Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
flee--Jonah's motive for flight is hinted at in Jonah 4:2 : fear that after venturing on such a dangerous commission to so powerful a heathen city, his prophetical threats should be set aside by God's "repenting of the evil," just as God had so long spared Israel notwithstanding so many provocations, and so he should seem a false prophet. Besides, he may have felt it beneath him to discharge a commission to a foreign idolatrous nation, whose destruction he desired rather than their repentance. This is the only case of a prophet, charged with a prophetical message, concealing it.
from the presence of the Lord--(Compare Genesis 4:16). Jonah thought in fleeing from the land of Israel, where Jehovah was peculiarly present, that he should escape from Jehovah's prophecy-inspiring influence. He probably knew the truth stated in Psalms 139:7-10, but virtually ignored it (compare Genesis 3:8-10; Jeremiah 23:24).
went down--appropriate in going from land to the sea (Psalms 107:23).
Joppa--now Jaffa, in the region of Dan; a harbor as early as Solomon's time (2 Chronicles 2:16).
Tarshish--Tartessus in Spain; in the farthest west at the greatest distance from Nineveh in the east.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
1 Kings 10:22
Jeremiah 1:6
Jeremiah 17:16
Jonah 2:4
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