Whales, of course were created on the 5th day along with every living creature, except land animals and man.
Genesis 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
The next mention of whale is in Job:
Job 7:12 Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?
The next mention of whale is in Exekiel:
Ezekiel 32:2 Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt,
and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.
The next mention should have been in Jonah:
Jonah 1:17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
But the translators called it a great fish which is probably the correct translation as whales have very small throats.
But in Matthew it is called a WHALE:
Matthew 12:40 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.
Whale, Great Fish doesn’t really matter. What matters is: 1st the Lord Jesus verifies that the story of Jonah is true. And 2nd He used it as an illustration of His death, burial and resurrection. (⇛ see Three Days)
⇛ return to Animals