I - Jonah and Psalm 1, a tree for life

The Book of Jonah never disappoints. Out of its numerous oddities, let's take the motif of the kikayon of the fourth chapter. The קִיקָיוֹן, kikayon, is a plant-tree that God appoints, in another move to push Jonah to conversion (that is accepting God's mercy over Nineveh). It is usually interpreted as a castor-oil tree or a gourd-tree, thick enough to provide a solid shade without having the strength or the magnificence of other famous trees of the biblical world. We will see that it constitutes an image designed by God to express a judgement over the attitude of the prophet Jonah.

First, let’s review the elements that articulate the sequence :

• Nineveh is saved thanks to Jonah. In conformity to his constant attitude in the book, he complains about God's merciful attitude towards Nineveh, and asks God to be "suicided" (as he did in the boat of chapter 1).

• He installs himself not East of Eden, but East of Nineveh. He protects himself with a booth or a tent 1. It must have been very hot, watching for days the city ever escaping from the destruction he is so longing for.

• God designs a kikayon. Another pedagogical move from this difficult and playful Master.

• Jonah is very, very happy 2 because of the sheltering quality of it (unanimous interpretation), but maybe also in reason of its esthetic quality, or its supernatural growth. He seems to have forgotten his worries, maybe because he is given an element of personal benefice for his successful mission - saving one of the worst enemies of Israel ever 3. One thing is clear, Jonah has difficulty finding nuances in his expressions of sadness or joy.

• God destroys the kikayon, a manifestation of His strange pedagogy.

• Jonah is very, very upset. Again.

• God engages a short exchange that can be described at best as a conflict resolution attempt of a father to a son prone to temper tantrums.

Everything in this sequence is surprising and provocative, but let's for now concentrate on the figure of the kikayon. It is certainly an image of Jonah himself. Trees as an ideal image of man - particularly the צַדִּיק , the righteous - abound in the Bible. The very first Psalm is a suggestive text to be read simultaneously next to Jonah, for two reasons. First, the psalm gives quite some elements about the tree's biology. Second, if the psalm saturates the opposition between וְחַטָּאִים, sinners, and רְשָׁעִים, wicked, on one side, and צַדִּיקִֽים, righteous, on the other, it emphasizes the manifestation of happiness (1:1 אַשְֽׁרֵי־הָאִישׁ, happy/blessed is the man), of joy and pleasure (1:2  חֶפְצוֹ, his delight). We know how Jonah is an unhappy person in the Book, even prone to suicidal tendencies.

Here is the text describing the happy tree-man (Psalm 1:3) :

וְֽהָיָה כְּעֵץ שָׁתוּל עַֽל־פַּלְגֵי מָיִם אֲשֶׁר פִּרְיוֹ ׀ יִתֵּן בְּעִתּוֹ וְעָלֵהוּ לֹֽא־יִבּוֹל וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר־יַעֲשֶׂה יַצְלִֽיחַ׃

He is like la tree transplanted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. On all that he does, he prospers.

The kikayon of Jonah appears like an opposite image of the tree of the Psalm :

• This tree is clearly a solid tree (a cedar, an oak, a palm-tree…); the kikayon is more a big bush or a small tree.

• This tree is שָׁתוּל, transplanted : planted and rooted with care and dedication. The kikayon is appointed, thrown like a magic bean 4, like the chaff that the wind blows away (Psalm 1:4) 5.

• This tree is planted by streams of water, the sources of life. The kikayon is probably planted in a very dry place, even separated from the river Tigris by the city of Nineveh itself 6.

• This tree has a fruit, expected in time. The kikayon cannot yield "its fruit in its season", because of the discrepancy between the most intimate wish of Jonah (to see the destruction of Nineveh before it destroys Israel) and the long-ranging justice of God (Nineveh destroyed long after the passing of Jonah, and after the destruction of Israel).

• This tree is evergreen; the kikayon is fragile, and so is the shadow that it can provide.

