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Jon_1:3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
Ver. 3. But Jonah rose up to flee, &c.] i.e. He made haste (more haste than good speed) to disobey God. Homo est inversus decalogus. The natural man standeth across to the will of God; "being abominable, disobedient, and to every good work reprobate," Tit_1:16. Jonah was a spiritual man, and should have discerned all things, 1Co_2:15. But this spiritual man was mad, Hos_9:7 (as they that are cured of a frenzy will yet have their freaks and frantic tricks sometimes), he cast off the yoke, and turned, for the time, renagade from the Lord; who met him at half turn, and brought him back again, though by weeping cross. Of the blackbird’s dung is made the lime whereby he is taken; so here. They that would excuse Jonah, and say that he sinned not, Dei scriptis iniuriam faciunt, saith Luther, they wrong the Scriptures. The best have their infirmities; as the snow-like swan hath black legs; and as no pomegranate is without some rotten grains. David saw such volumes of corruptions, and so many erratas in all that he did, that he cries out, "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults," Psa_19:12.
To flee unto Tarshish] Tarsus, in Cilicia, St Paul’s country, Act_21:39; Act_22:3, rather than the city Tunis, in Africa, as Vatablus will have it, or the East Indies, as others. Tarshish sometimes signifieth the main ocean, as Psa_48:7 (whence some take it here for the sea), but that may be by a metonymy {a} of the adjunct; because Tarsus stood upon the ocean shore, and was a fit haven whence to hoist up sail into various countries.
From the presence of the Lord] Ab ante Domini, from the special and spiritual presence of God, wherein he had hitherto stood and ministered. For from God’s general presence, whereby he filleth all places, and is "not far from any one of us," Act_17:27 (not so far, surely, as the bark is from the tree, the skin from the flesh, or the flesh from the bones), Jonah knew he could not flee. Blind nature saw, and could say,
-- “ quascunque accesseris eras,
Sub Iove semper eris. ” --
God is a circle, said Empedocles, whose centre is everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere. Why the prophet fled many causes are assigned by interpreters: as Amor patriae, timer humanus, his fear of the Ninevites, his love to his Israelites, his conceit that it would be to little purpose to preach to heathens, since he had prevailed so little at home. The very cause was that which we find Jon_4:2, "I fled to Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God," &c., and I feared, lest I should thereupon be counted a false prophet. So much there is of self found in the best; who, when once they are got out of God’s way, they may run they know not whither, and return they know not when.
And went down to Joppa] Heb. Japho, a sea town in the tribe of Dan, Jos_19:46; distant about fifty miles from Gathhepher (Jonas’s town, 2Ki_14:25), which was in the tribe of Zabulon, towards the lake of Tiberias. Sinners are no small painstakers. There is the same Hebrew and Greek word for wickedness and toilsomeness ( òîì ðïíçñéá ). Would sinners be at the same pains for heaven that they are at for hell they could not lightly miss it.
And he found a ship going to Tarshish] They that have a mind to commit sin shall easily meet with an occasion. The tempter, who feeleth their pulses, and knoweth which way they will beat, will soon fit them a pennyworth. He hath a wedge of gold to set before Achan, a Cozbi before Zimri, Non causabitur, aptabitur. It is not to be excused or acommodated. Indeed it is the just man’s happiness that no evil shall happen to him, Pro_12:21; that is (as Mercer interpreteth it) non parabitur ei, et dabitur occasio iniquitatis, God shall cut off from him the occasions of sin, remove stumblingblocks out of his way; either not lead him into temptation or not leave him in it.
So he paid the fare thereof] Forsan ut citius navim solveret (Mercer); perhaps to make the mariners hasten the more. Jonah might better have obeyed God, and gone to Nineveh on free cost. But wit is best when it is bought, they say. How many be there who perish at their own charge, as Phocion, the Athenian, paid for the poison that despatched him.
To go with them to Tarshish from the presence, &c.] i.e. Out of God’s blessing into the world’s warm sun. All wilful sinners are renegades from the Lord; factique sunt a corde suo fugitivi, saith Tertullian, fain they would also run (if they knew how or whither) from their own consciences. But if they belong to God, conscience shall be awakened to do its office; and they shall one day say with her, "I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi? call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me," Rth_1:20-21.
{a} A figure of speech which consists in substituting for the name of a thing the name of an attribute of it or of something closely related. ŒD