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А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
Предисловие

О книге пророка Ионы

Сведения о пророке Ионе.

Сведения о пророке Ионе, как о большинстве ветхозаветных боговдохновенных писателей, отличаются большою скудностью. Книга, надписываемая его именем, подробно сообщая об его деле — посольстве и проповеди в Ниневию, о нем самом ограничивается замечанием, что он был «еврей, чтитель Бога небесного, сын Амитая» (слав. Амафии). Ценное восполнение к этим сведениям дает 4-я книга Царств. Сообщая о расширении пределов Израильского царства при Иеровоаме II-ом, она замечает, что это совершилось «по глаголу Господа Бога Израилева, его же глагола рукою раба своего Ионы, сына Амафиина, пророка, иже от Гефаховера» (ХIV:25). Это замечание решает для нас важный вопрос о времени жизни и месте деятельности пророка Ионы. Родом из Гефаховера, он, значит, происходил из Завулонова колена, в котором был этот город (Нав XIX:13) и принадлежал к пророкам Израильского царства. Его имя связывается с царствованием Иеровоама II, который воцарился в 835-м г. до Р. X. и занимал израильский престол 41: год (4: Цар ХIV:23). Войну с Сирией, результатом которой по предсказанию Ионы было расширение границ Израильского царства, следует отнести к началу царствования Иеровоама II, так как она начата была ещё его предшественниками (Иоахазом и Иоасом) и им лишь славно закончена. Отсюда и жизнь пророка Ионы нужно отодвигать к более раннему времени. Если пророчество Ионы исполнилось в начале царствования Иеровоама II, то произнесено оно было, конечно, раньше, еще в предшествующее царствование Иоаса. Этому царю пророк Елисей пред смертью предсказал, что он победит Сирийцев, только «не до скончания» (4: Цар XIII:14–20). Пророчество Ионы об окончательной победе над Сирией и восстановлении древних границ Израильского царства является таким образом продолжением и дополнением пророчества Елисея и произнесено было, вероятнее всего, тому же самому Иоасу в утешение. Из сказанного следует, что пророк Иона жил в половине IX в. до Р. Х.; значит по времени своего служения он был самым древним из пророков, оставивших нам свои писания. Он был младшим современником Елисея и даже, может быть, пророка Илии и их преемником по пророчеству. Иудейское предание не без основания считает его учеником пророка Елисея, получившим воспитание в тех пророческих школах, которые были основаны Илиею (4: Цар II:2–6; VI:1–8); оно отождествляет его с тем стремительным юношею, которого Елисей послал помазать на царство Ииуя (4: Цар IX:9–11). Другое предание, передаваемое блаж. Иеронимом, считает пророка Иону сыном сарептской вдовы, воскрешенным Илиею (3: Цар XVII:17–23). Эти предания, устанавливающие связь Ионы с великими израильскими пророками — Илиею и Елисеем, приняты Православною Церковью и включены в службу этому пророку на 22: сентября. Дальнейших сведений о деятельности пророка Ионы мы не имеем, кроме рассказа его книги о проповеди в Ниневии. Другие места Библии, в которых упоминается об Ионе (Тов XIV:8; 3: Мак VI:6; Мф XII:46; Лк XI:30–32), только утверждают этот факт. О конце жизни пророка и его смерти мы узнаем из предания. По одному из них, пророк Иона после проповеди в Ниневии остался жить там до конца своей жизни, там и умер. Его гробница до сих пор указывается на высоком холме близ селения Мозуля, где открыты развалины Ниневии. По другому преданию, Иона возвратился из Ниневии и умер на своей родине в Гефаховере. И здесь, как и близ Ниневии, находится чтимая гробница пророка. Последняя версия о смерти пророка Ионы подтверждается словами 3: кн. Маккавейской, что «Иону после пребывания его во чреве кита морского «Бог показал невредимым всем присным» (VI:6). Значит в отечество он возвратился.

О существе и происхождении книги пр. Ионы.

Вопрос о существе книга пророка Ионы в экзегетической литературе решается неодинаково. Самое древнее мнение, опирающееся на прямое свидетельство библейского текста, считает книгу пророка Ионы историческим повествованием, передающим рассказ о действительных событиях и лицах. Другое мнение, развиваемое и широко аргументируемое в критической литературе, не признает книгу Ионы подлинной историей, потому что многое в ней представляется необычайным, непонятным по своей чудесности и невероятным исторически. Защитниками второго мнения книга пророка Ионы считается в той или другой мере вымышленным произведением. Одни видят в ней рассказ о бывшем пророку видении, другие считают ее апологом, аллегорией или притчей, рассказанной с нравоучительной целью, третьи принимают ее за легенду, изукрасившую простой и естественный факт чудесными и невероятными подробностями. Мы не будем останавливаться на том, насколько удачно сближение книги пророка Ионы с указанными выше литературными формами; уже самое многообразие попыток представить книгу Ионы не в форме исторического рассказа говорит о том, что ни одна из них вполне не удовлетворяла. Все эти попытки вытекают из мысли о невозможности представить рассказанное в книге Ионы действительно происшедшим событием. При объяснении текста книга мы постараемся устранить затруднения к историческому пониманию ее, а теперь приведем свидетельства посторонние ей в пользу исторического ее характера.

Самое древнее свидетельство в пользу исторического характера книги Ионы мы находим в книгах Товита и 3-й Маккавейской. В них засвидетельствовано историческое понимание двух главных фактов книги Ионы, наиболее встречающих возражение, пребывания пророка во чреве кита (3: Мак VI:6) и его проповеди в Ниневии (Тов XIV:8). Затем Иосиф Флавий, передавая в своих «Иудейских Древностях» (IX кн. II гл.) содержание книги Ионы, считает ее за подлинную историю. Только при историческом характере книги Ионы возможно было, что она включена была ветхозаветною церковью в канон священных боговдохновенных книг; произведение вымышленное или искажающее действительность не могло пользоваться таким великим уважением. Вслед за ветхозаветною церковью и древнехристианская понимала и толковала книгу Ионы в историческом смысле. Она в данном случае следовала непререкаемому авторитету Самого Иисуса Христа. Отвечая на требования фарисеев от Него чудес, Он сказал, что наибольшим знамением для них должен служить факт пребывания Ионы во чреве кита: «ибо как Иона был во чреве кита три дня и три ночи, так и Сын человеческий будет в сердце земли три дня и три ночи» (Мф XII:40). Эти слова Спасителя могли иметь свою убедительную силу только в том случае, если он говорил о действительном факте. Знамением чуда воскресения Христова могло быть другое аналогичное ему и непременно историческое (а не вымышленное) чудо. В такой же мере Спасителем засвидетельствован исторический характер и другого события кн. Ионы — покаяние ниневитян. Он сказал: «Ниневитяне восстанут на суд с родом сим и осудят его; ибо они покаялись от проповеди Иониной и вот здесь больше Иона» (Лк XI:32). Ставить ниневитян примером отзывчивости на слово Божие Своим современникам Спаситель мог только тогда, когда и Он Сам, и Его слушатели принимали рассказ об этом книги Ионы за подлинную историю.

Но книга пророка Ионы не только историческое повествование, а вместе с тем и писание пророческое. Ее пророчественно-преобразовательный смысл указан в приведенных выше словах Спасителя (Мф ХII:40). Иона своим трехдневным пребыванием во чреве кита преобразовал трехдневное пребывание Спасителя в сердце земли. Это главный пункт книги, но все же им ограничивать весь пророчественный смысл книги нельзя, ибо в таком случае все остальное содержание ее, кроме II-й главы, будет совершенно ненужным прибавлением, непонятно для чего рассказанным. Затем, указанный Спасителем преобразовательный смысл книги становился понятным только христианам, а не иудеям, — между тем именно иудейская церковь включила ее в число пророческих книг. Ввиду всего сказанного нужно пророчественный смысл и значение находить не в отдельных только частях книги, а во всем ее целом, в основной идее, раскрываемой на протяжении всей книги. Идея книги та, что спасение через покаяние может быть даровано Богом не иудеям только, но и язычникам. Иегова не национальный Бог евреев, а Бог всех людей. Феократия (богопроявление) распространяется на все человечество, в Царство Божие войдут и язычники, потому что путь в него один для всех — нравственное усовершенствование. Раскрывая эту идею в историческим рассказе, книга Ионы приготовляла евреев к усвоению главной мессианской идеи о духовном и универсальном характере Царства Мессии. В век Ионы эта идея впервые так ясно озарила религиозное сознание евреев и, как показывает пример самого Ионы, усваивалась ими с большою болезненностью, после тяжелой борьбы с их узконациональными предрассудками. Последующие пророки вплоть до Иоанна Предтечи продолжали учить о спасении всех людей в Царстве Мессии, т. е. раскрывать основную идею книги Ионы и в этом заключалась главная задача их пророческого служения .Таким образом, книга пророка Ионы должна быть признана первою по времени и содержанию пророческою книгою.

О происхождении книги пророка Ионы, так же как и о ее существе, представителям критического экзегесиса высказываются весьма разнообразные суждения. С большим старанием ищут в книге следов ее позднейшего происхождения и на основании этого относят время ее написания — одни к ассирийскому плену, другие ко времени иудейского царя Иосии или в период вавилонского плена, третьи, наконец, думают, что она написана в послепленньй период, может быть даже во времена Маккавеев. При объяснении книги мы отметим, что те места ее, в которых видят доказательства ее позднейшего происхождения, в действительности не содержат в себе таких указаний, а теперь остановимся на положительной стороне вопроса. Книгу Ионы знает И. Сирах, который говорит о двенадцати малых пророках (XLIX:12: ст.), с ее содержанием знаком Товит (XIV:8: ст.). Она не могла быть написана позднее 430: г., времени заключения ветхозаветного канона, так как она вошла в него. По характеру содержания книги вероятнее всего предположить, что она написана была самим пророком Ионою. Никто кроме него не мог знать и так живо изобразить самые сокровенные движения его душевной жизни, причем такие, которые служили не в похвалу пророка. Писатель книги несомненно был в Ниневии, ознакомился с ее жизнью и нравами. Язык изобличает в нем израильтянина, а не иудея. Правда об Ионе говорится в книге в третьем лице, но это — обыкновение многих священных писателей ставить в тень свою личность и выдвигать на первый план действие через них слова Божия.

1–2. Посольство пророка Ионы в Ниневию, 3. его попытка уклониться от этого посольства и 4–16. Наказание Божие за это.
Matthew Henry: Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible - 1706
THIS book of Jonah, though it be placed here in the midst of the prophetical books of scripture, is yet rather a history than a prophecy; one line of prediction there is in it, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown; the rest of the book is a narrative of the preface to and the consequences of that prediction. In the midst of the obscure prophecies before and after this book, wherein are many things dark and hard to be understood, which are puzzling to the learned, and are strong meat for strong men, comes in this plain and pleasant story, which is entertaining to the weakest, and milk for babes. Probably Jonah was himself the penman of this book, and he, as Moses and other inspired penmen, records his own faults, which is an evidence that in these writings they designed God's glory and not their own. We read of this same Jonah 2 Kings xiv. 25, where we find that he was of Gath-hepher in Galilee, a city that belonged to the tribe of Zebulun, in a remote corner of the land of Israel; for the Spirit, which like the wind, blows where it listeth, will as easily find out Jonah in Galilee as Isaiah at Jerusalem. We find also that he was a messenger of mercy to Israel in the reign of Jeroboam the second; for the success of his arms, in the restoring of the coast of Israel, is said to be according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servant Jonah the prophet. Those prophecies were not committed to writing, but this against Nineveh was, chiefly for the sake of the story that depends upon it, and that is recorded chiefly for the sake of Christ, of whom Jonah was a type; it contains also very remarkable instances of human infirmity in Jonah, and of God's mercy both in pardoning repenting sinners, witness Nineveh, and in bearing with repining saints, witness Jonah.

In this chapter we have, I. A command given to Jonah to preach at Nineveh, ver. 1, 2. II. Jonah's disobedience to that command, ver. 3. III. The pursuit and arrest of him for that disobedience by a storm, in which he was asleep, ver. 4-6. IV. The discovery of him, and his disobedience, to be the cause of the storm, ver. 7-10. V. The casting of him into the sea, for the stilling of the storm, ver. 11-16. VI. The miraculous preservation of his life there in the belly of a fish (ver. 17), which was his reservation for further services.
