What Does Jonah Mean?

Jonah is the hesitant Biblical prophet whose story is mentioned in the book of Jonah in the Old Testament. In the book of Jonah, we can read about God mentioning the prophet Jonah to go to the east from Israel to Assyria to prophesy against the wickedness in the city of Nineveh. Jonah does not believe that the city and its people deserve salvation and so sails away in ship in the opposite direction, in defiance to God's order.

In the ship, the crew encounters a lashing storm and Jonah realizes his fault. He asks his crew to throw him overboard. A fish swallows him alive and Jonah prays for deliverance. The fish spews him out on land after three days. Acknowledging his mistake, Jonah obeys God and goes to Nineveh to foretell the disaster. The people in the evil city repent and ask for forgiveness. God who first wanted to destroy the city decides against it after seeing the repentance of people. The book of Jonah ends with Jonah arguing with God about the sparing of lives of people in Nineveh.

Jonah in Hebrew means "a big fish." Jonah was born in circa 800 BC and died in circa 740 BC. The Second Testament also makes a mention of Jonah when Jesus talks about him in the chapters of Matthew and Luke. The Islamic scriptures regard Jonah as the prophet Yunus in the Koran.

Jonah means long. Referring to Jonah Cardeli Falcon. (look him up) [go to images] LMFAO!He is a great man and inspires all of us to be larger then life!