Worked Example: Reading Jonah
A comprehensive demonstration of the First-Read Framework applied to the book of Jonah— discovering structure, patterns, characters, and theology through careful observation
Worked Example: Reading Jonah
How to Use This Guide
This worked example walks through the book of Jonah using the First-Read Framework, showing you exactly what to observe and how to think through each phase. The discoveries here come from careful attention to the text itself—no commentaries needed for your first read.
Before diving in, read Jonah in one sitting (it's only four chapters—about 10 minutes). Then work through each phase below, comparing your observations with what's presented here.
The Big Picture (First Complete Read)
Read Jonah 1-4 in one sitting. What do you notice immediately?
Genre & Form
📖 Genre
Prophetic Narrative — not a collection of oracles like most prophetic books, but a story about a prophet
🎭 Opening
Begins with divine command formula: "The word of the LORD came to Jonah" — standard prophetic opening
🎵 Tone
Ironic, almost satirical — prophet who flees, pagans who fear God, reluctant success
Structure & Movement
Natural Breaks:
- Chapter 1: Scene shift at v.4 (from land to sea), v.17 (fish swallows Jonah)
- Chapter 2: Unified prayer inside fish
- Chapter 3: Scene shift at v.5 (camera moves from Jonah to Ninevites)
- Chapter 4: Scene shift at v.5 (Jonah leaves city)
"The word of the LORD came to Jonah... '
Arise, go to Nineveh...'"
This parallel opening suggests we're meant to compare these two chapters. What's different the second time?
Key Actors & Relationships
| Character/Group | Role | What They Want |
|---|---|---|
| Yahweh | Sender, pursuer, questioner | Jonah to prophesy to Nineveh; Nineveh's repentance |
| Jonah | Reluctant prophet, fugitive | To flee God's presence; later, Nineveh's destruction |
| Sailors | Innocent bystanders | To survive the storm; not to shed innocent blood |
| Ninevites | Wicked city, repentant sinners | Initially unknown; ultimately, mercy from God |
| Fish, Plant, Worm, East Wind | Divine instruments | To accomplish God's purposes |
Central Tension
The Core Problem
External Conflict: God's prophet refuses to deliver God's message to God's enemies.
Internal Conflict: Jonah knows God is merciful (4:2) and doesn't want Nineveh to receive mercy. His theology is correct, but his heart is wrong.
Theological Tension: How does God relate to wicked nations? Will He show them mercy? Should Israel's prophets want Him to?
Conclusion
📌 How It Ends
The book ends with an open question from God (4:11): "Should I not have compassion on Nineveh?"
No resolution! We never learn if Jonah changes his mind. The question hangs in the air, inviting readers to answer it.
Structural Analysis (Second Read)
Now read more slowly, marking patterns and repeated elements
Repetition & Patterns
The Book's Chiastic Structure
What this reveals: The book is symmetrically designed. You're meant to read:
- Ch 1 alongside Ch 3 (parallel responses to God's call)
- Ch 2 alongside Ch 4 (contrasting prayers)
Repeated Words (Load-Bearing Themes)
| Word/Root | Occurrences | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Great/Big גָּדוֹל (gadol) |
14 times (more than any other word!) | Great city, great wind, great storm, great fish, great fear, great anger — everything is maximized, comic book proportions |
| Evil/Bad רָעָה (ra'ah) |
9 times | Nineveh's evil (1:2), God relenting from evil/disaster (3:10, 4:2), Jonah's displeasure (4:1), evil seems "great" to Jonah (4:1) |
| Fear יָרֵא (yare') |
7 times (all in Ch 1!) | Sailors fear storm → fear "a great fear" → fear Yahweh. Jonah says he fears Yahweh but acts otherwise |
| Down/Descend יָרַד (yarad) |
5 times in Ch 1 | Down to Joppa → down into ship → down into hold → down asleep. Jonah's progressive descent into death/Sheol |
| Hurl/Cast טוּל (tul) |
5 times in Ch 1 | God hurls storm → sailors hurl cargo → Jonah says "hurl me" → sailors hurl Jonah into sea. Chain reaction! |
great city, great wind, great storm, great fish, great fear, great anger.