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
Introduction to the Book of the Prophet Jonah
Jonah, the son of Amittai, the fifth of the minor prophets, was a Galilean, a native of Gath-hepher, which is believed to be the same as Jotapata, celebrated for the siege which Josephus the historian there maintained against the Roman army, a little before the destruction of Jerusalem. Gath-hepher was situated in the land of Zebulon, where was the canton of Ophir or Hepher. St. Jerome places it two miles from Sepphoris, in the way towards Tiberias. Some rabbins are of opinion that Jonah was the widow of Sarepta's son, restored to life by Elijah.
What we know with certainty of Jonah is, that God having commanded him to go to Nineveh, and there proclaim that the cry of the inhabitants' sins was come up to heaven, and they were threatened with approaching ruin; instead of obeying these orders, he resolved to flee away, and go to Tarsus in Cilicia. For this purpose he embarked at Joppa; but the Lord having sent a violent tempest while he was upon the sea, the mariners, with great fear, cried each of them to his god. In the meantime Jonah slept in the hold; whereupon the pilot wakened him; and they who were in the ship cast lots to know how this tempest was occasioned. The lot falling upon Jonah, they asked him who he was, and what he had done to bring upon them such a storm? He told them he was a Hebrew; that he worshipped the God of heaven; was one of his prophets; and fled from his presence to avoid going to Nineveh, whither he was sent. They asked him what was to be done to secure them from shipwreck? He replied: Throw me into the sea, and the tempest will cease.
God prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. This fish, according to some, was a whale; or, as others say, the lamia, canis carcharias, or the sea-dog. The prophet continued in the fish three days and three nights. He cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him, and commanded the fish to cast him upon the shore, as it is believed, at the foot of a mountain which projects a great way into the sea, between Berytus and Tripoli. Others think it was upon the coast of Cilicia, two leagues north from Alexandretta.
After this the word of the Lord came a second time to Jonah, and directed him to go to Nineveh. When he came into the city, which was three days journey in extent, about twenty-five leagues in circumference, Jonah walked up and down a whole day, crying out, "In forty days Nineveh shall be destroyed." The Ninevites believed his word; they appointed a public fast to be observed; and, from the meanest of the people to the greatest, covered themselves with sackcloth. The king of Nineveh, supposed to have been Sardanapalus, known in profane authors by the name of Anacyndaraxa or Anabaxarus, descended from his throne, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down upon ashes. God suffered himself to be moved with their repentance, and did not execute the sentence which he had pronounced against them.
Jonah was afflicted at this; and complained to God, saying, that he had always questioned whether, as being a God of clemency and mercy, he would not be flexible to their prayers.
After this, in all probability, Jonah returned from Nineveh into Judea.
The Greeks have for a long time expressed their veneration for Jonah. There was a church dedicated to this prophet in the sixth age.
We do not know when it was that Jonah foretold how Jeroboam II., king of Israel, should restore the kingdom of Samaria to its former extent, from the entrance of Hamath to the Dead Sea. Whether this was before or after his going to Nineveh, we cannot tell.
Our Savior makes frequent mention of Jonah in the Gospels. He says that the Ninevites shall one day rise in judgment against the Jews, and condemn them, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and the Jews would not hearken to Him who was greater than Jonah. And when the Pharisees required a sign of him to prove his mission, he said he would give them no other than that of the prophet Jonah, that is to say, of his resurrection, which would complete all his miracles, and render the Jews inexcusable in their hardness of heart. For a discussion of the question concerning the three days and three nights which Jonah lay in the belly of the fish, see Mat 12:40 (note), and the notes there. And for Oriental and Jewish legends and fabulous relations relative to the history of this prophet, see Calmet in his preface to this book.
That there are difficulties in this book every man must allow; and that learned men have differed greatly in their mode of interpreting the book, and explaining these difficulties, is well known. Some have considered it an allegory; referring entirely to Manasseh, and what was done before, during, and after the war with Esar-haddon, king of Assyria. Manasseh being taken prisoner by the Assyrians, and thrust into a dungeon; where, having lain three days and three nights, on his earnest prayer to God in the dungeon, he was delivered, etc. Others have thought, that instead of a fish, a ship is meant, which had the image of a whale on the stern, and might be called Κητος, or the whale. Others have thought that the whole of the account of Jonah's being swallowed by a great fish, his praying in its belly, and being cast on dry land, was a dream which he had while fast asleep in the ship. See Jon 1:5. And others state that the whole book is a parable, intending to point out God's justice and mercy, and how prevalent repentance is to turn aside the threatened stroke of Divine wrath.
There is a fable, most probably of Phoenician origin, which, bearing some similitude to the history of Jonah, may have been taken from this book. Laomedon, king of Troy, having displeased Neptune, to appease him, was required to expose his daughter Hesione to be devoured by a sea-monster. She was chained to a rock, and was awaiting her fate at the next flux of the tide. In the interim Hercules slew the sea-monster, and delivered the princess. To this Lycophron, in his Cassandra, verse 33, etc., is supposed to allude: -
Τριεσπερου λεοντος, ὁν ποτε γναθοις
Τριτωνος ημαλαψε καρχαρος κυων.
"Of the lion the offspring of three nights, which the fierce dog of Triton swallowed down greedily."
The scholiasts explain this in the following manner: While the princess was standing chained to the rock, expecting the greedy dog (καρχαρος κυων, the shark) to come and devour her, Hercules stood by ready armed; and when the monster came forward with open mouth, he jumped directly down his throat, and spent three days in cutting and hacking his entrails; and afterwards came out of the monster, with the loss of all the hair on his head. Cyril, in his comment, says this was occasioned by the incredible heat of the monster's stomach.
This fable might have been easily taken from the true history; though some have been ready enough to intimate that the history of the prophet was taken from the fable.
The appeal made to the main facts of this history by our Lord, proves that we are to admit of no allegorical exposition of these facts.
1. There was such a person as Jonah.
2. He was swallowed by a sea-monster, in whose belly he was miraculously preserved three days and three nights.
3. This same prophet preached to the Ninevites; and they repented, and turned from their sins, under his ministry.
This testimony puts an end to all mythological, allegorical, and hypothetical interpretations of those great facts. And in its literal sense alone, I undertake the interpretation of this book.

Jonah, sent to Nineveh, flees to Tarshish, Jon 1:1-3. He is overtaken by a great tempest, Jon 1:4-14; thrown into the sea, Jon 1:15, Jon 1:16; and swallowed by a fish, in the belly of which he is miraculously preserved alive three days and three nights, Jon 1:17.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
Introduction to Jonah
The prophet Jonah, who was at once the author and in part the subject of the book which bears his name, is, beyond question, the same who is related in the Book of Kings Kg2 14:25 to have been God's messenger of comfort to Israel, in the reign of Jeroboam II. For his own name, in English "Dove," as well as that of his father, Amittai, "The Truth of Yah," occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament; and it is wholly improbable that there should have been two prophets of the same name, sons of fathers of the same name, when the names of both son and father were so rare as not to occur elsewhere in the Old Testament. The place which the prophet occupies among the twelve agrees therewith. For Hosea and Amos, prophets who are known to have prophesied in the time of Jeroboam, and Joel, who prophesied before Amos, are placed before him; Micah, who prophesied after the death of Jeroboam and Uzziah, is placed after him.
A remarkable and much-misunderstood expression of the prophet shows that this mission fell in the later part of his life, at least after he had already exercised the prophetic office. Our translation has: "Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord." It has been asked , "How could a "prophet" imagine that he could flee from the presence of God?" Plainly he could not. Jonah, so conversant with the Psalms, doubtless knew well the Psalm of David Psa 139:7, "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, and whither shall I flee from thy presence?" He could not but know, what every instructed Israelite knew. And so critics should have known that such could not be the meaning. The words are used, as we say, "he went out of the king's presence," or the like. It is literally "he rose to flee from being in the presence of the Lord," i. e., from standing in His presence as His Servant and Minister.
Then he must have so stood before; he must have had the office, which he sought to abandon.
He was then a prophet of Israel, born at Gath-hepher, "a small village" of Zebulon Jos 19:13, which lies, Jerome says, "two miles from Sepphorim which is now called Diocaesarea, in the way to Tiberius, where his tomb also is pointed out." His tomb was still shown in the hills near Sipphorim in the 12th century, as Benjamin of Tudela relates; at the same place "on a rocky hill 2 miles East of Sepphuriah," is still pointed out the tomb of the prophet, and "Muslims and the Christians of Nazareth alike regard the village (el-Meshhad) as his native village." The tomb is even now venerated by the Muslim inhabitants.
But although a prophet of Israel, he, like Daniel afterward or his great predecessor Elisha, had his mission also beyond the bounds of Israel. Whenever God brought His people into any relation with other people, He made Himself known to them. The mode of His manifestation varied; the fact remained uniform. So He made Himself known to Egypt through Joseph and Moses; to the Philistines at the capture of the ark; to the Syrians by Elisha; to Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar by Daniel, as again to Darius and Cyrus. The hindrances interposed to the edict of Darius perpetuated that knowledge among his successors. Yet further on, the high priest Jaddua showed to Alexander the prophecy of Daniel "that a Greek should destroy the Persian Empire." For there is no ground to question the account of Josephus. The mission then of Jonah to Nineveh is in harmony with God's other dealings with pagan nations, although, in God's manifold wisdom, not identical with any.
To Israel the history of that mission Rev_ealed that same fact which was more fully declared by Peter Act 10:34-35; "I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him." This righteous judgment of God stands out the more, alike in the history of the mariners and of the Ninevites, in that the character of both is exhibited advantageously, in comparison with that of the prophet. The prophet brings out the awe, the humanity, the earnestness of the natural religion, and the final conversion of the sailors, and the zealous repentance of the Ninevites, while he neglects to explain his own character, or, in the least, to soften its hard angles. Rather, with a holy indifference, he has left his character to be hardly and unjustly judged by those who, themselves sharing his infirmities, share not his excellences. Disobedient once, he cares only to teach us what God taught him for us. The mariners were spared, the Hebrew prophet was cast forth as guilty. The Ninevites were forgiven: the prophet, rebuked.
That other moral, which our Lord inculcated, that the pagan believed and repented with less light, the Jews, amid so much greater light, repented not, also lay there, to be drawn out by men's own consciences. "To the condemnation of Israel," says Jerome, "Jonah is sent to the Gentiles, because, whereas Nineveh repented, Israel persevered in his iniquity." But this is only a secondary result of his prophecy, as all divine history must be full of teaching, because the facts themselves are instructive. Its instructiveness in this respect depends wholly upon the truth of the facts. It is the real repentance of the Ninevites, which becomes the reproach of the impenitent Jew or Christian.
Even among the Jews, a large school, the Cabbalists (although amid other error), interpreted the history of Jonah as teaching the resurrection of the dead, and (with that remarkable correctness of combination of different passages of Holy Scripture which we often find) in union with the prophecy of Hosea. "The fish's belly, where Jonah was enclosed, signifies the tomb, where the body is covered and laid up. But as Jonah was given back on the third day, so shall we also on the third day rise again and be restored to life. As Hosea says, 'On the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.'" Talmudic Jews identified Jonah with their Messiah ben Joseph, whom they expected to die and rise again. The deeper meaning then of the history was not, at least in later times, unknown to them, a meaning which entirely depended on its truth.
The history of his mission, Jonah doubtless himself wrote. Such has been the uniform tradition of the Jews, and on this principle alone was his book placed among the prophets. For no books were admitted among the prophets but those which the arranger of the canon believed (if this was the work of the great synagogue) or (if it was the work of Ezra) knew, to have been written by persons called to the prophetic office. Hence, the Psalms of David (although many are prophetic, and our Lord declares him to have been inspired by the Holy Spirit Mat 22:43; Mar 12:36.,) and the book of Daniel, were placed in a separate class, because their authors, although eminently endowed with prophetic gifts, did not exercise the pastoral office of the prophet. Histories of the prophets, as Elijah and Elisha, stand, not under their own names, but in the books of the prophets who wrote them. Nor is the Book of Jonah a history of the prophet, but of that one mission to Nineveh. Every notice of the prophet is omitted, except what bears on that mission.
The book also begins with just that same authentication, with which all other prophetic books begin. As Hoses and Joel and Micah and Zephaniah open, "The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, Joel, Micah, Zephaniah," and other prophets in other ways ascribe their books not to themselves, but to God, so Jonah opens, "And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying." This inscription is an integral part of the book; as is marked by the word, saying. As the historical books are joined on the sacred writings before them, so as to form one continuous stream of history, by the and, with which they begin, so the Book of Jonah is tacitly joined onto other books of other prophets by the word, "and," with which it commences. The words, "The word of the Lord came to," are the acknowledged form in which the commission of God to prophesy is recorded. It is used of the commission to deliver a single prophecy, or it describes the whole collection of prophecies, with which any prophet was entrusted; Mic 1:1; Zep 1:1. "The word of the Lord which come to Micah or Zephaniah." But the whole history of the prophecy is bound up with, and a sequel of those words.
