same time is the boundary both of the sea and of Egypt and Arabia, hence that sea is called in Hebrew mare suph. From this threefold meaning a threefold version is born. The first: The end was bound to my head, that is, death and destruction threatened my head. The second: Seaweed was bound to my head, thus Pagninus; or: A sedge-bed was entangled with my head, thus the Zurich Bible; or: A rush-bed was a band to my head. Thus others, that is to say, The whale entangled me together with rushes and reeds which grow at the top, and with seaweeds which grow at the bottom of the sea; or the whale devoured seaweed, which descending into its stomach entangled me and my head. For Pliny, book XIII, chapter XXV, teaches that in the sea there are not only shrubs and trees, but also meadows and forests. Thirdly, the Rabbis translate: The Red Sea entangled my head. Whence they themselves think that Jonas, who was devoured by the whale at Joppa, was carried by it and cast out in the Red Sea, so that Jonas might be nearer to Nineveh, to which he was sent by God. Hear Rabbi Solomon: "There was shown to the Prophet a sea full of sedge, and how the Israelites had passed through the midst of it. For those fish had seven eyes, which provided Jonas with the use of as many windows, and through them he contemplated and saw whatever was in the sea." For God wished to console Jonas, afflicted and almost despairing, in this manner, and to raise him up into a certain hope of God's help. But this is a fable: for in this way the whale would have had to swim through the entire Mediterranean Sea in the space of three days (during which Jonas was in its belly), from Joppa to Gades, thence to circle all of Africa: thence the Cape of Good Hope, thence Mozambique, Quiloa, Melinda; and finally to make for Aden, where the Arabian gulf, or Red Sea, begins, which is a journey of half a year and more. Father Pineda responds, who follows the opinion of the Rabbis, and defends it with many conjectures, book IV On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter XII, that the carcharias fish, or tuberones, are the swiftest. But there is no swiftness so great as to accomplish such a distance in three days. I say therefore that the Phoenician and Tyrian sea, which is near Joppa, is called mare suph, that is, Red or Erythraean, because the Phoenicians themselves were called Erythraeans, because they were born and descended from the inhabitants of the Red Sea, as I said on Isaiah XXIII, 16. Indeed, the word Phoenices signifies nothing other than reds, says Strabo. Add, according to the second exposition, because suph is the same as seaweed, rush, sedge, by metonymy any bounded and limited sea is called suph, because it is full of seaweed, rushes, sedges, and because it is bounded: for suph signifies end. Thus Pineda, book III On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter X, and others. Whence the Chaldean translator rendered it: A sea full of sedge was suspended over my head.
2:5
Moreover, "operuit" in Hebrew is חבוש chabus, which signifies two things: first, it is bound, and thus properly applies to seaweed or rushes; second, it is imposed, and thus properly applies to the sea. Whence Our Lord rightly expressed the sense when he translated: "The sea covered my head," that is to say, I am beneath the waves, the waves cover and envelop me on all sides; and not only the waves, but the very sea itself, vast as it is, the immense sea itself hangs over my head and covers and envelops it. 7. I DESCENDED TO THE EXTREMITIES OF THE MOUNTAINS,—in Hebrew בקצבי bekitsbe, that is, to the fissures or clefts of the mountains: thus the Septuagint and the Zurich Bible, that is, to the extremities, to the ends of the mountains. Thus Our Lord, Pagninus and Vatablus. For the fissures of mountains are the ends and extremities of mountains, which in the sea are called promontories, that is to say, This whale swimming carried and led me to rocks, mountains and promontories, and their fissures and caverns. For mountainous places surround whales, and they dwell there almost always, because there the sea is deeper: thus Theodoret, Theophylactus and Vatablus; for the shore of Joppa (whence Jonas had set sail) has on both sides projecting rocks and huge stones which, though they rise from the depths of the sea, extend into the sea, says Hegesippus in book III of the Destruction of Jerusalem, chapter XX. Here therefore Jonas, cast into the sea, descended into the abyss, from which burst forth the rocks already mentioned, which cut off from the shipwrecked man every way of swimming and escaping, and these are called here by Jonas "extremities of the mountains," or rocks, and soon "bars," or bolts, both of the sea which they close and as it were seal, and of men, so that they cannot swim and go forth to land and liberty. Thus Sanchez.
2:6
THE BARS OF THE EARTH HAVE SHUT ME IN FOREVER.—What he called a little before "extremities of the mountains," he here calls "bars of the earth"; for by these rocks, mountains and caverns, as by bars, Jonas was shut in, so that he could not emerge from the whale and the sea forever, unless indeed the power of God drew him out from there by a miracle. Whence the Septuagint translates: My head entered into the clefts of the mountains, I descended into the earth whose bars are eternal bolts. Behold where Jonas descended; behold whence by God's aid he ascended. Here is true that saying: the abyss of my fall, descent, misery, calls upon the abyss of Thee, O Lord, of Thy sublimity, loftiness, power, mercy and glory. Let him say the same who is pressed down by tribulations and almost overwhelmed. For the greater the tribulation, the nearer is God to deliver if invoked, according to that of the Psalmist: "To Thee the poor man is left." Thus the cloisters of the regular, says Sanchez, which appear to seculars to be prisons of death, are to the religious a refuge and a harbor, in which they themselves, as in the ark of Noah, secure, behold seculars wrecked in the heat and turmoil. AND THOU SHALT BRING UP,—that is to say, Although I have descended into the abyss there to be corrupted and to die, Thou, however, O Lord, shalt draw me out from there and deliver me, and shalt cause me not to die, but to rise up safe. Allegorically all these things are most true in Christ, and it is very easy to adapt all these things to Him. Thus St. Jerome. 8. WHEN MY SOUL WAS IN ANGUISH WITHIN ME.—The Chaldean: When my soul labored in a swoon within me. It appears therefore that the anguish and distress of Jonas was so great that it brought him to a swoon of soul.
