Jonahיונה
In the Bible
The prophet Jonah (יונה) — first attested in 2 Ki 14:25.
ה֗וּא הֵשִׁיב֙ אֶת־גְּב֣וּל יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מִלְּב֥וֹא חֲמָ֖ת עַד־יָ֣ם הָעֲרָבָ֑ה כִּדְבַ֤ר יְהֹוָה֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֲשֶׁ֣ר דִּבֶּ֗ר בְּיַד־עַבְדּ֞וֹ יוֹנָ֤ה בֶן־אֲמִתַּי֙ הַנָּבִ֔יא אֲשֶׁ֖ר מִגַּ֥ת הַחֵֽפֶר׃
It was he who restored the territory of Israel from Lebo-hamath to the sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the promise that the E<small>TERNAL</small>, the God of Israel, had made through God’s servant, the prophet Jonah son of Amittai from Gath-hepher.
Gematria & sigil
The consonantal gematria of Jonah (יונה) and its sigil traced on the Lo Shu (Saturn 3×3) by the Aiq-Bekar digital-root method: each letter's value reduces to 1–9, those cells are joined in order — the trace is the sigil.
| Letter | Value | Aiq Bekar |
|---|---|---|
| י | 10 | 1 |
| ו | 6 | 6 |
| ן | 50 | 5 |
| ה | 5 | 5 |
| Total | 71 | 8 |
Stellar letters
The 4-consonant name needs its 4 distinct simple-letters to be occupied in the sky. The 7 classical bodies open a sign → its Hebrew simple letter; this name reads only when the planets sit in exactly these signs.
Readable on these rare conjunctions
Jonah appears in the stellar reading on 0 of the 12 dated rare conjunctions (proofs.json). Its required simple letters are never all occupied together on these 12 dates — a multi-letter name is rarer than a single-letter one. Open any date in the Reader to inspect that sky.
No readable date among the 12 — this name needs more simultaneous simple letters than any of these conjunctions occupy.
Description
Jonah or Jonas was a Jewish prophet from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, one of the minor prophets, which details his reluctance in delivering the judgment of God to the city of Nineveh in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. After he is swallowed by a large sea creature and then released, he returns to the divine mission.
Facts
| Born | 9th century BCE, Gath-hepher, Kingdom of Israel |
| Died | 8th century BCE |
| Venerated in | Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baháʼí Faith, Rastafari |
| Major shrine | Tomb of Jonah (destroyed), Mosul, Iraq |
| Father | Amittai |
| Feast | 21 September (Catholicism) |
Life & work in brief
Summarised by section — one row per topic, for fast reading.
| Topic | Summary |
|---|---|
| Book of Jonah | Jonah is the central character in the Book of Jonah, in which God commands him to go to the city of Nineveh to prophesy against it "for their great wickedness is come up before me", but Jonah instead attempts to flee from "the presence of the Lord" by going to Jaffa (sometimes transliterated as Joppa or Joppe). |
| Religious views | The Book of Jonah (Hebrew: יונה, Yonah) is one of the twelve minor prophets included in the Hebrew Bible. |
| Scholarly interpretations | The story of a man surviving after being swallowed by a whale or giant fish is classified in the catalogue of folktale types as ATU 1889G. |
| The fish | Though art and culture often depicts Jonah's fish as a whale, the Hebrew text, as throughout scripture, refers to no marine species in particular, simply saying "great fish" or "big fish". |
| Cultural influence | In Turkish, "Jonah's fish" (yunus balığı) is the term used for dolphins. |
| Suggested connections to legends | Joseph Campbell suggests that the story of Jonah parallels a scene from the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which Gilgamesh obtains a plant from the bottom of the sea. |
Prophecies
Key prophetic utterances and visions attributed to Jonah, with sources.
| Prophecy / vision | Source |
|---|---|
| Yet forty days and Nineveh is overthrown | Jonah 3:4 |
| Three days and three nights in the belly of the fish | Jonah 1:17 |
| God relents from disaster; should I not pity Nineveh? | Jonah 4:11 |
| The fish swallows Yunus (Jonah); he cries in the darkness: none but You — We save him | Quran 21:87-88; 37:142 |
| Had he not been of those who glorify God, he would have tarried in its belly till the Day | Quran 37:143-144 |