Jonah is short: four chapters. It’s the only book about a prophet who runs away, and the only story where a whole enormous city changes its mind in a single day.
The Septuagint · Conditionals
Jonah
Zero, first, second, third and mixed conditionals: the grammar of what happens if, what would happen if, and what would have happened if, from a runaway prophet, a storm, a great fish and a city that changed its mind.
🐋 Play the story too: in the gamebook, you are Jonah.Play the gamebook →
PHILO
DEMETRIA
And there’s a fish.
The story
From the Septuagint
God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, the great city of Assyria, and warn the people that their city would be destroyed because of their wickedness. But Jonah didn’t want to go. He went down to the port of Joppa and took a ship going in the opposite direction, to Tarshish.
God sent a great storm. The sailors were terrified and threw the cargo into the sea. Jonah was asleep below deck. When they found out that he was running away from God, Jonah said, “Throw me into the sea, and the sea will become calm.” At last they did, and the storm stopped at once.
God sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, and he was inside the fish for three days and three nights. He prayed, and the fish spat him out onto dry land.
God told Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh, and this time he went. He walked through the city shouting: “In three days, Nineveh will be destroyed!” (In the Greek of the Septuagint, it is three days; in the Hebrew, forty.) And the people believed him. From the king to the smallest child, they stopped their evil ways and fasted. So God had mercy, and the city was not destroyed.
Jonah was angry. He sat outside the city in the heat, and God made a plant grow to give him shade. The next day, the plant died, and Jonah was angry about that too. “You are sorry about a plant,” said God, “which you didn’t even make grow. Shouldn’t I be sorry about a great city, with more than a hundred and twenty thousand people in it?”
The book of Jonah, as it is read in the Greek of the Septuagint.
Zero and first conditionals: real situations
SOPHIA
Jonah says: “If you throw me into the sea, the sea will become calm.” That’s the first conditional: if + present simple, will + verb, for a real possibility in the future.
PHILO
And the zero conditional, for things that are always true: If you run from God, the sea follows you. My teacher’s favourite.
Second conditional: imaginary now
MARCOS
If I were Jonah, I would go to Nineveh straight away. A fish? No thank you.
SOPHIA
The second conditional: if + past simple, would + verb, for an imaginary situation now or in the future. Note If I were: careful English uses were for every person.
Third conditional: imaginary past
DEMETRIA
If Jonah had gone to Nineveh the first time, he wouldn’t have been swallowed.
SOPHIA
The third conditional: if + past perfect, would have + past participle, for a past that didn’t happen. It is the grammar of regret, and of what might have been.
Mixed conditionals: a past cause, a present result
PHILO
If the people of Nineveh hadn’t changed their ways, their city wouldn’t be standing today.
SOPHIA
A mixed conditional: a past condition (had changed) with a present result (would be). Or the other way round: If Jonah were a kinder man, he would have been glad.
Unless, provided that, as long as
THE CLERK
Nineveh will be destroyed unless… the people change? Unless they don’t change?
SOPHIA
Unless means if… not: Nineveh will be destroyed unless the people change (= if they don’t change). Don’t put another not in. And provided that / as long as mean only if.
Sophia’s summary
| Form | Use | From the fable |
|---|---|---|
| zero: if + present, present | always true | If you heat water, it boils. |
| first: if + present, will + verb | a real future possibility | If you throw me in, the sea will be calm. |
| second: if + past, would + verb | imaginary now / future | If I were Jonah, I would go. |
| third: if + past perfect, would have + pp | imaginary past | If he had gone, he wouldn’t have been swallowed. |
| mixed: if + past perfect, would + verb | past cause, present result | If they hadn’t changed, the city wouldn’t be standing. |
| unless | if… not | It will be destroyed unless they change. |
Practice
Answer all the questions, then press “Check my answers”. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Choose the best form
Choose the form that fits best.
1. If you throw me into the sea, the storm ___.
2. If I ___ Jonah, I would go to Nineveh at once.
3. If Jonah had obeyed, he ___ swallowed by the fish.
4. Nineveh will be destroyed ___ the people change.
5. If the people hadn’t listened, the city ___ standing today.
6. If you ___ in the sun all day, you get a headache.
B · Complete the sentence
Write the missing verb forms.
7. If the sailors Jonah into the sea, they would all have drowned. (not throw)
8. If I were a sailor, I the cargo into the sea too. (throw)
9. The city will be safe as long as the people their ways. (change)
10. If Jonah kinder, he would have been glad. (be)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
11. “If Jonah would have gone to Nineveh, he wouldn’t have been swallowed.”
12. “Unless the people change, the city will be destroyed.”
13. “If I was you, I would listen to the prophet.”
Now be Jonah yourself. Will you go to Nineveh, or to Tarshish?Play the gamebook →