This isn't "realistic" narrative—it's parabolic, teaching through caricature.
Formulaic Phrases
This exact phrase appears only twice in the entire Hebrew Bible: Jonah and Genesis 10:12 (describing Nineveh's founding by Nimrod, violent city-builder)
Echoes Cain (Gen 4:10), Sodom (Gen 18:20-21), Egypt (Exod 2:23)—all cities whose innocent blood cries out
Standard prophetic call to repentance—language from Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel
Character & Plot Analysis (Third Read)
Focus on how characters are portrayed and develop
Character Observation: Jonah
Introduction (1:1-3)
Name: יוֹנָה (Yonah) = "Dove" (sacrificial animal, symbol of Israel)
Father: אֲמִתַּי (Amittai) = "Faithfulness" or "My truth"
First Action: Immediate disobedience—"arose to flee" instead of "arose to go"
Characterization Techniques
Direct Statement (1:9)
Jonah says: "I fear Yahweh, God of heaven, who made the sea and dry land"
Irony: He claims to fear the God who made the sea... while fleeing on the sea!
Actions
Ch 1: Flees, goes down, sleeps through storm, has to be awakened by pagan captain
Ch 3: Obeys but speaks minimal message (5 Hebrew words!)
Ch 4: Angry, sulking, suicidal, more concerned about plant than people
Speech Patterns
Ch 1: Silent until questioned, then answers with creed
Ch 3: Five-word sermon: "Forty days and Nineveh overthrown"
Ch 4: Complains, quotes scripture back at God sarcastically
Contrasts
Jonah (Hebrew prophet): Sleeps, disobedient, uncaring
Sailors (pagans): Pray, fear Yahweh, care about innocent blood
Ninevites (wicked city): Repent immediately, believe God
Character Arc: Does Jonah Change?
Ch 1: Fleeing God, spiritually asleep
Ch 2: Rescued, gives thanksgiving prayer (seems changed?)
Ch 3: Obeys externally but heart unchanged
Ch 4: Reveals true motive—he wanted Nineveh destroyed, knew God would be merciful
Answer: No change! Chapter 2's prayer was self-focused gratitude for his rescue. He never cared about Nineveh. The entire story exposes a prophet who has correct theology but a heart opposed to God's mission.
Character Observation: The Pagans
Plot Development: Conflict Types
⚡ Divine-Human Conflict
God wants Jonah to prophesy to Nineveh. Jonah refuses. God pursues through storm, fish, plant, worm, wind. Jonah never surrenders his position—he'd rather die than see Nineveh spared.
💭 Internal Conflict
Jonah's theology (4:2) is correct—God is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love (Exod 34:6-7). But Jonah hates this about God when applied to enemies.
🔄 Irony & Reversal
- Situational: Prophet flees from God "to Tarshish, away from the presence of Yahweh" (repeated 3x)
- Dramatic: We know Nineveh will repent, but Jonah tries to prevent it
- Role Reversal: Pagans fear God, prophet sleeps. Sailors refuse to throw Jonah overboard
- Object Lesson: Compassion for a plant, none for 120,000 people
Theological & Thematic Analysis
What does this reveal about God and His purposes?
God's Character in Jonah
Sovereign Over Creation
1:4: "Yahweh hurled a great wind"
1:17: "Yahweh appointed a great fish"
4:6-8: God appoints plant, worm, wind
All creation serves God's purposes—wind, sea, fish, plant, worm
Pursues the Reluctant
God doesn't give up on Jonah. Sends storm, fish (rescue!), second call, plant/worm object lesson.
