Ironically, while we don't know what decade, let alone what year Jonas was written, we do have a good sense of the day in that elusive year it was performed, as it's based on a text that was part of the Lessons (scheduled readings from various passages in the Bible) for the Monday during the second week of Lent.

The opening instrumental section is barely long enough to count as a symphonia rather than an introduction, and the opening narration is equally brief. Carissimi continues to write sparingly and directly throughout the piece, with very few repetitions or imitative passages, until the final massed chorus. However, while the individual sections are relatively brief, the work still shows Carissimi's close attention to structure and musical techniques to depict emotions. For example, in the sailors' chorus "Dii magni, dii fortes," the tonalities shift frequently, conveying the growing tension and fear, and Jonah's extended arioso "Justus es, Domine," uses a repeated refrain at the end of each section, as if reciting a set prayer like those spoken by the congregation in church, reminding the listeners that the story is presented not just as a narrative but as an allegory for sin and repentance in general. The final section, for soloists and chorus, as the citizens of Nineveh express their repentance and pray for mercy, is also intended to elicit the same emotions from the listeners. This last choral section is the most complex, structurally, using far more imitative writing and intricate harmonics.

Instead of one chorus, the voices are divided into two SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) choruses, one of the narrators, the other of the sailors, though they are all brought into the final chorus. (Roughly half of his oratorios use divided choruses; most use two, while some, such as Judicum extremum, divide the chorus into three groups.)

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