ANIMALS IN THE BOOK OF JONAH

“And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”

                                      ~ Jonah 4:11

               I’ve been wanting to write about the Book of Jonah for some time now, and it is fitting that I am finally able to do so during the season of Lent.  Jonah’s story is deceptively simple, and with its action and adventure and animals and (some would say) fanciful elements, it is a favorite for teaching children.  Once we begin to dig into the story, however, we find that it is a profound story of faith, repentance, forgiveness, and the limitless nature of God’s love and care for all that He has made.  No wonder it is a staple of Jewish services on Yom Kipper, the Day of Atonement, perhaps the holiest day of the Jewish year. 

               Most of us remember the “whale” (which is never called a whale in scripture, but is identified in scripture as a “great fish”), but the Book of Jonah, not unlike the city of Nineveh, is filled with many animals.  (For brevity, this post assumes familiarity with the story.  The book is only four chapters long, however, and is worth re-reading. )  The great fish is provided by God to save Jonah; the fish returns Jonah to the dry land in faithful response to the word of God (in contrast to Jonah’s unfaithful response to God’s call); the animals in the city of Nineveh participate in the fast and wear sackcloth; they are called upon by the king to cry mightily to God and to turn from their ways; a worm follows God’s instructions to remove Jonah’s shady vine, and the animals of the city are expressly identified as creatures of God’s concern in the closing words of the book.              

               The story of Jonah is impossible without the animals.  They move the action; from scene to scene the animals are there, doing God’s work, crying out to the Lord, receiving His mercy.  They also underscore some of the central themes of the book, including faith, repentance, and the all-encompassing love of God.  They deserve, but rarely receive, our thoughtful attention.

               One of the central themes of the Book of Jonah is that God’s mercy and compassion cannot be confined.  God loves people – and nations – we don’t want Him to love.  Jonah did not want to go Nineveh to preach because Jonah did not want God to forgive the city (various reasons for this have been suggested by the commentaries).  This story teaches us we cannot control God’s forgiveness to suit our own purposes and we cannot box God’s love in to our families, our tribe, our nation – or our species.  The animals are right there with the pagans, repenting and being forgiven and receiving mercy.  Jonah may not want the human inhabitants to receive that mercy, in part perhaps because their repentance would reflect poorly on Israel’s lack of repentance.[1]  We may not want to notice or talk about God’s compassion for the cattle and other animals in the city in part because it reflects poorly on our own lack of compassion for the same kinds of animals.  But God’s compassion extends further than ours, even to our enemies and our animals. 

Another lesson is that God is in relationship with the animals.  He appoints the animals to tasks and they fulfill them; He speaks to the animals and they obey.  Michael J. Gilmore, in Eden’s Other Residents, looks at places in scripture where humans, God, and animals interact.  Of the Jonah story, he says that God uses the fish, not only to save Jonah from the sea, but as the place where Jonah could at last come to terms with God’s word: “In effect, God ‘speaks’ to his human prophet through the fish and the consequences are enormous.  God speaks to Nineveh’s many residents, animals among them, in consequence of this triadic encounter.  We often refer to Jonah as a reluctant prophet, but perhaps we ought to shift our emphasis and acknowledge the great fish as a willing and obedient one” (p. 7).

Regarding the animals of Nineveh joining in the fast, Gilmour says, “This is a remarkable example of humans and animals engaging their creator together.”  Quoting Richard Bauckham, he argues that the Israelites were intended to take this mutual repentance seriously.  “These animals were part of the human world and shared, to some extent at least, its relationship with God” (p. 131).  David Clough makes a similar point in On Animals, Vol. I: Systematic Theology, noting that animals in the Book of Jonah share with humans in responding to God’s word and enjoying God’s blessing (p. 38).  Jonah tells us that animals share with us a creaturely existence in relationship with and in response to God.  Indeed, Jonah tells us that sometimes the animals are more faithful than humans and that we have something to learn from them.

Yet another lesson is that God cares about what happens to animals, and he cares when they suffer due to our bad behavior.  Even more traditional commentaries (that is, those not specifically focused on animal theology) must acknowledge that this story requires us to take seriously God’s care and concern for animals, although they seem to do so reluctantly, in a context that suggests the animals are merely automatons, responding without choice to God’s call, or are included in the story to achieve human ends, or are provided as much for comic relief as for any other purpose. 

Phyllis Tribble, for example, in her explication of the Book of Jonah in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Vol. V, states, “Yahweh controls the fish” (p. 647).  The text, however, suggests something different.  The scripture says that God “provided” a fish to swallow Jonah and that “the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land” (1:17, 2:10).  While the first may suggest a passive relationship, the second suggests a relationship of call and response.  Tribble does go on to address the “ecology” of Jonah in some detail, and there acknowledges that the king of Nineveh, who includes the animals in the call to repentance, treats the animals “on a par with human beings.  The intent is not ridicule, but respect, not parody, but pathos. Nineveh cares for its animals” (p. 647).  Addressing the final passage of the book, she says, “in issues of life and death, the animals of Nineveh matter alongside the people.  On this strong ecological note, the book ends” (p. 648).  It is not clear whether Tribble believes the animals matter simply because they are part of an ecosystem or whether she recognizes them as sentient beings who matter in and of themselves.  But she does acknowledge, and even emphasize, the value of these creatures to God. 

Ancient Nineveh

The New Oxford Annotated Bible clearly groups the fish with the wind, the sea, and the plant in addressing the “ecology” of the Book of Jonah, noting that all these elements are “obedient agents of God’s purpose” (p. 1322 Hebrew Bible).  Because the animals are lumped with non-sentient parts of creation, presumably the suggestion is that they passively obedient, not active agents.  The notes also suggest that the inclusion of the animals in the city’s repentance is “intentionally humorous,” but acknowledges that this part of the story “makes a serious point: Mercy is not restricted to God’s human creations” (p. 1324 Hebrew Bible).

Some Jewish commentaries suggest the animals are included only because of impact on humans.  The animals were to fast so as to cause their owners more grief and the royal animals were to wear sackcloth because it would bring greater humility to the king.  The Twelve Prophets: Jonah, p. 126.  But, others acknowledge the animals as valuable in themselves: “Harav David Feinstein points out that God’s compassion extends to all His creatures.  As God said in silencing the angels who wished to sing His praises after the Egyptians drowned in the Sea of Reeds: ‘My handiwork is drowning in the sea and you presume to sing praise?” (The Twelve Prophets: Jonah, p. 141), and speaking of the animals in the city who were spared: “Certainly they were innocent and deserving of compassion” (p. 143).

The Book of Jonah has a great deal to teach us about obedience to God’s call, trust in God’s word, repentance, second chances, and the all-encompassing breadth of God’s love.  Let us, in this Lenten season, reflect on what Jonah teaches us about the love of God for his creatures, the animals, and let us learn from the inhabitants of Nineveh the meaning of repentance.  Then, let us use these lessons to repent for our lack of compassion and our failure to value God's other creatures as He does.    

---

[1] See The Twelve Prophets: Jonah, A New Translation With Commentary Anthologized From Talmudic, Midrashic, and Rabbinic Sources, Rabbis Nosson Scherman/Meir Zlotowitz, General Editors.  Artscroll Tenach Series.  Mesorah Publications, Ltd., 1994.