Nor is there anything in the style of the prophet at variance with this.
It is strange that, at any time beyond the babyhood of criticism, any argument should be drawn from the fact that the prophet writes of himself in the third person. Manly criticism has been ashamed to use the argument, as to the commentaries of Caesar or the Anabasis of Xenophon . However the genuineness of those works may have been at times questioned, here we were on the ground of genuine criticism, and no one ventured to use an argument so palpably idle. It has been pointed out that minds so different, as Barhebraeus, the great Jacobite historian of the East, and Frederick the Great wrote of themselves in the third person; as did also Thucydides and Josephus , even after they had attested that the history, in which they so speak, was written by themselves.
But the real ground lies much deeper. It is the exception, when any sacred writer speaks of himself in the first person. Ezra and Nehemiah do so, for they are giving an account, not of God's dealings with His people, but of their own discharge of a definite office, allotted to them by man. Solomon does so in Ecclesiastes, because he is giving the history of his own experience; and the vanity of all human things, in themselves, could be attested so impressively by no one, as by one, who had all which man's mind could imagine.
On the contrary, the prophets, unless they speak of God's Rev_elations to them, speak of themselves in the third person. Thus, Amos relates in the first person, what God showed him in vision Amo 7:1-8; Amo 8:1-2; Amo 9:1; for God spoke to him, and he answered and pleaded with God. In relating his persecution by Amaziah, he passes at once to the third Amo 7:12, Amo 7:14; "Amaziah said to Amos; Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah." In a similar manner, Isaiah speaks of himself in the third person, when relating how God sent him to meet Ahaz Isa 7:3; God commanded him to walk three years, naked and barefoot Isa 20:2-3, Hezekiah's message to him, to pray for his people, and his own prophetic answer; his visit to Hezekiah in the king's sickness, his warning to him, his prophecy of his recovery, the sign which at God's command Isaiah gave him, and the means of healing he appointed Isa 37:2, Isa 37:5-6, Isa 37:21; Isa 38:1, Isa 38:4, Isa 38:21.
Jeremiah, the mourner over his people, more than any other prophet, speaks and complains to his God in the midst of his prophecy. In no other prophet do we see so much the workings of his inmost soul. Such souls would most use the first person, for it is in the use of the first person that the soul pours itself forth. In the relating of himself in the third person, the prophet restrains himself, speaking only of the event. Yet it is thus that Jeremiah relates almost all which befell him - Pashur's smiting him and putting him in the stocks Jer 20:1, Jer 20:3; the gathering of the people against him to put him to death, his hearing before the princes of Judah and his deliverance Jer 26:7-8, Jer 26:12, Jer 26:24; the contest with Hananiah, when Hananiah broke off the symbolic yoke from his neck and prophesied lies in the name of God, and Jeremiah foretold his death Jer 28:5-6, Jer 28:10, Jer 28:12, Jer 28:15, which followed; the letters of Shemaiah against him, and his own prophecy against Shemaiah Jer 29:27, Jer 29:29-30; his trial of the Rechabites and his prophecy to them jer 35; the writing the scroll, which he sent Baruch to read in God's house, and its renewal when Jehoiakim had burned it, and God's concealing him and Baruch from the king's emissaries Jer 36:1, Jer 36:4-5, Jer 36:26-27, Jer 36:32; his purpose to leave Jerusalem when the interval of the last siege gave him liberty Jer 37:2-6, Jer 37:12-21; the false accusations against him, the designs of the princes to put him to death, their plunging him in the still deeper pit, where there was no water only mud, the milder treatment through the intercession of Ebedmelech; Zedekiah's contact with him Jer 38:1, Jer 38:6, Jer 12-28; Jer 32:2-5, his liberation by Nebuzaradan, his choice to abide in the land, his residence with Gedaliah Jer 40:2-6; Johanan's hypocritical inquiring of God by him and disobedience jer 42, his being carried into Egypt Jer 43:1-13, the insolent answer of the Jews in Egypt to him and his denunciation upon them Jer 44:15, Jer 44:20, Jer 44:24.
All this, the account of which occupies a space, many times larger than the book of Jonah, Jeremiah relates as if it were the history of some other man. So did God teach His prophets to forget themselves. Haggai, whose prophecy consists of exhortations which God directed him to address to the people, speaks of himself, solely in the third person. He even relates the questions which he puts to the priests and their answers still in the third person Hag 1:1, Hag 1:3, Hag 1:12-13; Hag 2:1, Hag 2:10, Hag 2:13-14, Hag 2:20; "then said Haggai;" "then answered Haggai." Daniel relates in the third person, the whole which he does give of his history; how when young he obtained exemption from the use of the royal luxuries and from food unlawful to him; the favor and wisdom which God gave him Dan. 1:6-21; how God saved him from death, Rev_ealing to him, on his prayer, the dream of Nebuchadnezzar and its meaning; how Nebuchadnezzar made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon Dan 2:13-27, Dan 2:46-47, Dan 2:49; how he was brought into Belshazzar's great impious feast, and interpreted the writing on the wall; and was honored Dan 5:12-13, Dan 5:17, Dan 5:29; how, under Darius, he persevered in his accustomed prayer against the king's command, was cast into the den of lions, was delivered, and prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian Dan. 6.
When Daniel passes from history to relate visions vouchsafed to himself, he authenticated them with his own name, "I, Daniel" Dan 7:15, Dan 7:28; Dan 8:1, Dan 8:15, Dan 8:27; Dan 9:2; Dan 10:2, Dan 10:7; Dan 12:5. It is no longer his own history. It is the Rev_elation of God by him. In a similar manner, John, when referring to himself in the history of His Lord, calls himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved." In Rev_elation, he authenticates his visions by his own name Rev 1:9; Rev 21:2; Rev 22:8; "I, John." Moses relates how God commanded him to write things which he wrote, in the third person. Paul, when he has to speak of his overpowering Rev_elations, says Co2 12:2-4, "I knew a man in Christ." It seems as if he could not speak of them as vouchsafed to himself. He lets us see that it was himself, when he speaks of the humiliations Co2 12:7, which God saw to be necessary for him. To ordinary people it would be conceit or hypocrisy to write of themselves in the third person.
They would have the appearance of writing impartially of themselves, of abstracting themselves from themselves, when, in reality, they were ever present to themselves. The men of God were writing of the things of God. They had a God-given indifference how they themselves would be thought of by man. They related, with the same holy unconcern, their praise or their blame. Jonah has exhibited himself in his infirmities, such as no other but himself would have drawn a prophet of God. He has left his character, unexplained, unsoftened; he has left himself lying under God's reproof; and told us nothing of all that which God loved in him, and which made him a chosen instrument of God also. People, while they measure divine things, or characters formed by God, by what would be natural to themselves, measure by a crooked rule Co1 4:3. "It is a very small thing," says Paul, "that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment." Nature does not measure grace; nor the human spirit measure the Divine Spirit.
As for the few words, which persons who disbelieved in miracles selected out of the Book of Jonah as a plea for removing it far down beyond the period when those miracles took place , they rather indicate the contrary. They are all genuine Hebrew words or forms, except the one Aramaic name for the decree of the king of Nineveh, which Jonah naturally heard in Nineveh itself.
A writer , equally unbelieving, who got rid of the miracles by assuming that the Book of Jonah was meant only for a moralizing fiction, found no counter-evidence in the language, but ascribed it unhesitatingly to the Jonah, son of Amittai, who prophesied in the reign of Jeroboam II. He saw the nothingness of the so-called proof, which he had no longer any interest in maintaining.
The examination of these words will require a little detail, yet it may serve as a specimen (it is no worse than its neighbors) of the way in which the disbelieving school picked out a few words of a Hebrew prophet or section of a prophet, in order to disparage the genuineness of what they did not believe.
The words are these:
(1) The word ספינה sephı̂ ynâ h, literally "a decked vessel." is a genuine Hebrew word from ספן sâ phan, "covered, ceiled" . The word was borrowed from the Hebrew, not by Syrians or Chaldees only but by the Arabians, in none of which dialects is it an original word. A word plainly is original in that language in which it stands connected with other meanings of the same root, and not in that in which it stands isolated. Naturally too, the term for a decked vessel would be borrowed by inland people, as the Syrians, from a notion living on the seashore, not conversely. This is the first occasion for mentioning "a decked vessel." It is related that Jonah went in fact "below deck," "was gone down into the sides of the decked vessel." Three times in those verses Jon 1:3-5, when Jonah did not wish to express that the vessel was decked, he uses the common Hebrew word, אניה 'onı̂ yâ h. It was then of set purpose that he, in the same verse, used the two words, אניה 'onı̂ yâ h and ספינה sephı̂ ynâ h.
(2) מלח mallâ ch is also a genuine Hebrew word from מלח melach, salt sea, as ἁλιεύς halieus from ἅλς hals "salt," then (masculine) in poetry "brine." It is formed strictly, as other Hebrew words denoting an occupation.. It does not occur in earlier books, because "seamen" are not mentioned earlier.
(3) החבל רב rab hachô bê l, "chief of the sailors," "captain." "Rab" is Phoenician also, and this was a Phoenician vessel. It does not occur earlier, because "the captain of a vessel" is not mentioned earlier. One says , "it is the same as שׂר s'ar, chiefly in later Hebrew." It occurs, in all, only four times, and in all cases, as here, of persons not Hebrew; Nebuzaradan, טבחים רב rab ṭ abbâ chı̂ ym Kg2 25:8, "captain of the guard," סריסים רב rab sâ rı̂ ysı̂ ym Dan 1:3, "chief of the eunuchs;" ביתוּ רב כל kô l rab bayithô Est 1:8, "every officer of his house." שׂר s'ar, on the other hand, is never used except of an office of authority, of one who had a place of authority given by one higher. It occurs as much in the later as in the earlier books, but is not used in the singular of an inferior office. It is used of military, but not of any interior secular command. It would probably have been a solecism to have said החבל שׂר s'ar hachô bê l, as much as if we were to say "prince of sailors." חבל chô bê l, which is joined with it, is a Hebrew word not Aramaic word.
(4) רבו ribbô, "ten thousand," they say, "is a word of later Hebrew." Certainly neither it, nor any inflection of it occurs in the Pentateuch, Judges, Samuel, Canticles, in until which we have the word רבבה rebâ bâ h. It is true also that the form רבו ribbô or derivative forms occur in books of the date of the captivity, as Daniel, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. (In Ch1 29:7, twice, Daniel once, Ezra twice; Nehemiah thrice.) But it also occurs in a Psalm of David , and in Hosea (Hos 8:12 Ch.) who is acknowledged to have prophesied in the days of Jeroboam, and so was a contemporary of Jonah. It might have been, accordingly, a form used in Northern Palestine, but that its use by David does not justify such limitation.
(5) עשׁת ית yı̂ th ‛ â shath, "thought, purposed," is also an old Hebrew word, as appears from its use in the number eleven , as the first number which is conceived in thought, the ten being numbered on the fingers. The root occurs also in Job, a Psalm Psa 146:4, and the Canticles. in the Syriac, it does not occur; nor, in the extant Aramaic, in the sense in which it is used in Jonah. For in Jonah it is used of the merciful thoughts of God; in Aramaic, of the evil thoughts of man. Besides, it is used in Jonah not by the prophet himself but by the shipmaster, whose words he relates.
(6) The use of the abridged forms of the relative pronoun שׁ she for אשׁר 'ă sher, twice in composite words בשׁלמי beshelmı̂ y Jon 1:7, בשׁלי beshelı̂ y Jon 1:12, (the fuller form, למי באשׁר ba'ă sher lemı̂ y Jon 1:8, also occurring) and once in union with a noun שׁבן shebbê n (Jon 4:10. (2)).
There is absolutely no plea whatever for making this an indication of a later style, and yet it occurs in every string of words, which have been assumed to be indications of such style. It is not Aramaic at all, but Phoenician and old Hebrew. In Phoenician, "esh" is the relative, which corresponds the more with the Hebrew in that the phollowing letter was doubled, as in the Punic words in Plautus, "syllohom, siddoberim," it enters into two proper names, both of which occur in the Pentateuch, and one, only there, מתושׁאל methû shâ'ê l Gen 4:18, "a man of God," and מישׁאל mı̂ yshâ'ê l (Exo 6:22; Lev 10:4; also in Daniel and Nehemiah), the same as Michael, "who is like God?" literally, "Who is what God is?"
