Jonah 1

Let us first endeavor in our minds to remove all the senseless embellishments added to this very popular story. The Lord created a period of widespread major instability across the entire Middle East during the reign of David, which was very favorable to Israel. When the kingdom was split between Rehoboam and Jeroboam, the Assyrians had already arisen from that period of chaos as the biggest imperial power in the region. While there were plenty of other actors involved, the Assyrian domination led to significant losses in territory for both Judah and Israel. However, very quickly Assyria’s internal moral rot was taking its toll. It’s not as if the Laws of Noah were unknown to the scholars of the Mesopotamian Valley, but even competing religious traditions condemned the moral depravity of Assyria. In the Courts of Jehovah, the case against Assyria was compelling, and He was about ready to unleash His wrath on her.
With Israel having already sent delegations with tribute to Assyria in the past, her capital at Nineveh was well known to the Hebrew people, at least from the reports of her emissaries. Jonah knew Assyria was in decline, and was earnestly hoping to hear news of some grievous destruction striking Nineveh. The Lord decided He still had use for Assyria, and commanded Jonah to go and prophesy to them. It is quite probable the Lord intended Jonah join the next tribute mission traveling there. Since only the Nation of Israel was under Moses, Jonah would have preached a repentance under the Covenant of Noah, already part of the cultural lore of Assyria, if not in name, then in substance. Jonah refused this mission.
From wherever he was, likely near his home town of Gath-hepher, he hiked a considerable distance, not less than some three days’ journey, to the port city of Joppa. Given the Hebrews were not a seafaring people, Jonah took passage on a ship crewed by men from several other nations. Their destination was somewhere far away to the west. The name “Tarshish” is highly ambiguous, but what we do know is the name meant pretty far away. It was also in the opposite direction of Nineveh.
Jonah went down and slept in the lower deck against the hull, with the cargo. The Lord sent a stormy wind. The pagan sailors regarded it a duty of all aboard to pray to their deities of choice to save the ship. Meanwhile, they tossed all the cargo overboard and found Jonah sleeping in the bottom. Jonah was ordered to add his prayers to theirs, hoping one of the souls on board would appease whomever was causing the storm. As a part of their common rituals, they cast lots to see if anyone needed to confess some sin, and perhaps which god would deserve their joint attention. God being in charge, He ensured the lot fell to Jonah. Their questions were typical of their assumptions about such things. Jonah answered his God was Jehovah, maker of all things.
You’ll notice they didn’t get into a dispute about whether such audacious claims of Jonah’s God were accurate, because holding competing claims of this sort in tension was a part of their intellectual background. Rather, it was more a warning how serious was the threat to them, since they had surely heard about the Exodus and Conquest. As the only one who served Jehovah, Jonah would surely know what was necessary to appease Him. There was no escape, and Jonah told them to toss him overboard. They weren’t happy with that idea, and in their delay things got much worse. So they took him at his word and prayed Jehovah would hold them innocent of sin in this matter. As soon as Jonah was in the water, everything calmed down, and they all added Jehovah to their personal pantheon of gods which must be taken seriously.
The Hebrew culture paid only the faintest attention to seafaring matters. Thus, the terminology is, at best, imprecise when it already tends to symbolism in the first place. Something big swimming in the water swallowed Jonah. Somehow, he survived in that state for several days. The narrative gives us no clue what mechanism God might have used for this miracle, only that God was not through with Jonah, as His chosen instrument to give Assyria a little more time.