Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
(subdued by God).
•A city in the low country of Judah, (Joshua 15:38) named next to Lachish.
•“God-subdued,” the title given by Amaziah to the cliff (Authorized Version Selah)—the stronghold
of the Edomites— after he had captured it from them. (2 Kings 14:7) The parallel narrative of (2
Chronicles 25:11-13) supplies fuller details.
Jona
(a dove) (Greek form of Jonah), the father of the apostle Peter, (John 1:42) who is hence
addressed as Simon Barjona (i.e. son of Jona) in (Matthew 16:17)
Jonadab
(whom Jehovah impels).
•Son of Shimeah and nephew of David. (B.C. 1033.) He is described as “very subtle.” (2 Samuel
13:3) His age naturally made him the friend of his cousin Amnon, heir to the throne. (2 Samuel
13:3) He gave him the fatal advice for ensnaring his sister Tamar. ch (2 Samuel 13:5,6) Again,
when, in a later stage of the same tragedy, Amnon was murdered by Absalom, and the exaggerated
report reached David that all the princes were slaughtered, Jonadab was already aware of the real
state of the case. (2 Samuel 13:32,33)
•(Jeremiah 35:6,8,10,14,16,18,19) [Jehonadab]
Jonah
(dove), the fifth of the minor prophets, was the son of Amittai, and a native of Gath-hepher. (2
Kings 14:25) He flourished in or before the reign of Jeroboam II., about B.C. 820. Having already,
as it seems, prophesied to Israel, he was sent to Nineveh. The time was one of political revival in
Israel; but ere long the Assyrians were to be employed by God as a scourge upon them. The prophet
shrank from a commission which he felt sure would result, (Jonah 4:2) in the sparing of a hostile
city. He attempted therefore to escape to Tarshish. The providence of God, however, watched over
him, first in a storm, and then in his being swallowed by a large fish (a sea monster, probably the
white shark) for the space of three days and three nights. [On this subject see article Whale] After
his deliverance, Jonah executed his commission; and the king, “believing him to be a minister form
the supreme deity of the nation,” and having heard of his miraculous deliverance, ordered a general
fast, and averted the threatened judgment. But the prophet, not from personal but national feelings,
grudged the mercy shown to a heathen nation. He was therefore taught by the significant lesson of
the “gourd,” whose growth and decay brought the truth at once home to him, that he was sent to
testify by deed, as other prophets would afterward testify by word, the capacity of Gentiles for
salvation, and the design of God to make them partakers of it. This was “the sign of the prophet
Jonas.” (Luke 11:29,30) But the resurrection of Christ itself was also shadowed forth in the history
of the prophet. (Matthew 12:39,41; 16:4) The mission of Jonah was highly symbolical. The facts
contained a concealed prophecy. The old tradition made the burial-place of Jonah to be Gath-hepher;
the modern tradition places it at Nebi-Yunus, opposite Mosul.
Jonam
(gift or grace of God), the form given to Jonan in the Revised Version of (Luke 3:30)
Jonan
(perhaps a contraction of Johnana, gift or grace of God), son of Eliakim, in the genealogy of
Christ. (Luke 3:30) (B.C. before 876.)
Jonas
(a dove).
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William Smith