Probably, it occurs also in the Pentateuch in the ordinary language Gen 6:3. Perhaps it was used more in the dialect of North Palestine . Probably it was also the spoken language Jdg 6:17; Kg2 6:11. Two of the instances in the Lamentations are words in the mouth of the pagan, Lam 2:15-16), in which abridged forms are used in all languages. Hence, perhaps its frequent use in the Song of Solomon (Sol 1:6 (2), 7 (2); Sol 2:7, Sol 2:17; Sol 3:1-4 (4), 5, 7; Sol 4:1-2 (2), 6; Sol 5:2, Sol 5:8-9; Sol 6:5 (2), 6 (2); Sol 8:4, Sol 8:8, Sol 8:12), which is all dialogue, and in which it is employed to the entire exclusion of the fuller form; and that, so frequently, that the instances in the Canticles are nearly 14 of those in the whole Old Testament. In addition to this, half of the whole number of instances, in which it occurs in the Bible, are found in another short book, Ecclesiastes. In a book, containing only 222 verses, it occurs 66 times (Ecc 1:3, Ecc 1:7, Ecc 1:9 (4), 10, 11(2), 14, 17; Ecc 2:9, Ecc 2:11 (2), 2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18(3), 19(2), 20, 21(2), 22, 24, 26; Ecc 3:13-15, Ecc 3:18, Ecc 3:22; Ecc 4:2, Ecc 4:10; Ecc 5:4, Ecc 5:14 (2), 15 (2), 17; Ecc 6:3, Ecc 6:10 (2); Ecc 7:10, Ecc 7:14, Ecc 7:24; Ecc 8:7, Ecc 8:14, Ecc 8:17; Ecc 9:5, Ecc 9:12 (2); Ecc 10:3, Ecc 10:5, Ecc 10:14, Ecc 10:16-17; Ecc 11:3, Ecc 11:8; Ecc 12:3, Ecc 12:7, Ecc 12:9).
This, in itself, requires some ground for its use, beyond that of mere date. Of books which are really later, it does not occur in Jeremiah's prophecies, Ezekiel, Daniel, or any of the 6 later of the Minor prophets, nor in Nehemiah or Esther. It occurs once only in Ezra Ezr 8:20, and twice in the First Book of Chronicles (Ch1 5:20 שעמהם; Ch1 27:27 שבכרמים), whereas it occurs four times in the Judges Jdg 5:7; Jdg 6:17; Jdg 7:12; Jdg 8:26, and once in the Kings (Kg2 6:11 משלנו.), and once probably in Job (Job 19:29, ending with שדין.). Its use belongs to that wide principle of condensation in Hebrew, blending in one, in different ways, what we express by separate words. The relative pronoun is confessedly, on this ground, very often omitted in Hebrew poetry, when it would be used in prose. In the Canticles, Solomon does not once use the ordinary separate relative, אשׁר 'ă sher.
Of the 19 instances in the Psalms, almost half, 9, occur in those Psalms of unique rhythm - the gradual Psalms Psa 122:3-4; Psa 123:2; Psa 124:1, Psa 124:6; Psa 129:6-7; Psa 133:2-3; four more occur in two other Psalms Psa 125:2, Psa 8, 10; Psa 136:23, which belong to one another, the latter of which has that remarkable burden, for His mercy endureth foRev_er. Three are condensed into a solemn denunciation of Babylon in another Psalm. (Psa 137:8 (2), 9. The remaining ones are Psa 144:15, שככה and Psa 146:3, Psa 146:5). Of the ten Psalms, in which it occurs, four are ascribed to David, and only one, Psa 137:1-9, has any token of belonging to a later date. In the two passages in the Chronicles, it occurs in words doubly compounded (Ch1 5:20 שעמהם; Ch1 27:27 שבכרמים). The principle of rhythm would account for its occurring four times in the five chapters of the Lamentations Lam 2:15-16; Lam 4:19; Lam 5:18 of Jeremiah, while in the 52 chapters of his prophecies it does not occur even once. In Job also, it is in a solemn pause. Altogether, there is no proof whatever that the use of שׁ she for אשׁר 'ă sher is any test of the date of any Hebrew book, since:
(1) It is not Aramaic.
(2) It occurs in the earliest books, and
(3) not in the latest books.
(4) Its use is idiomatic, and nowhere except in the Canticles and Ecclesiastes does it pervade any book.
If it had belonged to the ordinary idiom at the date of Ezra, it would not have been so entirely insulated as it is, in the three instances in the Chronicles and Ezra. It would not have occurred in the earlier books in which it does occur, and would have occurred in later books in which it does not. In Jonah, its use in two places is unique to himself, occurring nowhere else in the Hebrew Scriptures. In the first, its Phoenician form is used by the Phoenician mariners; in the second it is an instance of the spoken language in the mouth of the prophet, a native of North Palestine, and in answer to Phoenicians. In the third instance, (where it is the simple relative pronoun) its use is evidently for condensation. Its use, in any case, would agree with the exact circumstances of Jonah, as a native of North Palestine, conversing with the Phoenician mariners. The only plea of argument has been gained by arguing in a circle, assuming without any even plausible ground that the Song of Solomon or Psalms of David were late, because they had this form, and then using it as a test of another book being late; ignoring alike the earlier books which have it and the later books which have it not, and its exceptional use (except in the Canticles and Ecclesiastes), in the books which have it.
(7) It is difficult to know to what end the use of מנה mâ nâ h, "appoint " or "prepare," is alleged, since it occurs in a Psalm of David Psa 61:8. Jonah uses it in a special way as to acts of God's Providence, "preparing" before, what He wills to employ. Jonah uses the word of the "preparing" of the fish, the palm-christ, the worm which should destroy it, the East wind. He evidently used it with a set purpose, to express what no other word expressed equally to his mind, how God prepared by His Providence the instruments which He willed to employ.
(8) There remains only the word used for the decree of the king of Nineveh, טעם ṭ a‛ am. This is a Syriac word; and accordingly, since it has now been ascertained beyond all question, that the language of Nineveh was a dialect of Syriac, it was, with a Hebrew pronunciation , the very word used of this decree at Nineveh. The employment of the special word is a part of the same accuracy with which Jonah relates that the decree used was issued not from the king only, but from the king and his nobles, one of those minute touches, which occur in the writings of those who describe what they have seen, but supplying a fact as to the Assyrian polity, which we should not otherwise have known, that the nobles were in some way associated in the decrees of the king.
Out of these eight words or forms, three are naval terms, and, since Israel was no seafaring people, it is in harmony with the history, that these terms should first occur in the first prophet who left the land of his mission by sea. So it is also, that an Assyrian technical term should first occur in a prophet who had been sent to Nineveh. A fifth word occurs in Hosea, a contemporary of Jonah, and in a Psalm of David. The abridged grammatical form was Phoenician, not Aramaic, was used in conversation, occurs in the oldest proper names, and in the Northern tribes. The 7th and 8th do not occur in Aramaic in the meaning in which they are used by Jonah.
In truth, often as these false criticisms have been repeated from one to the other, they would not have been thought of at all, except for the miracles related by Jonah, which the devisers of these criticisms did not believe. A history of miracles, such as those in Jonah, would not be published at the time, unless they were true! Those then who did not believe that God worked any miracles, were forced to have some plea for saying that the book was not written in the time of Jonah. Prejudices against faith have, sometimes openly, sometimes tacitly, been the ruling principle (on which earlier portions of Holy Scripture have been classed among the latter by critics who disbelieved what those books or passages related. Obviously no weight can be given to the opinions of critics, whose criticisms are founded, not on the study of the language, but upon unbelief. It has recently been said , "the joint decision of Gesenius, DeWette and Hitzig ought to be final." A joint decision certainly it is not. For DeWette places the book of Jonah before the captivity; Gesenius and Ewald, when prophecy had long ceased; Ewald, partly on account of its miracles, in the 5th century, b. c.; and Hitzig, with his accustomed willfulness and insulatedness of criticism, built a theory that the book is of Egyptian origin on his own mistake that the קיקיון qı̂ yqâ yô n grew only in Egypt, and placed it in the second century, b. c., the times of the Maccabees . The interval is also filled up. Every sort of date and contradictory grounds for those dates have been assigned. So then one places the book of Jonah in the time of Sennacherib , i. e., of Hezekiah; another under Josiah ; another before the captivity ; another toward the end of the captivity, after the destruction of Nineveh by Cyaxares ; a fifth lays chief stress on the argument that the destruction of Nineveh is not mentioned in it ; a sixth prefers the time after the return from the captivity to its close; a seventh doubted not, "from its argument and purpose, that it was written before the order of prophets ceded" , others of the same school are as positive from. its arguments and contents, that it must have been written after that order was closed .
The style of the Book of Jonah is, in fact pure and simple Hebrew, corresponding to the simplicity of the narrative, and of the prophet's character. Although written in prose, it has poetic language, not in the thanksgiving only, but whenever it suits the subject. These expressions are unique to Jonah. Such are, in the account of the storm, "the Lord cast a strong wind," "the vessel thought to be broken," "the sea shall be silent" (hushed, as we say) i. e., calm; "the wind was advancing and storming" , as with a whirlwind; (the word is used as to the sea by Jonah only), "the men plowed" or "dug" (in rowing) "the sea stood from its raging." Also "let man and beast 'clothe themselves' with sackcloth," and that touching expression, "son of a night, it (the palma-Christi) came to being, and son of a night (i. e., in a night) it perished." It is in harmony with his simplicity of character, that he is fond of the old idiom, by which the thought of the verb is carried on by a noun formed from it. "The men feared a great fear," (Jon 1:10, Jon 1:16. יראה ייראו) "It displeased Jonah a great displeasure," (Jon 4:1. רעה ירע) "Jonah joyed a great joy." (Jon 4:6, שמחה ישמח) Another idiom has been observed, which occurs in no writer later than the judges.
But, in the history, every phrase is vivid and graphic. There is not a word which does not advance the history. There is no reflection. All hastens on to the completion, and when God has given the key to the whole, the book closes with His words of exceeding tenderness lingering in our ears. The prophet, with the same simplicity and beginning with the same words, says he did not, and he did, obey God. The book opens, after the first authenticating words, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for the wickedness is come up before Me." God had commanded him to arise ; the narrative simply repeats the word, "And Jonah arose " - but for what? to flee in the very opposite direction "from being before the Lord" , i. e., from standing in His presence, as His servant and minister. He lost no time, to do the contrary. After the miracles, by which he had been both punished and delivered, the history is resumed with the same simple dignity as before, in the same words; the disobedience being noticed only in the word, a second time. "And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry unto it that cry which I say unto thee." This time it follows, "And Jonah arose and went to Nineveh."
Then, in the history itself, we follow the prophet step by step. He arose to flee to Tarshish, went down to Joppa, a perilous, yet the only sea-port for Judaea (Kg1 5:9; Ch2 2:16; and after the captivity, Ezr 3:7). He finds the ship, "pays its fare" (one of those little touches of a true narrative); God sends the storm, man does all he can; and all in vain. The character of the pagan is brought out in contrast with the then sleeping conscience and despondency of the prophet. But it is all in act. They are all activity; he is simply passive. They pray, (as they can) each man to his gods; he is asleep: they do all they can, lighten the ship, the ship-master rouses him, to pray to his God, since their own prayers avail not; they propose the lots, cast them; the lot falls upon Jonah. Then follow their brief accumulated inquiries; Jonah's calm answer, increasing their fear; their inquiry of the prophet himself, what they are to do to him; his knowledge that he must be cast over; the unwillingness of the pagan; one more fruitless effort to save both themselves and the prophet; the increasing violence of the storm; the prayer to the prophet's God, not to lay innocent blood to them, who obeyed His prophet; the casting him forth; the instant hush and silence of the sea; their conversion and sacrifice to the true God - the whole stands before us, as if we saw it with our own eyes.
And yet, amid, or perhaps as a part of, that vividness, there is that characteristic of Scripture-narratives, that some things even seem improbable, until, on thought, we discover the reason. It is not on a first reading, that most perceive the naturalness either of Jonah's deep sleep, or of the increase of the mariner's fear, on his account of himself. Yet that deep sleep harmonizes at least with his long hurried flight to Joppa, and that mood with which men who have taken a wrong step, try to forget themselves. He relates that he "was gone down" Jon 1:5, i. e., before the storm began. The sailors' increased tear surprises us the more, since it is added, "they knew that he had fled from before the presence of God, 'because he had told them.'" One word explained it. He had told them, from whose service he had fled, but not that He, against whom he had sinned, and who, they would think, was pursuing His fugitive, was "the Maker of the sea," whose raging was threatening their lives.