2:7
Allegorically, Jonas, says St. Jerome, represents here the anguish and prayer of Christ in the garden, when He said: "My soul is sorrowful even unto death: Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me." THAT MY PRAYER MAY COME TO THEE, TO THY HOLY TEMPLE,—to heaven, that is to say, Thou hast admitted my prayer to thee in heaven, thou hast heard it; wherefore also thou hast delivered me. 9. THEY THAT OBSERVE VANITIES IN VAIN, FORSAKE THEIR OWN MERCY.—First, Arias and some others, reading הבלי hable, that is vanities, as חבלי chable, that is ropes, and חסד chesed, which our translator renders mercy, translating piety (for both signify the same), that is impiety, by antiphrase, thus transfer it: they that observe the ropes of vanity, shall forsake their own sacrilegious piety, which they thus expound, that is to say, the sailors and Ninevites and other gentiles worshipping vain idols, when they shall have understood this miracle of the God of the Hebrews, by which He delivered me from the whale, shall forsake their impiety and idolatry, and shall worship the true God of Jonas and of the Hebrews. Secondly, Theodoret expounds it, that is to say, the sailors, idolaters, forgetting their mercy, cast me into the sea. But from what is said in chapter I, it is clear that the sailors were pious and merciful to Jonas, and cast him into the sea unwillingly and only at the command of God and Jonas. Thirdly, St. Jerome, Rupert and Vatablus, that is to say, they that observe vanities, that is, they that worship idols, "mercy," that is, God from whom they ought to expect mercy and all good, turn away from themselves, and bring upon themselves death and all evil. Whence more generally the same understand by vanities vain and illicit desires, which have nothing of true and solid pleasure or fruit, that is to say, sinners who love and worship their vain desires as if they were the most precious things (for this is what the word observe signifies), these "forsake their own mercy," that is, they are unmerciful and cruel to themselves, because they bring upon themselves death and ruin. This sense is apt and fitting: for it seems to be a general sentence and maxim. Whence St. Jerome: "Behold," he says, "the magnanimity of the Prophet in the deep of the sea: covered in the belly of so great a beast in eternal darkness, he does not think of his danger, but philosophizes about the general nature of things with a general sentence: Mercy, he says, they forsake. Although mercy be offended, whom we can understand to be God Himself (for the Lord is merciful and compassionate, patient and of great mercy), yet He does not leave those who observe vanities, does not abhor them, but waits for them to return. But they, forsaking mercy standing before them and offering itself willingly, of their own accord abandon it." To this Father Pineda adds, who in book VIII On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter I, number 29, thus explains it, that is to say, nothing good is to be expected from the worshippers of the falsehood and most vain idols, since they demand benefits from the dead, and desert God Himself, the fountain and giver of all good.
2:8
Fourth, properly and genuinely it alludes to his own unbelieving sailors, and their lots and idols: for Jonas, acting in the belly of the whale, was ignorant that they, after the casting of Jonas into the sea and the cessation of the tempest, had known the God of the Hebrews and had been converted to Him. Whence concerning them as if persisting in their idolatry and similar things he says: "They that observe vanities, forsake their own mercy," that is to say, the sailors and passengers, idolaters, who worship their vain lots and idols, freed from the tempest and shipwreck, and having obtained mercy from the true God, shall not acknowledge it, nor ascribe it to Him, or give Him thanks, but ungrateful in their infidelity and impiety shall persist: wherefore they shall turn away from themselves both the present and eternal grace and mercy of God. But I, now by the help and revelation of God, am certain of the mercy and deliverance to be granted to me, acknowledge it, give thanks to my God, and therefore as soon as I shall be delivered and shall return to my country, in the voice of praise I will offer Him sacrifices of peace, and the vows which I have conceived I will pay to Him with full joy of mind and mouth: and thus I shall allure and provoke the same mercy of God to ever bring new benefits to me both in this life and in the future; as now in the belly of the whale invoking it I have allured and obtained it: thus the Hebrews (whom Emmanuel and Mariana follow), from whom some thus translate: They that observe vanities, do not remember benefits as ungrateful; and the Chaldean who translates: Not like the gentiles, idolaters, who know not what benefit is conferred upon them in that place: but I in the voice of confession shall offer my oblation before thee. Hence again it can aptly be translated from the Hebrew: They that observe vanities in vain, forsake their piety, that is to say, they who worship their lots, their idols, their vows in vain and to no purpose, these are impious and ungrateful to God, from whom they have received and receive life, spirit and all good. This sense is required by the antithesis of Jonas, which follows:
2:9