Even when Jonah wants to die, God keeps engaging him
Merciful to Enemies
3:10: "God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil way, and God relented concerning the calamity"
This is what Jonah feared most—God showing mercy to Assyria (Israel's future destroyer)
Patient Teacher
4:4, 9: "Do you have good reason to be angry?"
4:11: "Should I not have compassion...?"
God's final question invites Jonah (and readers) to examine their hearts
Major Themes
1. Universal Mercy vs. Tribal Religion
2. Prophetic Obedience & Heart Attitude
3. Repentance & Divine Relenting
4. Creation Care vs. Human Care
The Plant Lesson (4:6-11)
Jonah's Priorities:
- Rejoiced "with great joy" over a shade plant (4:6)
- "Exceedingly angry, enough to die" when plant died (4:9)
- Had "compassion" (Hebrew: khamal = "pity, spare") on plant he didn't create or grow
God's Question: You pity a plant. Should I not pity:
- 120,000+ people who "do not know their right hand from their left" (spiritually ignorant)
- Plus "many animals" (even livestock matter to God!)
Proportionality Argument: If temporary comfort from a plant matters, how much more do 120,000+ human souls created in God's image?
Redemptive-Historical Placement
Where Jonah Fits in the Biblical Story
Israel has the law, the land, the temple. But they've become tribal, insular, forgetting that Abraham's blessing was "for all nations" (Gen 12:3)
Nineveh (Assyria) will later destroy northern Israel (722 BC). Jonah knows this. His refusal is motivated by national survival, not just spite.
Jonah prefigures Israel's call to be "light to the nations" (Isa 49:6). Israel often failed this mission—Jonah personifies that failure.
Intertextual Connections
Biblical authors wrote expecting you to hear echoes
The Hyperlinked Opening Sentence
The "City of Blood" Pattern
Template: God Responds to Cities Whose Violence "Comes Up" to Him
"The voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground." First "city of blood"—Cain murders Abel, then builds the first city (Gen 4:17).
"The earth is filled with violence [khamas]... the end of all flesh has come before me" (6:13). God sends Noah to warn, then sends flood as judgment.
"The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is very grave... I will go down to see." Abraham intercedes—God would spare for 10 righteous, but none found.
"The people of Israel groaned... their cry for help went up to God." God sends Moses to deliver them from Pharaoh's violence.
"Their evil has come up before me." Same pattern! But this time, God sends a prophet to the wicked city, not just to rescue victims. Revolutionary shift.
- Humans build cities founded on violence
- Innocent blood cries out / evil "comes up" to God
- God becomes aware and must respond
- God sends a "chosen one" to rescue or warn
- The chosen one often suffers or intercedes
- God shows mercy (sometimes) based on repentance
Jonah's Twist: This time, the prophet doesn't want mercy shown. He'd rather the city be destroyed. But God pursues mercy anyway—even against His prophet's will.
Prophetic Figures Who Resisted Their Call
| Prophet | Resistance | God's Response | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moses (Exod 3-4) |
5 excuses: "Who am I?" / "Who are you?" / "They won't believe me" / "I'm not eloquent" / "Send someone else" | Patient, provides signs, gives Aaron as helper | Moses obeys, becomes greatest prophet |
| Elijah (1 Kings 19) |
Flees to wilderness, suicidal ("I've had enough, take my life"), hides in cave | Angel feeds him, "still small voice," recommissions him | Returns to prophesy, mentors Elisha |
| Jeremiah (Jer 1, 20) |
"I'm only a youth" / Later: "You deceived me... I will not mention him" | Touches his mouth, promises to be with him | Obeys despite persecution, gives word faithfully |
| Jonah (Jonah 1-4) |
Flees opposite direction, sleeps through storm, reluctantly obeys, angry at success, suicidal | Pursues with storm, rescues via fish, second call, object lesson with plant | Unknown—book ends with God's question unanswered |
What Makes Jonah Different?
Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah all eventually submitted and faithfully carried out their prophetic role, even at great personal cost. Jonah externally obeys in chapter 3 but his heart never changes. He'd rather die than see God show mercy to Nineveh.