Again, the history mentions only that Jonah was cast over; that God prepared a fish to swallow him; that he was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights; that he, at the end of that time, prayed to God out of the fish's belly, and at the close of the prayer was delivered. The word "prayed" obviously includes "thanksgiving" as the act of adoring love from the creature to the Creator. It is said that Hannah prayed Sa1 2:1, but her hymn, as well as Jonah's does not contain one petition. Both are the outpouring of thanksgiving from the soul, to which God had given what it had prayed for. As, before, it was not said, whether he prayed because of the shipmaster's rebuke or not, so here nothing is said in the history, except as to the last moment, upon which he was cast out on the dry ground. The prayer incidentally supplies the rest. It is a simple thanksgiving of one who had prayed and who had been delivered Jon 2:3. "I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me." In the first mercy, he saw the earnest of the rest. He asks for nothing, he only thanks. But that for which he thanks is the deliverance from the perils of the sea. The thanksgiving corresponds with the plain words, "that he prayed out of the fish's belly." They are suited to one so praying, who looked on in full faith to the future completion of his deliverance, although our minds might rather have been fixed on the actual peril. It is a thanksgiving of faith, but of stronger faith than many moderns have been able to conceive.
The hymn itself is a remarkable blending of old and new, as our Lord says Mat 13:52 : "Therefore is the kingdom of heaven like a householder, who bringeth out of his treasure new and old." The prophet teaches us to use the Psalms, as well as how the holy men of old used them. In that great moment of religious life, the wellremembered Psalms, such as he had often used them, were brought to his mind. What had been figures to David or the sons of Korah, as Jon 2:5; Psa 69:2, "the waters are come in even unto my soul" Jon 2:3; Psa 42:8; "all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me," were strict realities to him. Yet only in this last sentence and in one other sentence which doubtless had become a proverb of accepted prayer Jon 2:2; Psa 120:1, "I cried out of my trouble unto the Lord and He heard me," does Jonah use exactly the words of earlier Psalms. Elsewhere he varies or amplifies them according to his own special circumstances.
Thus, where David said, "the waters are 'come in,' even unto my soul," Jonah substitutes the word which best described the condition from which God had delivered him, "The water compassed me about, even to the soul." Where David said (Psa 31:22, נגזרתי), "I am cut off from before Thine eyes," expressing an abiding condition, Jonah, who had for disobedience been cast into the sea, uses the strong word (Jon 2:4 (5), נגרשתי), "I am cast out from before Thine eyes." David says, "I said in my haste;" Jonah simply," I said;" for he had deserved it. David said Ps. 142:8, "when my spirit was overwhelmed" or "fainted within me," "Thou knewest my path;" Jonah substitutes, "When my soul fainted within me, 'I remembered the Lord'" (Jon 2:7 (8)); for when he rebelled, he forgot Him. David said Psa 31:7, "I hate them that observe lying vanities;" Jonah, who had himself disobeyed God, says mournfully Jon 2:9, "They that observe lying vanities, 'forsake their own mercy,'" i. e., their God, Who is mercy.
Altogether, Jonah's thanksgiving is that of one whose mind was stored with the Psalms which were part of the public worship, but it is the language of one who uses and re-casts them freely, as he was taught of God, not of one who copies. No one verse is taken entirely from any Psalm. There are original expressions everywhere The words, "I went down to the cuttings-off of the mountains," "the seaweed bound around my head;" "the earth, its bars around me foRev_er:" perhaps the coral reefs which run along all that shore vividly exhibit him, sinking, entangled, imprisoned, as it seems, inextricably; he goes on; we should expect some further description of his state; but he adds, in five simple words , "Thou broughtest up my life from corruption, O Lord My God." Words, somewhat like these last, occur elsewhere Psa 30:3. "thou hast brought up my soul from hell," agreeing in the one word "brought up." But the majesty of the prophet's conception is in the connection of the thought; the seaweed was bound around his head as his grave-clothes; the solid bars of the deep-rooted earth, were around him, and ... God brought him up. At the close of the thanksgiving, "Salvation is the Lord's," deliverance is completed, as though God had only waited for this act of complete faith.
So could no one have written, who had not himself been delivered from such an extreme peril of drowning, as man could not, of himself, escape from. True, that no image so well expresses the overwhelmedness under affliction or temptation, as the pressure of storm by land, or being overflooded by the waves of the sea. Human poetry knows of "a sea of troubles," or "the triple wave of evils." It expresses how we are simply pas sive and powerless under a trouble, which leaves us neither breath nor power of motion; under which we can be but still, until, by God's mercy it passes. "We are sunk, overhead, deep down in temptations, and the masterful current is sweeping in eddies over us." Of this sort are those images which Jonah took from the Psalms. But a description so minute as the whole of Jonah's would be allegory, not metaphor. What, in it, is most descriptive of Jonah's situation , as "binding of the seaweed around the head, the sinking down to the roots of the mountains, the bars of the earth around him," are special to this thanksgiving of Jonah; they do not occur elsewhere, for, except through miracle, they would be images not of peril but of death.
The same vividness, and the same steady directions to its end, characterizes the rest of the book. Critics have wondered why Jonah does not say, on what shore he was east forth, why he does not describe his long journey to Nineveh, or tell us the name of the Assyrian king, or what he himself did, when his mission was closed. Jonah speaks of himself, only as relates to his mission, and God's teaching through him; the tells us not the king's name, but his deeds.
The description of the size of Nineveh remarkably corresponds alike with the ancient accounts and modern investigations. Jonah describes it as "a city of three days'journey." This obviously means its circumference, for, unless the city were a circle, (as no cities are,) it would have no one diameter. A person might describe the average length and breadth of a city, but no one who gave any one measure, by days or miles or any other measure, would mean anything else than its circumference. Diodorus (probably on the authority of Ctesias) states that (Jon 2:3. So too Q. Curtius v. 4.) "it was well-walled, of unequal lengths. Each of the longer sides was 150 furlongs; each of the shorter, 90. The whole circuit then being 480 furlongs (60 miles) the hope of the founder was not disappointed. For no one afterward built a city of such compass, and with walls so magnificent." To Babylon "Clitarehus and the companions of Alexander in their writings, assigned a circuit of 365 furlongs, adding that the number of furlongs was conformed to the number of days in the year" .
Ctesias, in round numbers, calls them 360; Strabo, 385. All these accounts agree with the statement of Strabo, "Nineveh was much larger than Babylon." The 60 miles of Diodorus exactly correspond with the three days' journey of Jonah. A traveler of our own at the beginning of the 17th century, John Cartwright, states that with his own eyes he traced out the ruinous foundations, and gives their dimensions. "It seems by the ruinous foundation (which I thoroughly viewed) that it was built with four sides, but not equal or square. For the two longer sides had each of them (as we guess) 150 furlongs, the two shorter sides ninety furlongs, which amounteth to four hundred and eighty furlongs of ground, which makes the threescore miles, accounting eight furlongs to an Italian mile."
No one of the four great mounds, which lie around the site of ancient Nineveh, Nimrud, Kouyunjik, Khorsabad, Karamless, is of sufficient moment or extent to be identified with the old Nineveh. But they are connected together by the sameness of their remains. Together they form a parallelogram, and this of exactly the dimensions assigned by Jonah. "From the northern extremity of Kouyunjik to Nimrud, is about 18 miles, the distance from Nimrud to Karamless, about 12; the opposite sides, the same." "A recent trigonometrical survey of the country by Captain Jones proves, I am informed," says Layard , "that the great ruins of Kouyunjik, Nimrud, Karamless, and Khorsabad form very nearly a perfect parallelogram."
This is perhaps also the explanation, how, seeing its circumference was three days' journey, Jonah entered a day's journey in the city and, at the close of the period, we find him at the East side of the city, the opposite to that at which he had entered.
His preaching seems to have lasted only this one day. He went, we are told, "one day's journey in the city." The 150 stadia are nearly 19 miles, a day's journey, so that Jonah walked through it from end to end, repeating that one cry, which God had commanded him to cry out. We seem to see the solitary figure of the prophet, clothed (as was the prophet's dress) in that one rough garment of hair cloth, uttering the cry which we almost hear, echoing in street after street, Jon 3:4, "נהפחת נינוה יום ארבעים עד ‛ ô d' arbâ‛ı̂ ym yô m nı̂ ynevê h nê hpâ cheth," "yet forty days and Nineveh overthrown!" The words which he says he cried and said, belong to that one day only. For on that one day only, was there still a respite of forty days. In one day, the grace of God pRev_ailed. The conversion of a whole people upon one day's preaching of a single stranger, stands in contrast with the many years during which, God says (Jer 7:25, add 13; Jer 11:7; Jer 25:3-4; Jer 26:5; Jer 29:19; Jer 32:33; Jer 35:14-15; Jer 44:4), "since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have sent unto you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them, yet they hearkened not unto Me." Many of us have wondered what the prophet did on the other thirty-nine days; people have imagined the prophet preaching as moderns would, or telling them his own wondrous story of his desertion of God, his miraculous punishment, and, on his repentance, his miraculous deliverance. Jonah says nothing of this. The one point he brought out was the conversion of the Ninevites. This he dwells on in circumstantial details. His own part he suppresses; he would be, like John the Immerser, but the voice of one crying in the wild waste of a city of violence.
This simple message of Jonah bears an analogy to what we find elsewhere in Holy Scripture. Doubtless, the great preacher of repentance, John the Immerser, repeated oftentimes that one cry Mat 3:2, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Our Lord vouchsafed to begin His own office with those self-same words Mat 4:17; Mar 1:15. And probably, among the civilized but savage inhabitants of Nineveh, that one cry was more impressive than any other would have been. Simplicity is always impressive. They were four words which God caused to be written on the wall amid Belshazzar's impious Rev_elry Dan 5:25 - פרסין תקל מנא מנא menê' menê' teqal perası̂ yn (Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin). We all remember the touching history of Jesus, the son of Anan, an unlettered rustic, who , "four years before the war, when Jerusalem was in complete peace and affluence," burst in on the people at the Feast of Tabernacles with one oft-repeated cry, "A voice from the East, a voice from the West, a voice from the four winds, a voice on Jerusalem and the temple, a voice on the bridegrooms and the brides, a voice on the whole people;" how he went about through all the lanes of the city, repeating, day and night, this one cry; and when scourged until his bones were laid bare, echoed every lash with "woe, woe, to Jerusalem," and continued as his daily dirge and his one response to daily good or ill-treatment, "woe, woe, to Jerusalem." The magistrates and even the cold Josephus thought that there was something in it above nature.
In Jerusalem, no effect was produced, because they had filled up the measure of their sins and God had abandoned them. All conversion is the work of the grace of God. That of Nineveh remains, in the history of mankind, an insulated instance of God's overpowering grace. All which can be pointed out as to the Book of Jonah, is the latent suitableness of the instruments employed. We know from the Cuneiform Inscriptions that Assyria had been for successive generations at war with Syria. Not until the time of Ivalush or Pul, the Assyrian monarch, probably, at the time of Jonah's mission, do we find them tributary to Assyria. They were hereditary enemies of Assyria, and probably their chief opponents on the North East. The breaking of their power then, under Jeroboam, which Jonah had foretold, had an interest for the Assyrians; and Jonah's prophecy and the fact of its fulfillment may have reached them. The history of his own deliverance, we know from our Lord's own words, did reach them. He "was a sign Luk 11:30 unto the Ninevites." The word, under which he threatened their destruction, pointed to a miraculous overthrow. It was a turning upside down , like the overthrow of the five cities of the plain which are known throughout the Old Testament, Gen 19:21, Gen 19:25; Deu 29:23; Amo 4:11; Jer 20:16; Lam 4:6. and still throughout the Muslim East, by the same name, "almoutaphikat , the overthrown."
The Assyrians also, amidst their cruelties, had a great Rev_erence for their gods, and (as appears from the inscriptions, ascribed to them their national greatness . The variety of ways in which this is expressed, implies a far more personal belief; than the statements which we find among the Romans, and would put to shame almost every English manifesto, or the speeches put into the mouth of the Queen. They may have been, then, the more prepared to fear the prophecy of their destruction from the true God. Layard relates that he has "known a Christian priest frighten a whole Mussulman town to repentance, by proclaiming that he had a divine mission to announce a coming earthquake or plague" .
These may have been predisposing causes. But the completeness of the repentance, not outward only, but inward, "turning from their evil way," is, in its extent, unexampled.
The fact rests upon the authority of "One greater than Jonah." Our Lord relates it as a fact. He contrasts people with people, the penitent pagan with the impenitent Jews, the inferior messenger who pRev_ailed, with Himself, whom His own received not Mat 12:4. "The men of Nineveh shall raise up with this generation and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas is here."
