JAFFA, THE ANCIENT JOPPA, LOOKING FROM THE SEA.
From a photograph belonging to Dr. W. J. Moulton and used by his kind permission.
The city did not look just like this when Jonah came down to its wharfs to escape from the command of the Lord. But it was a great seaport, bustling with commerce in the days when the prophet found a "ship" (about as large probably as a good-sized modern fishing boat) bound to Tarshish, and "paid his fare" and took passage. Jaffa has the only inside harbor between Egypt and Mount Carmel. At best the space for shipping is very small. The entrance is very narrow and in high seas very dangerous to enter.
So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased its raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows. And the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. And he said,--
"I called by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord,
And he answered me;
Out of the belly of hell cried I,
And thou heardest my voice.
For thou didst cast me into the depth, in the heart of the seas,
And the flood was round about me;
All thy waves and thy billows passed over me.
And I said, I am cast out from before thine eyes;
Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
The waters compassed me about, even to the soul;
The deep was round about me;
The weeds were wrapped about my head.
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains;
The earth with her bars closed upon me for ever:
Yet hast thou brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord:
And my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
They that regard lying vanities
Forsake their own mercy.
But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay that which I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord."
And the Lord spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee."