Commentary on Jonah

Ambrose of Milan (340–397)

From my mother's womb you are my God; for I have been placed in the womb by you and have never departed from it. Like Jonah, who was placed in the belly of the whale, I was interceding for the people. And he truly was with God in his mother's womb, as it is written: 'Before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste' (Isaiah 7:16).

Jonah did not escape the sea by the power of his birth, but by the hidden divine command he was thrown overboard, and a whale received him, vomited him out after three days as a sign of future mystery, and reserved him by the merit of prophetic grace.

If what the Apostle has said is not enough, let them hear the Prophet saying, I chastened myself with fasting. He therefore who fasts not is uncovered and naked and exposed to wounds. And if Adam had clothed himself with fasting he would not have been found to be naked. Nineveh delivered itself from death by fasting. And the Lord Himself says, This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

See also

• More works by Ambrose of Milan

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