The chief subject of the repentance of the Ninevites agrees also remarkably with their character. It is mentioned in the proclamation of the king and his nobles, "let them turn every one from his evil way 'and from the violence' that is in their hands." Out of the whole catalogue of their sins, conscience singled out violence. This incidental notice, contained in the one word, exactly corresponds in substance with the fuller description in the prophet Nahum Nah 3:1, "Woe to the bloody city; it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not" Nah 2:12. "The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey and his dens with ravin" Nah 3:19. "Upon whom hath not thy wickedness (ill-doing) passed continually?" "The Assyrian records," says Layard , "are nothing but a dry register of military campaigns, spoilations, and cruelties."
The direction, that the animals also should be included in the common mourning, was according to the analogy of Eastern custom. When the Persian general Masistius fell at the battle of Plataea , the "whole army and Mardonius above all, made a mourning, 'shaving themselves, and the horses, and the beasts of burden,' amid surpassing wailing ... Thus the Barbarians after their manner honored Masistius on his death." Alexander imitated apparently the Persian custom in his mourning for Hephsestion . The characteristic of the mourning in each case is, that they include the animals in that same mourning which they made themselves. The Ninevites had a right feeling (as God Himself says), that the mercies of God were over man and beast ; and so they joined the beasts with themselves, hoping that the Creator of all would the rather have mercy on their common distress Psa 145:9. "His tender mercies are over all His works Psa 36:7. Thou, Lord, shalt save both man and beast."
The name of the king cannot yet be ascertained. But since this mission of Jonah fell in the latter part of his prophetic office, and so probably in the latter part of the reign of Jeroboam or even later, the Assyrian king was probably Ivalush III or the "Pul" of Holy Scripture. Jonah's human fears would, in that case, have been soon fulfilled. For Pul was the first Assyrian Monarch through whom Israel was weakened; and God had foreshown by Amos that through the third it would be destroyed. Characteristic, on account of the earnestness which it implies, is the account that the men of Nineveh proclaimed the fast, before news reached the king himself. This is the plain meaning of the words; yet on account of the obvious difficulty they have been rendered, and word had come to the king . The account is in harmony with that vast extent of the city, as of Babylon, of which "the residents related that, after the outer portions of the city were taken, the inhabitants of the central part did not know that they were taken." It could scarcely have occurred to one who did not know the fact.
The history of Jonah, after God had spared Nineveh, has the same characteristic touches. He leaves his own character unexplained, its severity rebuked by God, unexcused and unpalliated. He had some special repugnance to be the messenger of mercy to the Ninevites. "For this cause," he says to God, "I fled before to Tarshish, for I knew that Thou art a merciful God, and repentest Thee of the evil." The circumstances of his time explain that repugnance. He had already been employed to prophesy the partial restoration of the boundaries of Israel. He was the contemporary of Hosea who foretold of his people, the ten tribes Hos 9:3, "they shall not dwell in the Lord's land, they shall eat unclean things in Assyria." God, in giving him his commission to go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and "cry against it, assigned as the reason," for its wickedness is come up before Me;" words which to Jonah would suggest the memory of the wickedness of Sodom and its destruction.
Jonah was a prophet, but he was also an Israelite. He was commanded by God to call to repentance the capital of the country by which his own people, nay the people of his God, were to be carried captive. And he rebelled. We know more of the love of God than Jonah, for we have known the love of the Incarnation and the Redemption. And yet, were it made known to us, that some European or Asiatic people were to carry our own people captive out of our land, more than would be willing to confess it of themselves, (whatever sense they might have of the awfulness of God's judgments, and ever feelings belonging to our common humanity,) would still inwardly rejoice to hear, that such a calamity as the earthquake at Lisbon befell its capital. It is the instinct of self-preservation and the implanted love of country. Jonah's complaining related solely to God's mercy shown to them as to this world.
For the Ninevites had repented, and so were in the grace of God. The older of us remember what awful joy was felt when that three days' mortal strife at Leipzig at length was won, in which 107, 000 were killed or wounded ; or when out of 647, 000 men who swept across Europe (a mass larger than the whole population of Nineveh) only "85, 000 escaped; 125, 000 were slain in battle, 132, 000 perished by cold, fatigue and famine." A few years ago, how were Sebastopol and the Krimea in men's mouths, although that war is reputed to have cost the five nations involved in it 700, 000 lives, more, probably, than all the inhabitants of Nineveh. People forget or abstract themselves from all the individual sufferings, and think only of the result of the whole. A humane historian says of the battle of Leipzig , "a prodigious sacrifice, but one which, great as it was, humanity has no cause to regret, for it delivered Europe from French bondage, and the world from Rev_olutionary aggression." He says on the Russian campaign of Napoleon I , "the faithful throughout Europe repeated the words of the Psalm, Efflavit Deus et dissipantur."
Look at Dr. Arnold's description of the issue of the Russian campaign : "Still the flood of the tide rose higher and higher, and every successive wave of its advance swept away a kingdom. Earthly state has never reached a prouder pinnacle, than when Napoleon in June, 1812, gathered his army at Dresden, that mighty host, unequalled in all time, of 450, 000, not men merely but, effective soldiers, and there received the homage of subject kings. And now, what was the principal adversary of this tremendous power? by whom was it checked, resisted, and put down? fly none, and by nothing but the direct and manifest interposition of God. I know no language so well fitted to describe the victorious advance to Moscow, and the utter humiliation of the retreat, as the language of the prophet with respect to the advance and subsequent destruction cf the host of Sennacherib. When they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses, applied almost literally to that memorable night of frost in which 20, 000 horses perished, and the strength of the French army was utterly broken.
Human instruments no doubt were employed in the remainder of the work, nor would I deny to Germany and to Russia the glories of that great year 1813, nor to England the honor of her victories in Spain or of the crowning victory of Waterloo. But at the distance of thirty years those who lived in the time of danger and remember its magnitude, and now calmly Rev_iew what there was in human strength to avert it, must acknowledge, I think, beyond all controversy, that the deliverance of Europe from the dominion of Napoleon was effected neither by Russia nor by Germany nor by England, but by the hand of God alone." Jonah probably pictured to himself some sudden and almost painless destruction, which the word, overthrown, suggested, in which the whole city would be engulfed in an instant and the power which threatened his people, the people of God, broken at once. God reproved Jonah; but, before man condemns him, it were well to think, what is the pRev_ailing feeling in Christian nations, at any signal calamity which befalls any people who threaten their own power or honor; we cannot, in Christian times, say, their existence. "Jonah," runs an old traditional saying among the Jews , "sought the honor of the son (Israel), and sought not the honor of the Father."
An uninspired writer would doubtless at least have brought out the relieving points of Jonah's character, and not have left him under the unmitigated censure of God. Jonah tells the plain truth of himself, as Matthew relates his own desertion of his Lord among the Apostles, or Mark, under the guidance of Peter, relates the great fall of the great Apostle.
Amid this, Jonah remains the same throughout. It is one strong impetuous will, bent on having no share in that which was to bring destruction on his people, fearless of death and ready to give up his life. In the same mind he gives himself to death amid the storm, and, when his mission was accomplished, asks for death in the words of his great predecessor Elijah, when he fled from Jezebel. He probably justified his impatience to himself by the precedent of so great a prophet. But although he complains, he complains to God of Himself. Having complained, Jonah waits. It may be that he thought, although God did not execute His judgments on the 40th day, He might still fulfill them. He had been accustomed to the thought of the long-suffering of God, delaying even when He struck at last. "Considering with himself," says Theodorus, "the greatness of the threat, he imagined that something might perchance still happen even after this." The patience of God amid the prophet's impatience, the still, gentle inquiry (such as lie often puts to the conscience now), "Doest thou well to be angry?" and his final conviction of the prophet out of his own feelings toward one of God's inanimate creatures, none would have ventured to picture, who had not known or experienced it.
In regard to the miracles in Jonah's history, over and above the fact, that they occur in Holy Scripture, we have our Lord's own word for their truth. He has set His seal on the whole of the Old Testament Luk 24:24; He has directly authenticated by His own divine authority the physical miracle of Jonah's preservation for three days and nights in the belly of the fish Mat 12:40, and the still greater moral miracle of the conversion of the Ninevites Mat 12:41; Luk 11:32. He speaks of them both, as facts, and of the stay of Jonah in the fish's belly, as a type of His own stay in the heart of the earth. He speaks of it also as a miraculous sign Mat 12:38-40; Luk 11:16, Luk 11:29-30.
The Scribes and Pharisees, unable to answer His refutation of their blasphemy, imputing His miracles to Beelzebub, asked of Him a miraculous sign from heaven. Probably, they meant to ask that one sign, for which they were always craving. Confounding His first coming with His second coming, and interpreting, according to their wishes, of His first coming all which the prophets foretold of the second, they were ever looking out for that His Coming in glory "with the clouds of heaven" Dan 7:13-14; Mat 16:27; Mat 24:30; Mat 26:64; Luk 21:27; Th1 4:16; Rev 1:7, to humble, as they thought, their own as well as His enemies. Our Lord answers, that this their craving for a sign was part of their faithlessness. "An evil and adulterons generation seeketh after a sign: and there shall no sign be given them, but the sign of the prophet Jonas." He uses three times their own word "sign."
He speaks of a miraculous sign, "the sign of Jonas," a miracle which was the sign of something beyond itself Mat 12:41; Luk 11:32. "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." He gave them the sign from earth, not from heaven; a miracle of humility, not of glory; of deliverance from death, and, as it were, a resurrection. A sign, such as Holy Scripture speaks of, need not at all times be a miraculous, but it is always a real sign. Isaiah and his sons, by real names, given to them by God, or the prophet by his walking barefoot, or Ezekiel by symbolic acts, were signs; not by miraculous but still by real acts. In this case, the Jews asked for a miraculous sign; our Lord promises them a miraculous sign, although not one such as they wished for, or which would satisfy them; a miraculous sign, of which the miraculous preservation of Jonah was a type. Our Lord says Mat 12:41; Luk 11:32, "Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly," and no one who really believes in Him, dare think that he was not.
It is perhaps a part of the simplicity of Jonah's narrative, that he relates these great miracles, as naturally as he does the most ordinary events. To God nothing is great or small; and the prophet, deeply as he feels God's mercy, relates the means which God employed, as if it had been one of those every day miracles of His power and love, of which people think so little because God worketh them every day.
"God prepared a great fish," he says, "God prepared a palm-christ; God prepared a worm; God prepared a vehement East wind." Whether Jonah relates God's ordinary or His extraordinary workings, His workings in the way in which He upholdeth in being the creatures of His will, or in a way which involves a miracle, i. e., God's acting in some unusual way, Jonah relates it in the same way, with the same simplicity of truth. His mind is fixed upon God's Providence, and he relates God's acts, as they bore upon God's Providential dealings with him. He tells of God's preparing the East Wind which struck the palm-christ, in the same way in which he speaks of the supernatural growth of the palm-christ, or of God's Providence, in appointing that the fish should swallow him. He mentions this, which was in the order of God's Providence; he nowhere stops to tell us the "how." How God converted the Ninevites, how He sustained his life in the fish's belly, he does not tell. He mentions only the great facts themselves, and leaves them in their mysterious greatness.
It is not strange, the pagan scoffers fixed upon the physical miracles in the history of Jonah for their scorn. They could have no appreciation of the great moral miracle of the conversion of a whole Pagan city at the voice of a single unknown prophet. Such a conversion is unexampled in the whole Rev_elation of God to man, greater in its immediate effects than the miracle of the Day of Pentecost. Before this stupendous power of God's grace over the unruly will of savage, yet educated, men, the physical miracles, great as they are, shrink into nothing. The wielding and swaying of half a million of human wills, and turning them from Satan to God, is a power of grace, as much above and beyond all changes of the unresisting physical creation, as the spirits and intelligences which God has created are higher than insentient matter. Physical miracles are a new exercise of the creative power of God: the moral miracles were a sort of firstfruit of the re-creation of the Gentile world. Physical miracles were the simple exercise of the will of God; the moral miracles were, in these hundreds of thousands, His overpowering grace, pouring itself into the heart of rebellious man and re-creating it. As many souls as there were, so many miracles were there, greater even than the creation of man.
The miracles too are in harmony with the nature around. The Hebrews, who were, at this time, not a maritime people, scarcely knew probably of those vast monsters, which our manifold researches into God's animal kingdom have laid open to us. Jonah speaks only of "a great fish." The Greek word, by which the Septuagint translated it, and which our Lord used, is (like our "cetacea" which is taken from it), the name of a genus, not of any individual fish. It is the equivalent of the "great fish" of Jonah. The Greeks use the adjective , as we do, but they also use the substantive which occurs in Matthew. This designates a class which includes the whale, but is never used to designate the whale. In Homer , it includes "dolphins and the dog." In the natural historians, (as Aristotle , it designates the whole class of sea-creatures which are viviparous, "as the dolphin, the seal, the whale;" Galen adds the Zygaena (a shark) and large tunnies; Photius says that "the Carcharias," or white shark, "is a species of it." Oppian recounts, as belonging to the Cote, several species of sharks and whales , some with names of land animals , and also the black tunnies .