10. BUT I WITH THE VOICE OF PRAISE (that is, praising thee) WILL SACRIFICE TO THEE, — as if to say, Idolaters forget God, from whom they receive so many good things; but I will not forget, but will offer to him eucharistic prayers and sacrifices, and as it were a shipwrecked man cast out from a horrible shipwreck, "I will hang up my dripping garments (as votive offerings) to the mighty God of the sea." For the salvation of the Lord. — Thus also the Septuagint; but Pagninus and Vatablus translate, salvation itself to the Lord, that is, it pertains to the Lord, as if to say, No one except the Lord can save, just as he alone preserves and saves me in the belly of the whale. 11. AND THE LORD COMMANDED THE FISH, AND IT VOMITED OUT JONAS UPON THE DRY LAND. — Some think, as Sulpitius in book I of his History on Jonas, and St. Gregory insinuates, book VI of the Morals, chapter XII, in the words cited at chapter I, 3, that the whale vomited out Jonas upon the shores of Nineveh. But this is contrary to geography, from which it is clear that Nineveh is distant from the sea by more than a hundred leagues. Second, Josephus, book IX of the Antiquities, XI, and from him Clarius relate that Jonas was vomited out by the whale into the Euxine Pontus, to which Constantinople is adjacent. But this too seems incredible; for in the space of three days during which Jonas was in the belly of the whale, the whale could not traverse such vast stretches of land and sea. For from Joppa to the Euxine Pontus, all of Asia Minor lies between: the whale would therefore have had to swim across the entire Mediterranean Sea; then all the Cyclades; then the entire Aegean Sea, or Archipelago; then the long and winding Propontis; then the Bosporus of Thrace, and thus enter the Euxine Pontus: which journey cannot be accomplished in three days, nor in three weeks, nor in three months. The Red Sea is farther from Joppa, into which the Rabbis think Jonas was cast, but falsely, as I said at verse 6. I say therefore that Jonas was cast out near Joppa (whence he had set sail) upon the shore of Phoenicia and Syria, and from there returned by land journey into neighboring Judea, and went to the temple in Jerusalem, and there gave thanks to God, and fulfilled his vows. For this great benefit and miracle demanded to be done before all else. Again, it was fitting that he be sent from the holy land and proceed to Nineveh, not from the Euxine Pontus, so that it might be clear that he was a prophet of the true God, whose throne was in Jerusalem equally with the prophets. Add that from Judea to Nineveh the way was easier and more level; only Mesopotamia lying between needed to be crossed; but this is level: from the Euxine Pontus, however, the steep mountains of Armenia and Amanus had to be crossed, and the journey is three hundred leagues to Nineveh. Thus Mariana and others. Allegorically, Jonas swallowed by the whale, and on the third day restored to himself and to the earth, represented more expressly than any other prophet, not by word but by deed, the passion and resurrection of Christ. Wherefore Christ himself approves and confirms this from this oracle of Jonas, Matthew XII, 40. Whence St. Jerome: "But what is written, He vomited out, we ought to receive more emphatically, that from the depths of the vital organs life victorious over death proceeded." Hear St. Augustine adapting each detail, book IV of the Explanation of the Creed to the Catechumen, chapter VI: "Jonas was sent to the city of Nineveh to proclaim its end, Christ was sent by the Father to show the end of the world to all. Jonas fled to Tharsis from the face of the Lord, the flight of Jonas is the swift passage of Christ, of whom the prophet says: He exulted as a giant to run his way. The prophet ascended a ship fleeing, Christ ascended the wood by crossing the sea of this age. A great tempest arose in the sea; the disturbance of the sea, the perfidy of the Jews. Lots were cast that the fugitive prophet be cast into the sea; lots were cast over the garments of Christ, that unity be proclaimed to all the world. Jonas was cast out of the ship into the sea, the death of Christ was placed in the hearts of the gentiles. The prophet was taken up by the beast to be guarded, not eaten; hear here the voice of Christ himself through St. David: Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. Placed in the belly of the sea beast, Jonas prayed; the holy one descending into hell, Christ raised the dead. On the third day the prophet was restored unharmed to the shore, on the third day Christ rising from the sepulcher was exalted above the heavens. By the preaching of Jonas the prophet through penance the city was saved, by the preaching of Christ the holy city Jerusalem was redeemed." Elegantly also Eusebius of Emesa, hom. 2 On the Pasch, p. 261, or whoever is the author; for it is sufficiently clear from the style that these homilies are not those of Eusebius of Emesa the Syrian, which does not smell of Syriac but of Latin phrasing, indeed of elegance. Baronius, in Annot. to the Martyrology on the 16th of November, thinks it to be Eucherius of Lyons; Bellarmine, in the book On Ecclesiastical Writers, attributes it to Faustus of Riez, others to Caesarius, others to Maximus of Turin; Galesinus in the Martyrology note of 24 April ascribes it to Eusebius Gallus. Certainly from the homilies themselves it is clear that the author was a Gaul from the monastery of Lérins, who afterwards appears to have been made a bishop. This author therefore speaks thus: "Jonas, about to preach the wrath of the Lord, is sent to the great city of the Ninevites, to say: After forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And Christ is sent to the city of the world, that he might announce the day of salvation and the predetermined time of judgment. Jonas seeks a ship, Christ the Church. Jonas is tossed by the waves, and Christ is exercised by the tempests of the world. Unless Jonas be given up to perdition, the danger of the shipwrecked vessel is not calmed; so also the Church is not freed unless Christ be saved by death. The sailors about to cast Jonas,
2:10