Jonah is the anti-Moses, anti-Elijah—the prophet who fails to embody compassion for others.
Exodus 34:6-7 — The Character of God
Literary Artistry
Hebrew authors were master craftspeople—notice their techniques
Wordplay & Sound Patterns
Repetition Techniques
Example 1: The "Fear" Progression (Chapter 1)
| Verse | Who Fears? | What They Fear | Hebrew |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:5 | Sailors | Fear [because of the storm] | וַיִּירְאוּ (vayir'u) |
| 1:9 | Jonah | "I fear Yahweh" | אֲנִי יָרֵא (ani yare') |
| 1:10 | Sailors | "The men feared a great fear" | וַיִּירְאוּ... יִרְאָה גְדוֹלָה (vayir'u... yir'ah gedolah) |
| 1:16 | Sailors | "The men feared Yahweh a great fear" | וַיִּירְאוּ... אֶת־יְהוָה יִרְאָה גְדוֹלָה |
Pattern: The sailors move from fearing the storm → fearing greatly → fearing Yahweh greatly. Meanwhile, Jonah says he fears Yahweh but his actions prove otherwise. The repetition creates dramatic irony—we see the pagans' faith journey while the prophet sleeps.
Example 2: The "Hurl" Chain Reaction
- 1:4 — "Yahweh hurled a great wind"
- 1:5 — "They hurled the cargo into the sea"
- 1:12 — "Jonah said, 'Hurl me into the sea'"
- 1:15 — "They picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea"
Literary Effect: The verb "hurl" cascades through the chapter like dominoes. God hurls the wind → sailors hurl cargo (wrong solution) → Jonah says "hurl me" → sailors finally hurl Jonah (right solution). The repetition shows cause and effect, creating a sense of inevitable consequences.
Imagery & Metaphor
Descent = Death Journey
Jonah's repeated "going down" (1:3, 5) symbolizes descent into Sheol (realm of the dead). Chapter 2 confirms: "Out of the belly of Sheol I cried" (2:2)
Sea = Chaos, Death
Ancient Near Eastern symbolism: sea represents chaos, death, forces opposed to God. Being thrown into the sea = death sentence
Fish = Rescue Vehicle
Not punishment but rescue! Fish is "appointed" by God (1:17) to save Jonah from drowning. Three days = time of testing, then resurrection
Plant = God's Compassion
God "appoints" plant (4:6) to give shade—act of kindness. Its death creates object lesson about valuing comfort over people
Rhetorical Structure: The Unanswered Question
The Book's Ending — A Question, Not an Answer
Jonah 4:11 (Final verse):
"And should I not have compassion on Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"
Literary Technique: The book ends with God's rhetorical question unanswered. We never learn if Jonah changes his mind.
Effect: The question is transferred to readers. You must answer:
- Should God show mercy to nations that don't "know their right hand from their left"?
- Do I care more about my own comfort than about 120,000 souls?
- Am I more like Jonah or like the repentant Ninevites?
This is masterful storytelling—the reader becomes part of the story, forced to examine their own heart.
Contextual Awareness (Background That Clarifies the Story)
Without a commentary, you can still infer (and then confirm) key context that sharpens Jonah’s meaning.
What Context Most Changes How You Read Jonah?
🏛️ Nineveh & Assyria
Nineveh was a major Assyrian city. Assyria was feared for brutality and imperial dominance. Jonah’s reluctance reads less like stage fright and more like moral outrage + national trauma.
🗺️ Geography & Direction
Jonah runs toward Tarshish (the “edge of the world” in Israel’s imagination) instead of going northeast to Nineveh. The narrative uses direction and distance to dramatize flight from God’s mission.
⛵ Sea = Chaos
In biblical imagination, the sea often symbolizes danger/chaos. Jonah’s descent to the sea and the storm’s escalation highlight the cost of resistance to God’s calling.