AElian enumerates most of these under the same head . Our Lord's words then would be rendered more literally, "in the fish's belly, Mat 12:40. than "in the whale's belly." Infidels seized eagerly on the fact of the narrowness of the whale's throat; their cavil applied only to an incorrect rendering of modern versions. Fish, of such size that they can swallow a man whole, and which are so formed as naturally to swallow their prey whole, have been found in the Mediterranean. The white shark, having teeth merely incisive, has no choice, except between swallowing its prey whole, or cutting off a portion of it. It cannot hold its prey, or swallow it piecemeal. Its voracity leads it to swallow at once all which it can . Hence, Otto Fabricius relates , "its custom is to swallow down dead and, sometimes also, living men, which it finds in the sea."
A natural historian of repute relates , "In 1758 in stormy weather a sailor fell overboard from a frigate in the Mediterranean. A shark was close by, which, as he was swimming and crying for help, took him in his wide throat, so that he immediately disappeared. Other sailors had leapt into the sloop, to help their comrade, while yet swimming; the captain had a gun which stood on the deck discharged at the fish, which struck it so, that it cast out the sailor which it had in its throat, who was taken up, alive and little injured, by the sloop which had now come up. The fish was harpooned, taken up on the frigate, and dried. The captain made a present of the fish to the sailor who, by God's Providence, had been so wonderfully preserved. The sailor went around Europe exhibiting it. He came to Franconia, and it was publicly exhibited here in Erlangen, as also at Nurnberg and other places. The dried fish was delineated. It was 20 feet long, and, with expanded fins, nine feet wide, and weighed 3, 924 pounds. From all this, it is probable that this was the fish of Jonah."
This is by no means an insulated account of the size of this fish. Blumenbach states, "the white shark, or Canis carcharias, is found of the size of 10, 000 lbs, and horses have been found whole in its stomach." A writer of the 16th century on "the fish of Marseilles" says, "they of Nice attested to me, that they had taken a fish of this sort, approaching to 4, 000 lbs. weight, in whose body they had found a man whole. Those of Marseilles told something similar, that they had once taken a Lamia (so they still popularly call the Carcharias) and found in it a man in a coat of mail (loricatus)" Rondelet says , "sometimes it grows to such size, that, placed on a carriage, it can hardly be drawn by two horses. I have seen one of moderate size, which weighed 1, 000 lbs, and, when disembowelled and cut to pieces, it had to be put on two carriages." "I have seen on the shore of saintonge a Lamia, whose mouth and throat were of such vast size, that it would easily swallow a large man."
Richardson , speaking of the white shark in North America, says that they attain the length of 30 feet, i. e., one-third larger than that which swallowed the sailor whole. Lacepede speaks of fish of this kind as "more than 30 feet long" . "The contour," he adds , "of the upper jaw of a requin of 30 feet, is about 6 feet long; its swallow is of a diameter proportionate." : "In all modern works on Zoology, we find 30 feet given as a common length for a shark's body. Now a shark's body is usually only about eleven times the length of the half of its lower jaw. Consequently, a shark of 30 feet would have a lower jaw of nearly 6 feet in its semi-circular extent. Even if such a jaw as this was of hard bony consistence instead of a yielding cartilaginous nature, it would qualify its possessor for engulfing one of our own species most easily. The power which it has, by virtue of its cartilaginous skeleton, of stretching, bending and yielding, enables us to understand how the shark can swallow entire animals as large or larger than ourselves. Such an incident is related to have occurred 1802 a. d., on the authority of a Captain Brown, who found the body of a woman entire with the exception of the head within the stomach of a shark killed by him at Surinam" .
In the Mediterranean there are traces of a still larger race, now extinct. "However large or dangerous the existing race may be, yet from the magnitude of the fossil teeth found in Malta and elsewhere, some of which measure 4 12 inches from the point to the base, and 6 inches from the point to the angle, the animal, to which they belonged, must have much exceeded the present species in size." "The mouth of a fish of this sort," says Bloch , "is armed with 400 teeth of this kind. In the Isle of Malta and in Sicily, their teeth are found in great numbers on the shore. Naturalists of old took them for tongues of serpents. They are so compact that, after having remained for many centuries in the earth, they are still not decayed. The quantity and size of those which are found proves that these creatures existed formerly in great numbers, and that some were of extraordinary size.
If one were to calculate from them what should, in proportion, be the size of the throat which should hold such a number of such teeth, it ought to be at least 8 or 10 feet wide. In truth, these fish are found to this day of a terrific size. This fish, celebrated for its voracity and courage, is found in the Mediterranean and in almost every Ocean. It generally keeps at the bottom, and rises only to satisfy its hunger. It is not seen near shore, except when it pursues its prey, or is pursued by the mular , which it does not venture to approach, even when dead. It swallows all sorts of aquatic animals, alive or dead, and pursues especially the sea-calf and the tunny. In its pursuit of the tunny, it sometimes falls into nets, and some have been thus taken in Sardinia, which weighed 400 lbs. and in which 8 or 10 tunnies were found still undigested.
It attacks men wheRev_er it can find them, whence the Germans call it 'menschenfresser' (man-eater). Gunner speaks of a sea-calf 'of the size of an ox, which has also been found in one of these animals; and in another a reindeer without horns, which had fallen from a rock.' This fish attains a length of 25 to 30 feet. Muller says that one was taken near the Island of Marguerite which weighed 1, 500 lbs. Upon opening it, they found in it a HORSE, quite whole: which had apparently been thrown overboard. M. Brunniche says that during his residence at Marseilles, one was taken near that city, 15 feet long, and that two years before, two, much larger, had been taken, in one of which had been found two tunnies and a man quite dressed. The fish were injured, the man not at all. In 1760 there was exhibited at Berlin a requin stuffed, 20 feet long, and 9 feet in circumference, where it was thickest. It had been taken in the Mediterranean. Its voracity is so great, that it does not spare its own species. Leem relates, that a Laplander, who had taken a requin, fastened it to his canoe; soon after, he missed it. Some time after, having taken a larger one, he found in its stomach the requin which he had lost." "The large Australian shark (Carcharias glaucus), which has been measured after death 37 feet long, has teeth about 2 58 inches long."
Such facts ought to shame those who speak of the miracle of Jonah's preservation through the fish, as a thing less credible than any other of God's miraculous doings. There is no greater or less to Omnipotence. The creation of the universe, the whole stellar system, or of a fly, are alike to Him, simple acts of His divine will. "He spake, and it was" Psa 33:9. What to people seem the greatest miracles or the least, are alike to Him, the mere "Let it be" of His all-holy will, acting in a different way for one and the same end, the instruction of the intelligent creatures which He has made. Each and all subserve, in their several places and occasions, the same end of the manifold wisdom of God. Each and all of these, which to us seem interruptions of His ordinary workings in nature, were from the beginning, before He had created anything, as much a part of His divine purpose, as the creation of the universe.
They are not disturbances of His laws. Night does not disturb day which it closes, nor day disturb night. No more does any work which God, before the creation of the world, willed to do (for, Act 15:18, "known unto God are all His ways from the beginning of the world,") interfere with any other of His workings. His workings in nature, and His workings above nature, form one harmonious whole. Each are a part of His ways; each is essential to the manifestation of God to us. That wonderful order and symmetry of God's creation exhibits to us some effluences of the Divine Wisdom and Beauty and Power and Goodness; that regularity itself sets forth those other foreknown operations of God, whereby He worketh in a way different from His ordinary mode of working in nature. "They who know not God, will ask," says Cyril , "how was Jonah preserved in the fish? How was he not consumed? How did he endure that natural heat, and live, surrounded by such and was not rather digested? For this poor body is very weak and perishable. Truly wonderful was it, surpassing reason and wontedness. But if God be declared its Author, who would anymore disbelieve? For God is All-powerful, and transmouldeth easily the nature of things which are, to what He willeth, and nothing resisteth His ineffable will.
For that which is perishable can at His will easily become superior to corruption; and what is firm and unshaken and undecaying is easily subjected thereto. For nature, I deem, to the things which be, is, what seemeth good to the Creator." Augustine well points out the inconsistency, so common now, of excepting to the one or the other miracle, upon grounds which would in truth apply to many or to all , "The answer" to the mockery of the Pagans, "is that either all divine miracles are to be disbelieved, or there is no reason why this should not be believed. For we should not believe in Christ Himself that He rose on the third day, if the faith of the Christians shrank from the mockery of Pagans. Since our friend does not put the question, Is it to be believed that Lazarus rose on the 4th day, or Christ Himself on the third day, I much marvel that he put this as to Jonah as a thing incredible, unless he think it easier for one dead to be raised from the tomb, than to be preserved alive in that vast belly of the fish.
Not to mention how vast the size of marine creatures is said to be by those who have witnessed it, who could not conceive what numbers of men that stomach could contain which was fenced by those ribs, well known to the people at Carthage, where they were set up in public? How vast must have been the opening of that mouth, the doer, as it were, to that cave." "But, troth, they have found in a divine miracle something which they need not believe; namely, that the gastric juice whereby food is digested could be so tempered as not to injure the life of man. How still less credible would they deem it, that those three men, cast into the furnace by the impious king, walked up and down in the midst of the fire! If then they refuse to believe any miracles of God, they must be answered in another way. But they ought not to question any one, as though it were incredible, but at once all which are as, or even more, marvelous.
He who proposed these questions, let him be a Christian now, lest, while he waits first to finish the questions on the sacred books, he come to the end of his life, before he has passed from death to life. Let him, if he will, first ask questions such as he asked concerning Christ, and those few great questions to which the rest are subordinate. But if he think to finish all such questions as this of Jonah, before he becomes a Christian, he little appreciates human mortality or his own mortality. For they are countless; not to be finished before accepting the faith, lest life be finished without faith. But, retaining the faith, they are subjects for the diligent study of the faithful; and what in them becomes clear is to be communicated without arrogance, what still lies hidden, to be borne without risk to salvation."
The other physical miracle of the rapid production of the Palma Christi, which God created to overshadow Jonah, was plainly supernatural in that extreme rapidity of growth, else in conformity with the ordinary character of that plant. "The קיקיון qı̂ yqâ yô n, as we read in the Hebrew, called kikeia (or, Elkeroa, in Syriac and Punic," says Jerome , "is a shrub with broad leaves like vine-leaves. It gives a very dense shade, supports itself on its own stem. It grows most abundantly in Palestine, especially in sandy spots. If you cast the seed into the ground, it is soon quickened, rises marvelously into a tree, and a few days what you had beheld an herb, you look up to, a shrub. The קיקיון qı̂ yqâ yô n, a miracle in its instantaneous existence, and an instance of the power of God in the protection given by this living shade, followed the course of its own nature."
It is a native of all North Africa, Arabia, Syria, India. In the valley of the Jordan it still grows to a "large size, and has the character," an eyewitness writes , "of a perennial tree, although usually described as a biennial plant." "It is of the size of a small fig tree. It has leaves like a plane, only larger, smoother, and darker." The name of the plant is of Egyptian origin, kiki; which Dioscorides and Galen identify with the croton ; Herodotus with the Silicyprion , which, in the form seselicyprion, Dioscorides mentions as a name given to the kiki or kroton; Pliny with the Ricinus also (the Latin name for the croton), our Palma Christi; Hebrews with the Arabic Elkeroa, which again is known to be the Ricinus. The growth and occasional perishing of the Palma Christi have both something analogous to the growth and decay related in Jonah. Its rapidity of growth is remarked by Jerome and Pliny, who says , "in Spain it shoots up rapidly, of the height of an olive, with hollow stem," and branches .
"All the species of the Ricinus shoot up quickly, and yield fruit within three months, and are so multipled from the seed shed, that, if left to themselves, they would occupy in short space the whole country." In Jamaica , "it grows with surprising rapidity to the height of 15 or 16 feet." Niebuhr says, "it has the appearance of a tree. Each branch of the kheroa has only one leaf, with 6, 7, or 8 indentures. This plant was near a stream which watered it adequately. At the end of October, 1765, it had, in 5 months, grown about 8 feet, and bore, at once, flowers and fruit, green and ripe." This rapidity of growth has only a sort of likeness to the miracle, which quickened in a way far above nature the powers implanted in nature. The destruction may have been altogether in the way of nature, except that it happened at that precise moment, when it was to be a lesson to Jonah . "On warm days, when a small rain falls, black caterpillars are generated in great numbers on this plant, which, in one night, so often and so suddenly cut off its leaves, that only their bare ribs remain, which I have often observed with much wonder, as though it were a copy of that destruction of old at Nineveh." The Ricinus of India and Assyria furnishes food to a different caterpillar from that of Amboyna , but the account illustrates the rapidity of the destruction.