yet fear and say: Lord, lay not upon us innocent blood; does not the imprecation of the sailors seem to us to be the confession of Pilate, who delivers Christ, and yet washes his hands, and says: I am innocent of the blood of this just man. How fittingly through the person of a gentile the faith of the gentiles is preached! Jonas therefore says in his prayer: Take away, therefore, O Lord, my life, for it is better for me to die than to live. Let our Lord Jesus Christ say this in deeds: For it is better for me to die than to live, that is, living I could not save one nation of the Jews, as being unbelieving: let me die that the whole world may be saved by one death. Then accommodating the rest thus he continues: The whale received Jonas immersed, but it did not happen that he was devoured, and he whom the malice of men destroyed, a hungry beast preserved; full of entrails he suffers hunger, and in the prey which it swallowed it wonders that nothing is permitted to itself. Who is this who can be taken into the greedy jaws, yet not consumed? He is food, he is not corruption; he is delivered to the deep of perdition, and is preserved by the very service of death. Who is this who enters safely into the most vast gulfs of dangers, and shut up under immense and deadly height, is nourished by vital air, and sent down into an alien nature of things, in the exile of life travels with life, in the absolution and preservation of one nation, and in reconciliation to God presents the glory of the repaired age as a shipwrecked man, and surviving his own death, announces the coming salvation of the world? I think that this is our Lord Jesus Christ, whom savage death, an insatiable beast, seized as food, and trembled at its own prey; trembled, I say, for although it knew the crucified one, yet him whom it did not remember as guilty, it could not hold as condemned; because punishment does not make guilt, but cause. As if a customary food it devoured man lost in the origin of the world; but it knew that the dignity of this food was great when it choked upon it. And therefore the divine word commemorates: And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonas upon the dry land. He commanded therefore the beast, he commanded death always hungry, he commanded the abysses and hell, that they restore the Saviour to the world. But we ought to understand that it vomited, in that from the deepest bowels of death victorious life returned, and perdition ulcerated gave it back from the deepest heart of hell. See also Peter Chrysologus, Archbishop of Ravenna, serm. 37, which is entirely on Jonas and Christ. Tropologically St. John Chrysostom, homil. 25 On the Love of Neighbour, vol. IV, from the deed of Jonas teaches that a prophet, that is a preacher and apostolic man, ought not to seek his own honour, his own rest, his own advantages, but the glory of God and the salvation of souls, with his own inconvenience and danger: for God will be with him, and will lead him from danger not only safe, but also glorious as the saviour of many. For Jonas, fleeing the danger of preaching and the salvation of souls, fell into the danger of his own life, as being cast into the sea. But the same, taking upon himself the common danger in the ship, saved both himself and the ship. He fled therefore as a man, but offered himself to danger as a prophet, says Chrysostom. Let those who are sent by God, or by a Superior, to preach to heretics, Indians, Barbarians, to hear confessions, especially of women, think and do the same. By which
2:11
of this matter there exists a famous example in Palladius in the Lausiac History, chapter XXXV, concerning Abbot Elias, who, since he presided over three hundred nuns and therefore felt the sting of the flesh, abdicated from his office; but when three angels in a vision castrated him and commanded him to resume it, thereafter for forty years he cared for them with such great peace and chastity that he never felt a temptation of lust. Our Society's founder St. Ignatius used to say: "If God gave me the choice either to die immediately and go to heaven, or to continue living and promote His glory, but with uncertainty and danger to my own salvation, I would choose to continue living and promote God's glory; because I do not doubt that God would take upon Himself all this danger which I despise for love of Him, and would make it far more secure for me." St. Xavier, setting out for the Mauritius islands, when his friends dissuaded him from this journey and set forth the dangers of heat, hunger, and the barbarous inhabitants, who raged with iron and poison, even against their own, replied that a far greater danger would be created for him if he did not obey God calling him to them. Having set out therefore, in one city Tolo he joined twenty-three thousand men to Christ, and enjoyed such great joy of spirit that writing from there he said: "All these dangers and labors willingly undertaken for the sake of one God are treasures most full of divine and greatest joys, so that these islands in particular seem to be appointed to destroy the sight of the eyes through the most delightful abundance of tears. Indeed, I never remember myself to be surrounded by so many, so great, and so continuous joys of spirit, so as to completely overwhelm every sense of labors and hardships." Certainly he felt that which is in Psalm XCIII, 19: "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart: thy comforts have given joy to my soul." And that which is in Psalm XXII, 4: "For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils: for thou art with me." Thus Tursellinus relates in his Life, book III, chapters II and III. The first reason is, because when God calls someone to an office or state whose institution is to be devoted to the salvation of neighbors, He at the same time gives grace and means not only necessary for this end, but also suitable and opportune. For this is demanded by His sweet and exact providential disposition. Thus