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Journey of a Passage

2 Kings 14:25

Jonah son of Amittai

The witnesses agree that Jeroboam II restored Israel's border "from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain" as Jonah son of Amittai of Gath-hepher had prophesied. This is the only mention of Jonah outside his book.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original KingsUnknown (debated)
  2. Jonah 1:1 (Masoretic Text)Book of Jonah (date debated)
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Kings
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 4 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BC; kaige revision 1st c. BC–1st c. ADTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Kings

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Book of Jonah (date debated)

    Jonah 1:1 (Masoretic Text)

    ✓ Contains this passage

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex, quoted here in English.

    the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai

    The book's date and genre are debated.

  3. Translated c. 2nd century BC; kaige revision 1st c. BC–1st c. AD

    Septuagint, 4 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    par son serviteur le prophète Jonas, fils d'Amathi, de Gethchopher

    One Greek text (Vaticanus type, kaige revision) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

  4. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    per servum suum Jonam filium Amathi

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Kings

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    בְּיַד־עַבְדּוֹ יוֹנָה בֶן־אֲמִתַּי הַנָּבִיא אֲשֶׁר מִגַּת הַחֵפֶר

    by the hand of his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher

  6. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet

What changed, and why

"The sea of the plain (Arabah)" is the Dead Sea; "the entering of Hamath" is in the Beqaa valley, perhaps at Lebo-hamath (Lebweh). These were the ideal borders of Solomon's day (1 Kings 8:65).

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedAll checked witnesses agree.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Amaziah, Jeroboam II and Jonah →Amaziah of Judah executes his father's murderers but spares their children, as the law of Moses commands. He defeats Edom, then challenges Jehoash of Israel, who answers with a fable of a thistle and a cedar, defeats Judah at Beth-shemesh, breaks Jerusalem's wall and takes the temple treasures. Amaziah is murdered at Lachish. In Israel, Jeroboam II restores the borders from Hamath to the Dead Sea, as the prophet Jonah son of Amittai foretold.