An article on hyperbolic language in the Bible:
http://www.tentmaker.org/Biblematters/hyperbole2.htm
“How Hell Became Eternal”, from the same site:
http://www.tentmaker.org/articles/how_hell_became_eternal_vincent.htm
Haven’t yet read the second one, but the first one mentioning Jonah was great because, not too long ago, a teacher at church told me “to disbelieve that Jonah was truly swallowed by a literal fish is to reject the possibility of any and all supernatural events in the Bible.”