He calls the bride, that is, the principal men of the Church, in Canticles II: "Arise, make haste, my love." To what? "Undoubtedly to the gaining of souls," says St. Bernard, sermon 57 and 58 in Canticles. For to them the bridegroom says that which Absalom said to his servants: "Fear not, for I am he that command you," II Kings XIII, 28. St. Paul knew this, and therefore fearlessly threw himself into dangers, saying: "Our sufficiency is from God, who also hath made us fit ministers of the new testament," II Corinthians III, 5. For God is able to snatch us from all danger, as He snatched David, Psalm V, 13: "O Lord, thou hast crowned us with the shield of thy good will;" and St. Paul, II Corinthians I, 4, and Daniel from the lion's den, and the three youths from the Babylonian furnace, and Jonah from the belly of the whale. The second reason is, because a greater danger from God the judge threatens us if we flee His calling, as Jonah did; if we do not use His talents entrusted to us according to His will and glory. The parable of the servant who buried his talent is well known, who condemned by the Lord heard: "Out of thy own mouth I judge thee, wicked servant, etc., why then didst thou not give my money to the bank, that at my coming I might have exacted it with usury?" Luke XIX, 22, concerning which see St. Augustine, book On Faith and Works, chapter XVII. To this pertains that of St. Ambrose, book I of Duties, chapter III: "Let us see that we do not render account for idle silence. For there is also a busy silence," as was in Susanna silently invoking God, Daniel chapter XIII, 35: "And there is idle silence," as is in those who are bound to speak, teach, reprove, exhort others. Just as therefore liberty is lost by liberty, rest by rest, idleness by idleness; so on the other hand danger is repelled only by danger, and peace among enemies is prepared only by war, and idleness by business. Evomited. — This word signifies that Jonah so weighed upon, constricted, impeded the breathing, and afflicted the belly of the whale, that he forced it to vomit, just as the stomach, noxious food by which it is lacerated and afflicted, violently rejects and vomits. Thus Christ descending into death and hell so afflicted them that He not only forced them to remove themselves, but also killed them, just as the ichneumon entering through the mouth into the belly of the crocodile, erodes and kills it, as Pliny testifies, book VIII, chapter XXV. This is what Hosea says, chapter XIII, 14: "I will be thy death, O death; thy sting will be, O hell." From this place some think that Jonah was resurrection. Thus Pineda in Job, cap. XIX, 26, where from those words of Job: "And again I shall be clothed with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see God my saviour," he probably gathers that Job rose again with Christ. For this is Jesus, that is the saviour, whom he predicts he will see, on account of the merit of so many and so great afflictions, by which he represented Christ suffering. Anagogically from Jonah coming alive out of the whale, St. Irenaeus proves the resurrection of bodies, lib. V Against Heresies, cap. V, and lib. III, cap. XXII, where at the same time from the same he shows the magnificence of God to be perfected in the weakness and obedience of man: "For just as, he says, God patiently allowed Jonah to be swallowed by the whale, not that he might be swallowed and perish entirely, but that being vomited forth he might be more subject to God, and might glorify God more, who had given him unhoped-for salvation; and he might make firm repentance before his enemies so that they might turn to the Lord, who would free them from death, terrified by that sign which was done concerning Jonah, as Scripture says of these: And they turned every one from his evil way, etc. So from the beginning God patiently allowed man to be swallowed by the great whale, which was the author of transgression, not that he might be swallowed and perish entirely, but preparing and making ready the discovery of salvation, which was made by the Word through the sign of Jonah for those who had the same opinion of God as Jonah, and confessed and said: I am the servant of the Lord, and I worship the Lord God of heaven; so that man receiving unhoped-for salvation from God, might rise from the dead and glorify God," etc. And below: "This therefore was the magnanimity of God, that man passing through all things, and receiving knowledge of customs, then coming to resurrection, and learning by experience whence he was freed, might always be grateful to the Lord. But let him know himself, that he is mortal and weak; and let him understand also the Lord, that he is so immortal and powerful, and that he gives immortality to the mortal, and eternity to the temporal." Thus also Tertullian, lib. On the Resurrection of the Flesh, cap. LVIII, proves the same by the example of Jonah, who lived in the belly of the whale, "in which, he says, shipwrecks were digested;" and of the three youths, who in the furnace of Babylon remained unharmed by fire; and of Elijah and Enoch: "Who, he says, not yet distinguished by resurrection, because not yet finished by death; and by this very fact already candidates of eternity, learn immunity of the flesh from all vice, and from all damage, and from all injury and insult, to what faith do they set their seal as testimony, except that these ought to be believed to be documents of future integrity?" Wherefore St. Maternus, the disciple of St. Peter, was similar to Jonah buried in the whale and rising thence, who being sent by him with St. Eucharius and Valerius to Trier to evangelize, on the very journey at Helli near Selestadium was seized by a strong fever and died. His companions returned to St. Peter and received from him a staff, which applying to