Tarshish
Stuart argues that תרשיש is not a
designation of a place but rather a term for the sea itself. He appeals to the
etymology of the word, which can mean ‘sea’. He cites the Targum, which renders
תרשיש as בימא (in or by the sea) in 1.3. He also appeals to Jerome, who translates
the word as ‘sea’ in his commentary on Isa. 2.16. Although Stuart’s proposal is
possible, it is problematic. If Tarshish—a known place in the HB (Isa. 23.6;
66.19; Jer. 10.9; Ezek. 27.12; 2 Chron. 9.21; 29.36, 37)—is meant to be
rendered as ‘sea’, 1.5, 9 use the common term for sea ים. This raises a question
of why the narrator would employ the usual word for sea (ים) and an unattested
term (תרשיש) to refer to sea that is otherwise used to denote a place in the HB.
It must be granted that the
identification of the exact location is difficult for readers today. Three ports
are identified as the possible destination of Jonah, Tartessus in Spain,
Carthage, and a village on the island of Sardinia. More important than the
exact location are in its ‘orientation and association’. Youngblood observes
that Tarshish is often associated geographically with the west (Gen. 12.2-5;
Isa. 23.6, 10; Pss. 48.7; 72.10), locating it in the direction opposite to
Nineveh, where Jonah had been commanded to go. Tarshish is also more than a
mere ‘geographical signifier’. It is a place that had not heard about Yahweh’s
reputation. IT will hear about or see Yahweh’s glory only in the end-days (Isa.
66.19; cf. Ps. 72.10). Thus, Jonah attempts to flee to Tarshish because he
thinks that he will be unlikely to hear a renewal of God’s call in a location
that will respond to God’s word only in the end-time. The desirability of
Tarshish as a destination may be, as Goswell argues, due to its ‘temporal
remoteness as a place where God’s revelation will not reach until the end-time’.
Jonah’s journey to Tarshish may then function as a pointed reminder to God that
(in Jonah’s opinion) God was not supposed to have mercy on Gentiles before the
appointed time. (Chanreiso Lungleng,
Jonah’s Motive in the Light of Exodus 32-34 [Hebrew Bible Monographs
117; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2025], 113-14)
