In the last three issues, we have looked at the use of: 1 irony, 2 hyperbole and 3 reversal. In this fourth installment of our four-part series, we look at 4 wordplay.
What is a “bank”? Is it the land beside a river? The act of tilting a vehicle or roadway to the side as it turns? A financial institution? Yes, depending. It’s ambiguous until you know the context. Now, if I say I wanted to make some money from my riverboat so I drove it into the bank, I have exploited the ambiguity in meaning to make a (lame) joke. In a similar (but more sophisticated) way, the author of Jonah plays with words for effect.
There is a lot of going up/going down, standing up/sitting down, picking up/casting down in the first half of Jonah. The wickedness of the Ninevites has “risen” up to God, so Jonah is told to “get up” and go there (Jonah 1:2). Instead, he “goes down” to Joppa, then further down into the ship (Jonah 1:3), and further still into the ship’s hold (Jonah 1:5). Each time, the author uses the verb ???(yarad) to connect the three actions into a single act. Even the word used for Jonah’s deep sleep in Jonah 1:5 (?????, vayeradam), though derived from a completely different word, sounds like yarad. It connects Jonah’s slumber to his overall descent into disobedience. Later, he’s cast into the depths of the sea. The point is: Things ascend toward God and descend away from Him.