St. Maternus on the fortieth day after his death, they raised him up; and afterwards he himself survived for as many years as he had lain in the tomb, namely forty. Thus his Life has it and the Chronicle of Liège, and Otto of Freising, lib. III Chron. cap. XV, who however for 40 days puts 33. Just as therefore Jonah cast out of the whale preached to the Ninevites for 40 days, so St. Maternus rising preached repentance to the Treveri for 40 years, and to other Germans and Gauls. to you," II Kings XIII, 28. This St. Paul knew, and therefore fearlessly exposed himself to dangers, saying: "Our sufficiency is from God, who hath made us fit ministers of the new testament," II Corinthians III, 5. For God is able to deliver us from all danger, as he delivered David, Psalm V, 13: "O Lord, thou hast crowned us with the shield of thy good will;" and St. Paul, II Corinthians I, 4, and Daniel from the lion's den, and the three youths from the furnace of Babylon, and Jonah from the belly of the whale. one of the Saints who rose with Christ, and with him both in body and in soul ascended gloriously into heaven, Matthew XXVII, 52. For if Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Job rose again; therefore also Jonah. For he alone before others prophesied that Christ would rise on the third day, and in fact represented it, when on the third day he rose alive from the belly of the whale, as from a tomb. He therefore was most fit to be a witness of the resurrection of Christ, and could say to the Jews: I am Jonah, who once prophesied the resurrection of Christ, and therefore I am sent by God to testify that this has now been accomplished. I testify therefore that this is the Christ foretold by me, and that he was truly raised from death on the third day, as I was raised on the third day from the belly of the whale, so that this his singensis, lib. III Chron. cap. XV, who however for 40 days puts 33. Just as therefore Jonah cast out of the whale preached to the Ninevites for 40 days, so St. Maternus rising preached repentance to the Treveri for 40 years, and to other Germans and Gauls.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
2:1
v. 4 « Et praeparavit Dominus piscem grandem, ut deglutiret lonam » ; — hebr. destinavit, constituit i. e. «iuxta navem fecit venire, ut praecipitem Ionam in suos reciperet sinus et pro morte praeberet habitaculum ; ut qui in navi iratum senserat Deum, propitium in morte sentiret» (S. IHer.). Piscem LXX x3:cq vocant, uti etiam Matth. 12, 40 vocatur. Olim communis opinio balaenam interpretabatur, contra quam tamen iam Sanct., Lap. Men. aliique advertunt, balaenam etsi oris hiatu grandi polleat, tamen gula esse angustiore ; quare de cane carcharia esse cogitandum dicunt. Ei sententiae etiam recentiores subscribunt (cf. Schegg, Keil); intelligunt scil. squalum vel canem carchariam, gallice requin, germanice Hai dictum, qui in mari mediterraneo frequens est et usque ad 13 pedes longitudine excrescit et non solum hominem deglutire potest !, verum equos et boves integros (Kaulen). « Et erat lonas in ventre piscis tribus diebus et tribus noctibus ». — Haec in pisce commoratio certe sine insigni Dei miraculo explicari nequit. At non est impossibile apud Deum omne verbum, et cum ex ipsis Christi verbis edoceamur, tali typo Christi commorationem apud inferos eiusque resurrectionem a mortuis praefizurari Deum voluisse, ad tantae rei typum merito assumi grande miraculum quis negare audebit? Ex ipsa proinde /igurae admiratione eventus praesignati portenditur magnitudo, et si miraculum pro Iona patratum magnum censes interrogans, cur prophetam inobedientem re adeo insolita ad obedientiam revocaverit vel vivum servaverit is, cui subsidia alia innumera aliique prophetae magis dicto audientes praesto erant, oculos ad eventum signandum converte, et ex figura huius aestimationem et admirationem alte imprime in animum! Ne quis miraculi magnitudinea fide deterreatur, S. Hier. monet, fideles multo maiora credere cogi : « quomodo tres pueri missi in caminum aestuantis incendii, in tantum illaesi fuerint, ut ne vestimenta quidem eorum odor ignis attigerit ; quomodo recesserit mare et ad instar murorum hinc inde rigidum steterit, ut praeberet viam populo transeunti; quomodo humana ratione aucta fame leonum rabies praedam suam timens aspexerit nec tetigerit ; et multa huiuscemodi » ; similiter S. Augustinus ! aliique. Ut rem aliqua saltem similitudine illustrent, Cyr. et ex eo Theoph. in mentem revocant conditionem infantis in utero matris inclusi : « etiam in utero infans humori naturali innatat et in ventre praegnantis veluti sepultus respirare non potest : vivit nihilominus et servatur, Dei nutu mirabiliter nutritus», cuius comparationis vis ea saltem est, ut qui vitam vitaeque propagationem condidit, illam quoque contra conditiones naturales servare posse sit censendus. Loquendi modus tribus diebus et tribus moctibus non dicit temporis spatium per '/2 horas, verum solum indicat, Ionam si v. g. feria secunda in mare sit proiectus, ibi degisse partem illam feriae secundae quae supererat, deinde per feriam tertiam et feria demum quarta fuisse liberatum. Hic enim est loquendi usus apud Hebraeos receptus, ut quaecumque vvy- Onu£pou pars quasi integrum voy8juspov (dies et nox) in computum recenseatur (cf. Matth. 12, 40). Id illustratur Esth. 4, 1655, 4: Esther enim proponit : « non comedatis et non bibatis tribus diebus et tribus noctibus et ego cum ancillis meis similiter ieiunabo et tunc ingrediar ad regem » ; nihilominus 5, 4 dicitur: «die autem tertio induta est Esther regalibus vestimentis » etc., ergo die tertio illud ieiunium per tres dies ac noctes tres iam erat finitum ; similia invenies Tob. 3, 10. 12 et 4 Reg. 30, 12. 13 Amalecites qui nudiustertius a Domino relictus est, iam tribus diebus et tribus noctibus non comedisse dicitur !.