🌿 The Plant (Qiqayon?)
The sudden plant, worm, and scorching wind function like a miniature parable. God uses Jonah’s emotions (comfort → grief → anger) to expose his values and expand his moral imagination.
Simple “Confirm Later” Checks
- Assyrian reputation: confirm what Israel/Judah historically feared about Assyria and how that affects Jonah’s anger at mercy.
- “Three days’ journey”: confirm whether it describes size, importance, or the time needed to traverse/visit a great city.
- Ancient repentance signals: sackcloth, fasting, ashes—confirm how these function as public, communal acts.
- Animal fasting: confirm whether this is satire, hyperbole, or a conventional way to portray total civic repentance.
What You've Discovered Through Careful Observation
📐 Structure
Chiastic design: Ch 1 & 3 parallel (divine call, pagan response), Ch 2 & 4 parallel (prayers with opposite emotions)
🔄 Patterns
Repeated words create thematic threads: "great" (14x), "evil" (9x), "fear" (7x), "down" (5x), "hurl" (5x)
👤 Characters
Ironic reversal: pagans model faith, prophet models disobedience. Jonah never changes internally.
✨ Theology
God is sovereign, merciful, pursues both prophet and pagans. Central question: should God show mercy to enemies?
🔗 Connections
Hyperlinked to Genesis 4-10 (cities of blood), Exodus 34 (God's character), 2 Kings 14 (Jonah's prior ministry)
🎨 Artistry
Hebrew wordplay (down/vows), cascading repetitions (hurl, fear), unanswered ending—reader must respond
All of this discovered without commentaries! You read the text carefully, asked good questions, tracked patterns, and let the biblical author's artistry reveal itself. Now you're ready to consult scholarly resources to confirm, correct, or deepen these observations.
Tim Mackie's Literal Translation
A word-for-word rendering showing Hebrew patterns
Example: Chapter 1, Verse 3
Literal Translation:
"And Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from before the face of Yahweh. And he went down to Joppa,
and he found a ship which was going to Tarshish. And he paid the fare, and he went down into it to go with them
to Tarshish from before the face of Yahweh."
What you see: Repetition of "Tarshish" (3x), "from before the face of Yahweh" (2x), and "down" (2x) creates emphasis through redundancy. Standard translations smooth this out—but the repetition is the point.
Access the full translation: Tim Mackie's literal translation of Jonah is available through Bible Project Classroom: Jonah . The translation is used throughout their teaching series and provided as a study resource.
Sources & Bibliography
All observations derived from Bible Project Classroom resources
Sources & Bibliography
All observations derived from Bible Project Classroom resources
Primary Source
The Bible Project
Non-profit creating free resources to help people experience the Bible as a unified story
📌 Attribution Note
This worked example is a demonstration of Bible Project Classroom methodology applied to Jonah. All structural insights, repeated word discoveries, hyperlink identifications, and theological observations originate from Tim Mackie's 27-session Jonah classroom series.
The goal of this guide is to show readers what's possible through careful observation, using Jonah as a model they can then apply to other biblical books. We strongly encourage readers to access the full Bible Project Classroom series for comprehensive teaching on these methods.
Educational Use: This resource is provided for educational purposes under fair use, with full attribution to The Bible Project and Tim Mackie. All original content and insights remain the intellectual property of their creators.
Ready to Try This Yourself?
Pick another short narrative book—Ruth, Esther, or Habakkuk—and work through the same framework. You'll be amazed what you discover when you read with eyes trained to observe.
📋 View the Full Framework Guide📚 Explore More Biblical Books
Dive Deeper with Bible Project
All observations in this guide come from Tim Mackie's comprehensive 27-session Jonah Classroom series. Watch the full teaching to see these methods demonstrated in detail.
Access Full Jonah Classroom →About Bible Project: Free biblical education resources helping people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. Their "How to Read the Bible" series teaches the literary skills demonstrated in this framework.