The Hyperlinked Bible
Intertextuality Pair
Quotation
Later text
Jonah 4:2BSB
So he prayed to the LORD, saying, "O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.
Earlier text
Exodus 34:6BSB
Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: "The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,
Jonah 4:2 reproduces (in the Joel-form recension) the Sinai self-revelation of Exodus 34:6, reproducing the divine attribute formula: אֵל חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב־חֶסֶד (El channun werachum erekh appayim werav-chesed, "a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion"). Remarkably, Jonah deploys this foundational creed not as praise but as complaint—he fled to Tarshish precisely because he knew Yahweh's character would lead Him to spare Nineveh. Where Exodus 34:6 presents these attributes as grounds for worship and covenant renewal after the golden calf, Jonah treats them as grounds for resentment when extended to pagan enemies. Jonah reproduces the shared attribute-formula recension also found in Joel 2:13 — the order of the first two attributes reversed against Exodus 34:6 (חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם for רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן, a Seidel's-law inversion), אֱמֶת ("faithfulness") omitted, and וְנִחָם עַל־הָרָעָה (wenicham al-hara'ah, "One who relents from sending disaster") appended — making explicit what Exodus 34:6 implies (see the Attribute-Formula Anchor Text). The irony is devastating: the prophet who knows God's character best is the one most offended by its universal application.