2:2
V. 2 « Et oravit Ionas ad Dominum Deum suum de ventre piscis » ; — i. e. « intelligimus eum postquam in utero ceti sospitem esse se senserit, non desperasse de Domini misericordia et totum ad obsecrationem esse conversum » (S. Hier.) ; eo ipso enim quod se vivum ac spirantem deprehenderit, Dei opem iam agnovit et in ea maioris misericordiae pignus (cf. Cyr. Theoph. Rup.) ; quare « totum affectum mentis in Deum direxit » (Alb.). Duo ex ipsa re nata animum orantis commovent atque replent : periculi domiciliique horror, salutis desiderium et spes. Hisce eius oratio constat, quae vivide refert animi affectus et quasi sponte sua ex occasione data enascitur. Et primo quidem statim duo illa, quae totius orationis summam constituunt, proponit (v. 3) ; dein singula, ut est animi vehementer commoti, latius prosequitur atque depingit, ita ut bis gradationc quadam et pericula sua exponat et laetam spem profiteatur (v. 4. 5; 6-8) ; demum laude et gratiarum actione precationem concludit (v. 9. 10). bus quas vocant, cur non ipse Ionas rem expertus animi sui commotiones et desideria hisce postea expresserit, postquam in alvo piscis similem in modum precatus est. — Ex interpretibus unus Sanct. non orationem cernit in ventre . piscis fusam, neque omnino precationem agnoscit, sed narrationem contineri vult a v. 3-7 eorum quae propheta pertulerit eiectus e navi, antequam esset exceptus a. marina bellua ; a v. 8-10 eorum, quae in angusto illo ac sordido conclavi cogitaverit, fecerit. Verum sententia haec refutatione non indiget, cum ipso textu : oravit et dixit satis iam confodiatur ; quare laudatorem merito invenit nullum. Precationis summam exhibet
2:3
v. 3 « et dixit : clamavi de tribulatione mea ad. Dominum et exaudivit me ; de ventre inferi clamavi et exaudisti vocem meam » ; — iam certum dicit, preces suas esse exauditas in eo ipso quod vivat in ventre piscis divinae misericordiae et gratiae certissimum agnoscens testimonium (cf. Theod. Theoph.); et eam exauditionem eo mirabiliorem praedicat magisque gratiosam, cum non solum ei obtigerit de tribulatione quadam cum ceteris multis communi, verum de ventre inferi i. e. non de ventre ceti (Hier. Cyr. Theod. Theoph. Rup. Rib.) sed exipsis mortis et inferi faucibus, ex summo illo mortis periculo, cum in mare proiectus procellosum et piscis ore devoratus iam duplici titulo morti et inferis iuremerito videatur adscriptus et mortis imperio ac ditioni plane attributus (cf. Sanct.). Iam prius membrum de tribulatione accuratius sibi depingit
2:4
v. 4 « et proiecisti me in profundum in corde maris et flumen circumdedit me, omnes gurgites tui et. fluctus tui super me iransierunt » ; — in. hebr. etiam magis ad horrorem phrasi indeterminata : in cor marium ; in media maria ab omni ope humana remotissima ; flumen i. e. vehementiores illi aquarum cursus, meatus, qui in ipso mari deprehenduntur ; dein aestus tui (hebr.) et fluctus tui, ubertate verborum pelagus immensum immensasque aquarum copias in quibus medius est demersus, ob oculos ponit ; circumdedit explica per tempus praesens eo scil. modo, quo apud Hebraeos tempus etiam praesens designatur (cf. Ges. Hebr. Gram. 2 124, 3). Ceterum in textu hebr. habes modo imperf. modo perf., qua temporum commistione conditio praesens atque perdurans describitur. Quod in Ps. A1, 8 metaphorice contigisse dicitur de fluctibus calamitatum et malorum, id Ionas literali sensu expertus est : fluctus tui super me transeunt. In ipsa sua in mare proiectione fatetur se primum interitum suum ac iustam a Deo abiectionem suspicatum esse, quae tamen tristissima apprehensio mox laeta fiducia ac,spe excepta sit :
2:5
v. 5 «et ego diri : abiectus sum a. conspectu oculorum tuorum ; verumtamen rursus videbo templum sanctum tuum » ; — qui a. facie Domini fugere tentavit, merito timet, ne a tenera Dei cura alienus efficiatur, a favore divino, quo Deus in suos dicitur oculos dirigere et beneficia praestare (cf. Ps. 10, 5; 32, 18; 33, 16. 3 Reg. 8, 29. 52; 9, 3 etc.) reiectus ipso munere vitae privetur. Cum mortui iam non sint participes novorum beneficiorum Dei, a Dei oculis ! dicuntur abscissi (hebr.), expulsi ab eius conspectu (cf. Is. 38, 11. 18). At dum se adhuc viventem reperiat post ingressum in piscis rictum, statim simul cum vita spem salutis concipit, quam aeque pie ac fortiter confitetur, se scil. denuo templum sanctum visurum, quod laetus se ingressurum spondet gratias agentem, in quod tamquam in rem omnium carissimam statim mentem oculosque convertit. Fidei eius magnitudinem bene praedicat h. l. Rup. Ut est animi commoti et praesenti periculo magnopere perculsi, conditionis suae horrores uberius describit ; illis autem oculorum conspectui quasi subiectis eo magis eminet fiducia ;
2:6
