(בלע, v 1 [1:17]) Jonah, not simply taken him in its mouth. Suddenly expelled from his delivering shelter of three days, Jonah found himself out in the open, on land. He was, in all likelihood, back in Palestine proper, whence he had fled. His plan to evade Yahweh had simply not worked. Yahweh had seen to that. Jonah deserved death, not deliverance. And yet Yahweh graciously delivered him by special intervention so that Jonah could not but recognize the greatness of Yahweh’s compassion,