AMITTAI:
By: Moses Beer
Father of the prophet Jonah (II Kings, xiv. 25; Jonah, i. 1). According to rabbinical sources (Yer. Suk. v. 55a; Gen. R. xcviii.; Yalḳ., Jonah, § 550) Amittai came from the tribe of Zebulon and lived at Zarephath. There is a tradition that the widow who sustained the prophet Elijah there (I Kings, xvii. 9-24) was Amittai's wife, and that the child whom Elijah revived was Jonah (Pirḳe R. El. xxxiii.).