v. 6 « circumdederunt me aquae usque ad animam, abyssus vallavit me, pelagus operuit caput meum, v. 'l ad extrema montium descendi, terrae vectes concluserunt me 1n aeternum : et sublevabis de corruptione vitam meam, Domine Deus meus » ! — usque ad. animam i. e. vitam ipsam aquae auferrent, ni mira Dei ope continerentur; undique abysso est cireumdatus, cum sit in media maria proiectus (v. 4), ergo abyssum habeat supra se et infra se; tertium membrum verte ex hebr. iuncus ? ligatus capiti meo i. e. alga marina est capiti meo obvoluta (cf. Sanct. Lap.), est quasi fascia capiti meo; pulchre dicitur de Iona qui in fundum maris infra plantas marinas se abiectum et quasi sepultum considerat. Montes radices et fundamenta in ima maria protendere videntur, unde ait ad extrema montium... i. e. ad maris fundum, ex quo promontoria exsurgere videntur ; inde ad terram ascendere homo iam non valet ; quare dicit : vectes terrae esse clausos sibi in aeternum, portas terrae ipsi esse obseratas vectibus, idque in aeternum, cum « non sit remedium subventionis ex parte hominis » (A/b.). Hebr. explica : terram quod attinet, vectes eius sunt pone ? me in aeternum i. e. aditus ad eam mihi est vectibus occlusus. Et sublevabis hebr. et sublevas vel sublevasti, certa enim spe vitae salutisque fulcitur, cum in tanto periculo se vivum conservari a Domino sentiat ; de corruptione ! i1. e. quia «in ventre ceti iuxta naturam corporum corrumpi debuerat et in cibos bestiarum proficere ac per venas artusque diffundi » (S. Hier.). « Porro quod ait Domine Deus meus blandientis affectus est, quod communem Deum omnium beneficii magnitudine suum et, quasi proprium senserit Deum » (S. Hier.). Iterato profitetur se mediis in angustiis ac horroribus ad Deum pia mente ac fiducia confugisse ; et cum diutius (v. 1) in ventre piscis versaretur, facile coniici potest, eum non obstante spe concepta tamen quandoque angustiarum ac tentationum motibus ac fluctibus fuisse iactatum ; quale remedium adhibuerit, docet ; nam « non abeunt sanctis tribulationes citra lucrum » (Theoph.) ;
2:8
v. 8 « cum angustiaretur 1n, me anima nea, Domini recordatus sum, ut veniat ad. te oratio mea ad. templum sanctum tuum » ; — i. e. « quidquid impossibile videbatur, Domini recordatione superatum est ; Domini recordatio mihi saluti fuit iuxta illud : memor fui Domini et delectatus sum . . . non ignorabat propheta ubique Deum exaudire preces supplicum, sed auis templum illud sibi consecrari voluit, ut esset domus orationis, et propitius erat in illo orantibus, cum ibi orare non posset, mente saltem ad illud conversus orat, quemadmodum et sanctus Daniel oraturus faciem vertebat contra Ierusalem » (Dan. - 6, 10 — Rib.) ; adde, sanctuariumillud vero Israelitae fuisse carissimum, in quo Deus tot suae benignitatis ac potentiae manifestationes exhibuerit et promiserit, ut oculi et cor ipsius ibi futurisint cunctis diebus (3 Reg. 9, 3. 2 Par. 1, 18.10). Insuper natura plane comparatum est, ut libentius ac ferventius ibi Deum adoremus, ubi peculiari ratione suae praesentiae edit documenta ; immo ibi debet adorari, ubi nova et singulari ratione se sistit praesentem. Uti igitur David in deserto fugitivus corde et animo ad Dei sanctuarium ferebatur (cf. Ps. 62, 2. 3), ita Ionas in maris profundo; ita postmodum pii Drache in exsilio (cf. Ps. 136). — Hebr. cum deficeret in me anima mea ? Quantam autem ex Dei recordatione hauriat animi | laetitiam, constantiam, fortitudinem, a contrario illustrat misera sorte idololatrarum commemorata
2:9
v. 9 « qui custodiunt vanitates frustra, misericordiam suam derelinquunt » ; — hebr. qui observant vanitates perniciei. vel mendacii i. e. illa quae nihil sunt nisi inania, falsa, iniqua ?, scil. idola, ii « stantem misericordiam et ultro se offerentem sponte propria derelinquunt ... ipsum possumus intelligere Deum » (S. Hier. et sim Theoph. 3? loco, Rup. Mar. Men. Kaulen) ; ii scil. miseri sunt, quia omnis bonitatis ac miserationis fontem abiiciunt. Ita Deus vocatur misericordia mea Ps. 143, 2. Ipse vero huic Deo benigno ac misericordi adhaerere cupit totis praecordiorum affectibus et externa quoque vocis atque operum confessione
2:10
v. 10 « ego autem tn voce laudis immolabo tibi ; quaecumque vovi reddam pro salute Domino » ; — i. e. cum laeto gratiarum actionis carmine spondet se Deo sacrificia oblaturum et vota nuncupata redditurum ; ascendet scil. in templum ! et vota persolvet, uti Ezechias rex sanitate üccepta : « tertio die ascendes templum Domini... ; psalmos nostros cantabimus cunctis diebus vitae nostrae in domo Domini » (4 Reg. 20, 5. Is. 38, 20). In hebr. oratio concluditur pulcherrimo epiphonemate, quo per modum exclamationis totam animi fiduciam laete complectitur : salus penes lahve cf. Ps. 3,9; 1171, 44. 21. 28. Hac tessera se consolatur ; haec est lucerna lucens in caliginoso loco ; hac spe per triduum illud angustias animi dispellit. Neque spe sua fallitur
2:11
v. 11 « et dixit Dominus pisci ; et evomuit Ilonam in aridam » ; — explicat Cyr. : « iterum iubetur cetus divina quadam et inexplicabili virtute ad eius nutum ac voluntatem motus ; quin etiam ex visceribus prophetam emittit, non sine fructu ex perpessione, quin ex ipsa experientia incitatum magis et probe doctum, periculosum esse Dominicis decretis se opponere ». De loco, ubi eiectus est, varia fabulantur ?. Sed ad Palaestinae litora eum fuisse redditum, tuto dixeris. — Notat Theod. Ilonam eo quoque Deo gratias egisse, quod poenas de se sumptas datamque salutem, ut David, literis consignarit, ut non solum aequales sed etiam posteri res ipsius cognoscerent. Anc. — «Mittitur Ionas secundo in Niniven neque datum sibi negotium sicut antea detrectat. Qui cum exactis diebus quadraginta evertendam esse Niniven praedicasset, ea consecuta est et conturbatio urbis et vitae mutatio, et poenitentis populi inaudita species edicto regio promulgato, ut paratumab offenso Domino supplicium a suo capitedepulerint » (Sanct.).
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.