• This tree represents someone who A- acts and B- prospers. Jonah, on the contrary, perceived no fruit for his successful world-class missions, and stopped acting, placing himself in the passive attitude of the כַּמֹּץ אֲֽשֶׁר־תִּדְּפֶנּוּ רֽוּחַ, chaff that the wind drives away (Psalm 1:4).

The kikayon is the antithesis of the tree that can best symbolize the righteous and therefore happy person. Given the periods of composition, it is impossible that the redactor of Jonah could ignore the biblical symbolism of the tree; he maybe even knew what we now have as the fist Psalm. We have now to close this parallel reading, to a harsh judgement : Jonah, although a prophet, is not a righteous, and therefore is unhappy. God sends him the kikayon to detail what can be changed in his attitude to set himself on the way to the golden standard of human rightfulness 7. The tree of the Psalm 1 is what we can best describe as the Tree of Life 8, the kikayon as the way of Jonah is a tree of death (Psalm 1:6 וְדֶרֶךְ רְשָׁעִים תֹּאבֵֽד, but the way of the wicked will perish). The network of images gives a brutal judgement thankfully softened by the warmer, somewhat fatherly tone of God’s disapproval : הַהֵיטֵב חָרָה לָֽךְ,Do you do well to be angry for the plant? 9

Notes :

1- The word for booth/tent is סֻכָּה , sukkah, the same sukkot that sheltered the Hebrews in the desert during Moses' time. Jonah is symbolically celebrating Sukkot festival, but in an inverted, depressive manner, for at least three reasons : A- it is a pilgrimage festival probably already well-established in the time of Jonah, mid 8th century BC (the Book of Jonah is probably much more recent, 5th century BC to the earliest), where Israelites had to go to Jerusalem or Bethel. Jonah is installing himself next to the idolatrous city, waiting for its demise. B- it is a celebration of the grace of God, giving day-to-day assistance to the Israelites in the desert. Jonah refuses this assistance and the mercifulness of God. C- it is connected to the end of the harvest in Israel. Jonah refuses to consider the fruits of his recent actions and the rest needed from the earth.

2- The text takes its time to emphasize the joy : יוֹנָה עַל־הַקִּֽיקָיוֹן שִׂמְחָה גְדוֹלָֽה / Jonah rejoiced over the Kikayon, a great joy.

3- It is an important psychological point, related to sacrifice : up to which point we can accept a voluntary gesture devoid of personal benefice ? How far we can go against a suffering body ? How far we can go without a minimally meaningful reward ? Is there is really such a thing as “blind faith” ?

4- God is certainly questioning the lack of participation by Jonah to the growth of the kikayon, but it does not look like it took the biggest of efforts for Him either.

5- The problem of rooting is central : how to be rooted, while living in a booth, or under the weak kikayon ? The ideal solution, given again by Psalm 1 is clear : בְּתוֹרַת, with his Torah. The inner Tree. Jonah is not rooted. But who we are to judge him : he is alone, preaching conversion to his worst enemies, in their city, too conscious of the geopolitical consequences of his actions. The entire book could be seen as an unequivocal charge against Jonah, but this would go against the participative nature of man in the process of creation. Blind faith is not righteousness. Jonah questions the Justice of God, as Job or the Ecclesiastes do, even if in a very different matter. I would add the Gospels to the line of questioning.

6- The Bible opposes נָהָר, river to פַּלְגֵי מָיִם, stream. Israel/Canaan is caught between empires symbolized by their rivers : Nile, Euphrates, Tigris.

7- The Bible beautifully seems to refuse a status of already-there perfection to its characters, without either necessarily accepting human limitations. The Psalm 1 talks uneasily about דֶּרֶךְ, the way, the path, the road. Happiness is the fruit, Rightfulness is the tree, a living thing.

8- Proverbs 11:30 פְּֽרִי־צַדִּיק עֵץ חַיִּים  / The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.

9- Jonah 4:4 & 4:9. This type of rhetorical question is usual in the divine pedagogy of God in the Bible. What if both Jonah and God started to ask real questions to each other ?