Welcome back to my study/review of The Book of Jonah. If you missed the previous parts of this study, you can find them HERE.
Jonah 1:4-10
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
_____________________________
Jonah flees to Tarshish (wherever that might be – see the previous post.) On the way, the ship he is on encounters a ferocious storm… because as it turns out one cannot outrun God. We’ll pick back up with notes from Bible Commentaries starting in verse 4, and in The Pulpit Commentaries:
Sent out; Septuagint, ἐξήγειρε, “raised;” literally, cast forth, or hurled, a great wind, like the Euroclydon of Acts 27:14, and what is called nowadays a Levanter. Pusey quotes Josephus’s account of the harbour of Joppa and the neighbouring sea, which, he says, is rendered very dangerous by the sudden rise of “the black north wind” (‘Bell. Jud.,’ 3.9. 3). Here we see wind and storm fulfilling God’s word (Psalms 148:8). As Tertullian says—
“Si Dominum in terris fugiens, invenit in undis.”
“Flying the Lord on earth, he found him in the sea.”
Was like to be broken; literally, thought to be dashed in pieces. Wordsworth contrasts the living consciousness and apprehension of the ship with the lethargy of the prophet now lying fast asleep in the hold (Acts 27:5). Septuagint, ἐκινδύνευε τοῦ συντριβῆναι, “was in danger of being broken up.”
We now know that this was an unusually fierce storm and that the crew worried for their lives. They were so afraid that they cried out in despair for their gods and they began to throw the cargo overboard, hoping that lightening the load would save the ship. This is a significant step for a merchant to take, for obvious reasons. Continuing in Ellicott’s Bible Commentary at verse 5:
(5) And cried every man unto his god.—If Phœnicians, the sailors would have their favourite deities in the national Pantheon; but they may have been a motley crew composed of various nationalities. For the panic comp. Psalms 107:23-30, and Shakespeare’s Tempest,
“All lost! to prayers! to prayers, all lost!”
Wares.—The Hebrew word is of general import for furniture of any kind, and so including all the movables in the ship. The cargo would probably, as in the case of St. Paul’s shipwreck, be reserved till the last extremity.
To lighten it of them.—This gives the sense, though the Hebrew idiom appears to mean, to give themselves relief. (Comp. Exodus 18:22, “So shall it be easier for thyself;” 1 Kings 12:10, “Make thou it lighter unto us.”)
Sides.—Rather, recesses. The word is used of the inner part of the Temple (1 Kings 6:16), of a cave (1 Samuel 24:3), of a dwelling-house (Psalms 128:3).
Ship.—The Hebrew is different from the word used earlier in the verse, and is peculiar to this passage. Its derivation from a root meaning “to cover with boards,” indicates a decked vessel. Jonah had gone below into the cabin, the natural course for a man flying from a disagreeable duty. To stand on deck and watch the slow receding shore would have been mental torture.
And was fast asleep.—The fatigue of the hasty flight to the sea-shore accounts for this deep slumber. The same expression is used of Sisera (Judges 4:21). Besides, when a resolution is once irrevocably (as we think) taken, conscience ceases to disturb with its wakeful warning, and the restlessness of remorse has not yet arrived. There is a brief time during which “the exile from himself can flee.”
For Christians, the comparable New Testament story, to this one, is found in the Gospel of Mathew Chapter 8:
23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
Early Christians would have noted the conspicuous similarities between the Matthew account, and the Jonah account, while also noting important distinctions as well. The Jonah account is a Type, or foreshadowing, of Jesus – a fact that Jesus himself mentions, describing his own death and resurrection as “the sign of Jonah.”
Matthew 12: 38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”
39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.
Continuing on, once again in The Pulpit Commentaries:
The shipmaster; literally, the chief of the ropemen; Vulgate, gubernator; Septuagint, ὁ πρωρεύς, “the look out man.” The captain. What meanest thou, O sleeper? How canst thou sleep so soundly when our danger is so imminent? If thou canst help us in no other way, at least ask the aid of Heaven. It was the duty of a prophet of the Lord to take the lead in prayer; but here the prophet’s stupor is rebuked by the heathen’s faith. Call upon thy God. The sailors’ prayers had not been answered, and they arouse Jonah, noting something special about him, perhaps his prophet’s dress, or observing that he was an Israelite, and therefore a worshipper of Jehovah, of whose power they had heard. If so be that God will think upon us. They use the word “God” with the article, ha Elohim, as if they had, in spite of their Polytheism, a dim notion of one supreme Deity. Vulgate, Si forte recogitet Deus de nobis; Septuagint, ὅπως διασώση ὁ Θεὸς ἡμᾶς, “that God may save us.” From the apparent use, of the Hebrew word (ashath) in Jeremiah 5:28 in the sense of “shining,” some translate here, “if perchance God will shine upon us,” i.e. be favourable to us. But the meaning given in the Anglican Version is best supported. So the psalmist says, “The Lord thinketh upon me” (Psalms 40:17), implying that God succours and defends him.
