SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:17
Mas el SEÑOR había aparejado un gran pez que tragase a Jonás; y estuvo Jonás en el vientre del pez tres días y tres noches.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Jonah 1:17
Verse 17. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish] lwdg gd dag gadol. This could not have been a whale, for the throat of that animal can scarcely admit a man's leg; but it might have been a shark, which abounds in the Mediterranean, and whose mouth and stomach are exceedingly capacious.
In several cases they have been known to swallow a man when thrown overboard. See the note on Matt. xii. 40, where the whole subject of this verse is considered at large. That days and nights do not, among the Hebrews, signify complete days and nights of twenty-four hours, see Esth. iv. 16, compared with chap. v. 1; Judg. xiv. 17, 18. Our Lord lay in the grave one natural day, and part of two others; and it is most likely that this was the precise time that Jonah was in the fish's belly.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 17. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah , etc.] Not from the creation of the world, as say the Jews f39 ; for this is to be understood, not of the formation or making of it; but of the ordering and disposition of it by the providence of God to be near the ship, and its mouth open to receive Jonah, as soon as he was cast forth from thence: and a great one it must be, to take him at once into its mouth, and swallow him down its throat, and retain him whole in its belly; and such great fishes there are in the sea, particularly the “carcharias”, or dog fish; the same with Triton’s dog, said to swallow Hercules, in which he was three days; and which fable perhaps took its rise from hence. In ( Matthew 12:40), it is said to be a “whale”; but then that must be understood, not as the proper name of a fish, but as common to all great fishes; otherwise the whale, properly so called, it is said, has not a swallow large enough to take down a man; though some deny this, and assert they are capable of it. Of the “balaena”, which is one kind of whale, it is reported f40 , that when it apprehends its young ones in danger, will take them, and hide them within itself; and then afterwards throw them out again; and certain it is that the whale is a very great fish, if not the greatest. Pliny speaks of whales six hundred feet long, and three hundred and sixty broad; and of the bones of a fish, which were brought to Rome from Joppa, and there shown as a miracle, which were forty feet long; and said to be the bones of the monstrous fish to which Andromede at Joppa was exposed f42 ; which story seems to be hammered out of this history of Jonah; and the same is reported by Solinus f43 ; however, it is out of doubt that there are fishes capable of swallowing a man. Nierembergius speaks of a fish taken near Valencia in Spain, so large that a man on horseback could stand in its mouth; the cavity of the, brain held seven men; its jaw bones, which were kept in the Escurial, were seventeen feet long; and two carcasses were found in its stomach: he says it was called “piscis mularis”; but some learned men took it to be the dog fish before mentioned; and such a large devouring creature is the shark, of which the present bishop of Bergen f45 , and others, interpret this fish here; in which sometimes has been found the body of a man, and even of a man in armour, as many writers have observed. Some think it was a crocodile, which, though a river fish, yet, for the most part, is at the entrance of rivers, and sometimes goes into the sea many miles, and is capable of swallowing a man; some are above thirty feet long; and in the belly of one of them, in the Indies, was found a woman with all her clothes on f48 : and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights : that is, one whole natural day, consisting of twenty four hours, and part of two others; the Jews having no other way of expressing a natural day but by day and night; and to this the antitype answers; namely, our Lord’s being so long in the grave; of whose death, burial, and resurrection, this was a type, as appears from ( Matthew 12:40); for which reason Jonah was so miraculously preserved; and a miracle it was that he should not in this time be digested in the stomach of the creature; that he was not suffocated in it, but breathed and lived; and that he was able to bear the stench of the creature’s maw; and that he should have his senses, and be in such a frame of mind as both to pray and praise; but what is it that the power of God cannot do? Here some begin the second chapter, and not amiss.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 13-17 - The mariners rowed against wind and tide, the wind of God' displeasure, the tide of his counsel; but it is in vain to think of saving ourselves any other way than by destroying our sins. Eve natural conscience cannot but dread blood-guiltiness. And when we ar led by Providence God does what he pleases, and we ought to be satisfied, though it may not please us. Throwing Jonah into the sea pu an end to the storm. God will not afflict for ever, He will onl contend till we submit and turn from our sins. Surely these heathe mariners will rise up in judgment against many called Christians, wh neither offer prayers when in distress, nor thanksgiving for signa deliverances. The Lord commands all creatures, and can make any of the serve his designs of mercy to his people. Let us see this salvation of the Lord, and admire his power, that he could thus save a drowning man and his pity, that he would thus save one who was running from him, an had offended him. It was of the Lord's mercies that Jonah was no consumed. Jonah was alive in the fish three days and nights: to natur this was impossible, but to the God of nature all things are possible Jonah, by this miraculous preservation, was made a type of Christ; a our blessed Lord himself declared, Mt 12:40 __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
וימן 4487 יהוה 3068 דג 1709 גדול 1419 לבלע 1104 את 853 יונה 3124 ויהי 1961 יונה 3124 במעי 4578 הדג 1709 שׁלשׁה 7969 ימים 3117 ושׁלשׁה 7969 לילות׃ 3915
