Jonah 1:1

The moms' group I attend at a local church (not Messianic) started going through the book of Jonah today. Which is a fun thing really, because today is Yom Kippur and Jonah is the traditional book read this day. HaShem even gave me the strength to bring that bit of knowledge up during the meeting. (I get sweaty-nervous to bring up Messianic things, or anything that my brain feels will be controversial. I had to pray for HaShem to provide an opening, and He did! As always! And they didn't throw me out!)

Anyway, the pastor's wife challenged us to go verse by verse and write out our observations. So here we go! Some of the questions below she brought up while explaining what she did when she went through it. This might get updated as I find the answers to my questions.

"Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying..."
Jonah 1:1

How did the word come to Jonah? It came in "saying" form, so to me that implies some audible form. She wondered, so now do I, if this was the first time Jonah was given a word from HaShem?

The name of HaShem is, in the English, written as LORD. I know a bit about this, but good to note. This is capitalized because it is, in Hebrew, the actual name of God. This is the name of God the Jews chose never to say in order avoid useing His name in an unholy way. It is not made of the English letters YHWH, but the Hebrew letters yod, hei, vod and another hei. Go here to see what those letters can look like.

What does Jonah mean? All I can find right now is "dove" but I'm sure there is more depth to it.

Who is Amittai? In my very brief google search, I found nothing more then the two places Jonah is mentioned in scripture. Jonah 1:1 and 2 Kings 14:25.

We shall see how many verses I get through before the next meeting! I'd be willing to bet this is the only post I do on it :0) Let us pray it isn't so.

Note: When I took His open door moment to mention that this is the book traditionally read on Yom Kippur, someone immediately came back with the question, "Why?" I was thinking about that as I wrote this, and realized that I simply answered. I am not entirely sure what I said, and I can't remember even looking at her. Baruch HaShem for His provision of words!

Does anyone have any more insite? I love input and tolearate correction :0)