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JONAH CAST INTO THE SEA.

JONAH was the fifth of the minor prophets, and various have been the opinions among the Jewish Rabbins who he was, and where born. Some imagine him to have been that son of the widow of Sarepta whom Elijah restored to life. Others maintain that he was the son of the Shunamite woman, whose child was raised from the dead by Elisha, while others again are of opinion that he was the prophet whom Elisha sent to Jehu, to anoint him king of Israel; but for none of these suppositions is there sufficient authority. He is now admitted, by Christian commentators, to have been the son of Amittai, and born in Gath-hephar, a town of Galilee, supposed to be Jotapata, celebrated for the siege maintained by Josephus the historian against the Roman army, before the destruction of Jerusalem. The Prophet Jonah was commanded by God to repair to Nineveh, and proclaim its destruction to the profligate inhabitants; but in order to avoid fulfilling the sacred appointment, either from personal diffidence or want of confidence in the divine communication, he embarked at Joppa and directed his course to Tarshish. During the passage a violent storm arising and the ship being in jeopardy, the prophet, conceiving that the Almighty indignation was directed against him on account of his shameful defection from his sacred office, desired that he might he thrown into the sea, imagining that God's anger would be diverted from the ship as soon the cause of it should be removed. The crew concurred in his proposition, " so they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights*." After his deliverance he received a second command to go to Nineveh, which city he immediately visited, and by his preaching converted the people "from the ways of Satan unto God."

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THE FALL OF NINEVEH.

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