Bible Name Meaning Tool — Search Any Name (KJV)

Jonah

Pronounced JO-nuh

boy

✓ In the King James Bible — Yes — Jonah appears in the King James Bible, including Jonah 2:10.

Meaning: "Dove"
Origin: Hebrew

Jonah means "dove" in Hebrew — a symbol of peace and the Holy Spirit — yet the prophet Jonah's story is anything but peaceful. Called by God to preach repentance to Nineveh, Israel's enemy, Jonah fled in the opposite direction and ended up in the belly of a great fish for three days. Jonah's prayer from inside the fish is one of the most dramatic scenes of repentance in Scripture. After being delivered, he obeyed God and preached to Nineveh, leading the entire city to repentance — one of the greatest revivals recorded in the Bible. Jesus directly referenced Jonah, saying, "As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40). Jonah's experience thus became a prophetic sign of Christ's death and resurrection.

Spiritual meaning

Jonah's name — 'dove' — represents the peace that comes through obedience. His story teaches that we cannot outrun God's call, and that divine mercy extends even to those we consider enemies.

Related verses (KJV)

"And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land."
Jonah 2:10 (KJV) →
"For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
Matthew 12:40 (KJV) →

Full page for Jonah

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Questions about biblical name meanings

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Type the name into the search box above. The tool returns the Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, or Latin root behind the name, its literal meaning, and the King James Version passages where it appears.

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