Everyone is panicking, throwing cargo over the side, and calling out to their gods, while the Prophet sleeps below deck. Whether he thought Jonah had a particular and unique relationship with his deity is unclear. The text does not tell us whether Jonah concealed his title from the crew, or not. However, what is clear from the text is that Jonah was the only party not helping. So they roused him.
The next thing that happens – as is often the case in calamity – is that the crew looks for someone to blame. They cast lots. What is that?
Continuing in The Pulpit Commentaries:
Finding the storm still violent, the crew come to the conclusion that it is sent by Heaven in punishment of some crime committed by one on board; and they proceed to cast lots to discover the guilty person. Jonah doubtless had meantime complied with the captain’s request, but, as the sailors saw, without visible effect. The belief that temporal calamities are often connected with the presence of culprits, and are sent in judgment, is found in classical authors. Thus Plautus, ‘Rudena,’ 2:21—
“Pol minume miror, navis si fracta est tibi,
Scelus te et sceleste parta quae vexit bona.”
“Little I wonder if the ship is wrecked
Which carries thee and thy ill-gotten wealth.”The misfortune of the Israelites at Ai was consequent on the sin of Achan (Joshua 7:1-26). Let us cast lots. Jerome says here, “The fugitive was taken by lot, not by virtue of the lots, especially of the lots of heathen men, but by the will of him who guided the uncertain lots.” For whose cause; Septuagint, τίνος ἕνεκεν. The unusual nature of the tempest showed them that it was sent in judgment. Commentators cite the story of Diagoras told by Cicero (‘De Nat. Deor.,’ 3.37). The lot fell upon Jonah. Proverbs 16:33, “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord”.
The lots accurately indicated that Jonah is the culprit, though he was likely a suspect by virtue of his sleeping through the storm in the first place. Once they accuse Jonah, though, he confesses. From Ellicott:
(8) For whose cause . . .—The Hebrew idiom is peculiar, on account of which to whom; but in this verse, when addressed by the sailors to the prophet, it is expressed in a more elegant form than when used to each other in the preceding verse, one among many touches marking the artistic perfection of this narrative. It is true some MSS. omit this repetition of the question, and it is therefore by some commentators treated as a gloss. But the repetition is quite natural. The sailors seeing the lot fall on one whose appearance was so little suspicious, are anxious to have it confirmed by his confession. Not less natural is the rapid and excited leap from question to question. (Comp. Virg. Æn. 8:112, 113.)
(9) And he said . . .—“The emergency recalls Jonah to his true self. All the better part of his character now comes out. His conduct throughout the remainder of the chapter is dignified and manly, worthy of a servant and prophet of Jehovah” (Perowne).
I am a Hebrew.—The original order is more striking, A Hebrew I. The LXX. read, “a servant of the Lord.”
Which hath made . . .—These words mark the great change that has already come upon the prophet. He feels now how futile it was to try to hide or fly from the Creator of all the universe. But he speaks also for the sake of the crew, who, though recognising the existence of Jehovah as the tribal God of Israel, had never realised His relation to themselves as Creator of the world in which they lived, and of the sea on which they sailed. The storm preached the omnipotence of God.
It is difficult to place a modern person into the mind of the ancients, but it is worth considering the claim made her by Jonah. Most pantheon gods are powerful, but geographically limited, capricious, and at least somewhat thwartable. Jonah essentially tells these men that *his* God is the God of Gods. This belief is at odds with the way other surrounding cultures. For more on the idea of “cosmic geography” I refer you to a clip from a lecture by the late Dr. Michael S. Heiser.
If you watched carefully, you noticed that Dr. Heiser (indirectly) gives an argument for Tarshish as a Spanish locality, on the basis of cosmic geography, the table of nations in Genesis, the list of attendees at Pentecost, and the ministry of St. Paul. If we assume that is correct, it does leave us with difficult – but not impossible – questions regarding some of the trade items mentioned in connection with Solomon which lend themselves toward Tarshish as an Indian city.
Back to the text… given the claim of Jonah, and given the evidence that Jonah has offended his God, the crew is terrified. From The Pulpit Commentaries:
Exceedingly afraid. They understand now the greatness of Jehovah and the terrible risk incurred by one who offends him. There was a widespread acknowledgment of the power of Jehovah among the heathen (see Exodus 15:15; Joshua 5:1; 1 Samuel 4:7; and comp. Judith 5:21). Why hast thou done this? better, What is this that thou hast done? (Genesis 3:13). This is not a question of inquiry, for he had already told them that he had fled from the presence of the Lord; but rather an exclamation of horror and amazement at his folly and sin. That one who worshipped the Almighty Creator should disobey his command seemed to them outrageous and inexcusably criminal. The prophet does not spare himself in giving the history of the transaction. To be thus rebuked by heathen sailors must have added to the poignancy of his remorse. The presence of the Lord (see note on Jonah 1:3).
We leave off here with God having caught up to Jonah, and the prophet’s plan of escape is now both exposed and foiled. We also see even in this moment that Jonah teaching others about his God and causing them to believe (the thing he did not want to do in Nineveh.)
In the next section of verses, Jonah will go overboard.