The word "worm" is elsewhere also used collectively, not of a single worm only, Jon 4:7, , and of creatures which, in God's appointment, devour the vine. Deu 28:39. there is nothing in the text, implying that the creature was one which gnawed the stem rather than the leaves. The unique word, smote , is probably used, to correspond with the mention of the sun smiting Jon 4:8. on the head of Jonah.
These were miracles, like all the other miracles of Scripture, ways, in which God made Himself and His power known to us, showing Himself the Lord of that nature which men worshiped and worship, for the present conversion of a great people, for the conviction of Israel, a hidden prophecy of the future conversion of the pagan, and an example of repentance and its fruits to the end of time. They have no difficulty except to the rebelliousness of unbelief.
Other difficulties people have made for themselves. In a planked-roof booth such as ours, Joriah would not have needed the shadow of a plant. Obviously then, Jonah's booth, even if we knew not what it was, was not like our's. A German critic has chosen to treat this as an absurdity "Although Jonah makes himself a shady booth, he still further needs the overshadowing קיקיון qı̂ yqâ yô n." Jonah however, being an Israelite, made booths, such as Israel made them. Now we happen to know that the Jewish סכה sû kkâ h, or booth, being formed of the interlaced branches of trees, did not exclude the sun. We know this from the rules in the Talmud as to the construction of the Succah or "tabernacle" for the Feast of Tabernacles. It lays down . "A סכה sû kkâ h whose height is not 10 palms, and which has not three sides, and which has more sun than shade (i. e., more of whose floor is penetrated by light through the top of the Succah, than is left in shade), is profane."
And again , "Whoso spreadeth a linen cloth over the סכה sû kkâ h, to protect him from the sun, it is profane." . "Whoso raiseth above it the vine or gourd or ivy, and so covers it, it is profane; but if the roof be larger than they, or if one cut them, they are lawful" . "With bundles of straw, and bundles of wood, and bundles of sticks, they do not cover it; and all these, if undone, are lawful" . "They cover it with planks according to Rabbi Jonah; and Rabbi Meir forbids; whoso putteth upon it one plank of four palms' breadth it is lawful, only he must not sleep under it." Yet all held that a plank thus broad was to overlap the booth, in which case it would not cover it. The principle of all these rules is, that the rude hut, in which they dwelt during the Feast of Tabernacles, was to be a shade, symbolizing God's overshadowing them in the wilderness; the סכה sû kkâ h itself, not anything adscititious, was to be their shade; yet it was but an imperfect protection, and was indeed intended so to be, in order to symbolize their pilgrim-state.
Hence the contrivances among those who wished to be at case, to protect themselves; and hence the inconvenience which God turned into an instruction to Jonah. Even "the Arabs," Layard tells us in a Nineveh summer, "struck their black tents and lived in sheds, constructed of reeds and grass along the banks of the river." "The heats of summer made it impossible to live in a white tent." Layard's resource of a "recess, cut into the bank of the river where it rose perpendicularly from the water's edge, screening the front with reeds and boughs of trees, and covering the whole with similar materials," corresponds with the hut of Jonah, covered by the קיקיון qı̂ yqâ yô n.
No pagan scoffer, as far as we know, when he became acquainted with the history of Jonah, likened it to any pagan fable. This was reserved for so-called Christians. Some pagan mocked at it, as the philosophers of Mars' Hill mocked at the resurrection of Christ Act 17:32. "This sort of question" (about Jonah), said a pagan, who professed to be an inquirer, "I have observed to be met with broad mockery by the pagans" . They mocked, but they did not insult the history by likening it to any fable of their own. Jerome, who mentions incidentally that "Joppa is the place in which, to this day, rocks are pointed out in the shore, where Andromeda, being bound, was once on a time freed by the help of Perseus," does not seem aware that the fable could be brought into any connection with the history of Jonah. He urges on the pagan the inconsistency of believing their own fables, which besides their marvelousness were often immoral, and refusing to believe the miracles of Scripture histories; but the fable of Andromeda or of Hesione do not even occur to him in this respect . "I am not ignorant that to some it will seem incredible that a man could be preserved alive 3 days and nights in the fish's belly. These must be either believers or unbelievers. If believers, they must needs believe much greater things, how the three youths, cast into the burning fiery furnace, were in such sort unharmed, that not even the smell of fire touched their dress; how the sea retired, and stood on either side rigid like walls, to make a way for the people passing over; how the rage of lions, aggravated by hunger, looked, awestricken, on its prey, and touched it not, and many like things.
Or if they be unbelievers, let them read the 15 books of Ovid's metamorphoses, and all Greek and Latin story, and there they will see where the foulness of the fables precludes the holiness of a divine origin. These things they believe, and that to God all things are possible. Believing foul things, and defending them by alleging the unlimited power of God, they do not admit the same power as to things moral." In Alexandria and in the time of Cyril, the old pagan fables were tricked up again. He alludes then to Lycophron's version of the story of Hercules , in order, like Jerome, to point out the inconsistency of believing pagan fables and rejecting divine truth. "We," he says, "do not use their fables to confirm things divine, but we mention them to a good end, in answer to unbelievers, that their received histories too do not reject such relations."
The philosophers wished at once to defend their own fables and to attack the Gospel. Yet it was an unhappy argumentum ad hominem. Modern infidelity would find a likeness, where there is no shadow of it. The two pagan fables had this in common; that, in order to avert the anger of the gods, a virgin was exposed to be devoured by a sea monster, and delivered from death by a hero, who killed the monster and married the princess whom he delivered. This, as given by Cyril, was a form of the fable, long subsequent to Jonah. The original simple form of the story was this , "Apollo and Poseidon, wishing to make trial of the insolence of Laomedon, appearing in the likeness of men, promised for a consideration to fortify Pergamus. When they had fortified it, he did not pay them their hire. Wherefore Apollo sent a pestilence, and Poseidon a sea monster, cast on shore by the flood-tide, who made havoc of the men that were in the plain. The oracle said that they should be freed from these misfortunes, if Laomedon would set his daughter Hesione as food for the monster; he did so set her, binding her to the rocks near to the plain; Hercules, seeing her thus exposed, promised to save her, if he might have from Laomedon the horses, which Zeus had given in compensation for the rape of Ganymede. Laomedon saying that he would give them, he killed the monster and set Hesione free."
This simple story is repeated, with unimportant variations, by Diodorus Siculus , Hyginus, Orid, Valerius Flaccus. Even later, the younger Philostratus, depicting the story, has no other facts. An old icon represents the conflict in a way that is inconsistent with the later form of the story .
The story of Andromeda is told by Apollodorus , in part in the very same words. The Nereids were angered by Cassiope the mother of Andromeda, for boasting herself more beautiful than they. Then follows the same history, Poseidon sending a flood-tide and a sea monster; the same advice of the oracle; the setting Andromeda in chains, as food for the sea monster; Perseus' arrival, bargain with the father, the killing of the sea monster, the deliverance of Andromeda. Fable as all this is, it does not seem to have been meant to be fable. Pliny relates , "M. Scaurus, when AEdile, exhibited at Rome, among other marvels, the bones of the monster to which Andromeda was said to have been exposed, which bones were brought from Joppa, a city of Judaea, being 40 feet long, in height greater than the ribs of the Indian elephant, and the vertebrae a foot and a half thick." He describes Joppa as "seated on a hill, with a projecting rock, in which they show the traces of the chains of Andromeda" , Josephus says the same . Pausanias relates, "the country of the Hebrews near Joppa supplies water blood-red, very near the sea. The natives tell, that Perseus, when he had slain the monster to which the daughter of Cepheus was exposed, washed off the blood there." Mela, following perhaps his Greek authority , speaks in the present , "an illustrious trace of the preservation of Andromeda by Perseus, they show vast bones of a sea monster."
But, whether the authors of these fables meant them for matters of fact, or whether the fables had any symbolic meaning, they have not, in any form which they received until long after the time of Jonah, any connection with the Book of Jonah.
The history of Andromeda has in common with the Book of Jonah, only this, that, whereas Apollodorus and the ancients placed the scene of her history in AEthiopia, writers who lived some centuries after the time of Jonah removed it to Joppa, the seaport from where Jonah took ship. "There are some," says Strabo, speaking of his own day, "who transfer AEthiopia to our Phoenicia, and say that the matters of Andromeda took place at Joppa; and this, not out of ignorance of places, but rather in the form of a myth." The transfer, doubtless, took place in the 800 years which elapsed between Jonah and Strabo, and was occasioned perhaps by the special idolatry of the coast, the worship of Atargatis or Derceto. Pliny, at least, immediately after that statement about the chains of Andromeda at Joppa, subjoins , "The fabulous Ceto is worshiped there." Ceto is doubtless the same as "Derceto," of which Pliny uses the same epithet a little afterward . "There," at Hierapolis, "is worshiped the prodigious Atargatis, which the Greeks call Derceto." The Greeks appear (as their way was), on occasion of this worship of Ceto, to have transferred here their own story of Andromeda and the Cetos.
Ceto, i. e., Derceto, and Dagon were the corresponding male and female deities, under whose names the Philistines worshiped the power which God has implanted in nature to reproduce itself. Both were fish-forms, with human hands and face. Derceto or Atargatis was the Syriac Ter'to, whose worship at Hierapolis or Mabug bad a far-known infamy, the same altogether as that of Rhea or Cybele. The maritime situation of Philistia probably led them to adopt the fish as the symbol of prolific reproduction. In Holy Scripture we find chiefly the worship of the male god Dagon, literally "great fish." He had temples at Gaza, Jdg 16:23. and Ashdod, (Sa1 5:1; 1 Macc. 10:83; 11:4.) where all the lords of the Philistines assembled. Five other places are named from his worship, four near the sea coast, and one close to Joppa itself. Beth-dagon ("temple of Dagon") in the southwest part of Judah Jos 15:41. and so, near Philistia;
2) Another, in Asher also near the sea;
3) Caphar Dagon (village of Dagon) "a very large village between Jamnia and Diospolis." (Eusebius, Onom. sub v.)
4) Belt Dejan (Beth Dagon) about 6 miles N. W. of Ramlah (Robinson, Bibl. R. 2:232; see map) accordingly distinct from Caphar Dagon, and 4 1/2 hours from Joppa;
5) Another Beit Dejan, East of Nablus. (Ib. 282.))
But in later times the name of the goddess became more prominent, and, among the Greeks, exclusive. Atargatis or Detecto had, in the time of the Maccabees, a celebrated temple at Carnion, (2 Macc. 12:26.) i. e., Ashteroth Carnaim in Gilead, and, according to Pliny, at Joppa itself. This furnished an easy occasion to the Greeks to transfer there their story of the Cotes. The Greeks had populated Joppa (1 Macc. 10:75; 14:34), before Simon retook it from Antiochus. In Jonah's time, it was Phoenician. It was not colonized by Greeks until five centuries later. Since then Andromeda is a Greek story which they transferred to Joppa with themselves, the existence of the Greek story, at a later date, can be no evidence for "a Phoenician legend," of which the rationalists have dreamed, nor can it have any connection with Jonah who lived half a millennium before the Greeks came, 800 years before the story is mentioned in connection with Joppa.
With regard to the fables of Hercules, Diodorus Siculus thought that there was a basis of truth in them. The story of Hercules and Hesione, as alluded to by Homer and told by Apollodorus, looks like an account of the sea breaking in upon the land and wasting it; a human sacrifice on the point of being offered, and pRev_ented by the removal of the evil through the building of a sea-wall. Gigantic works were commonly attributed to superior agency, good or evil. In Homer, the mention of the sea-wall is prominent . "He led the way to the lofty wall of mounded earth of the divine Hercules, which the Trojans and Minerva made for him, that, eluding the sea monster, he might escape, when he rushed at him from the beach toward the plain." In any case, a monster, which came up from the sea and wasted the land, is no fish; nor has the story of one who destroyed such a monster, any bearing on that of one whose life God preserved by a fish.
Nor is the likeness really mended by the later version of the story, originating in an Alexandrian after the Book of Jonah had been translated into Greek at Alexandria. The writer of the Cassandra, who lived at least five centuries after Jonah, represents Hercules as "a lion, the offspring of three nights, which aforetime the jagged-toothed dog of Triton lapped up in his jaws; and he, a living carver of his entrails, scorched by the steam of a cauldron on the fireless hearths, shed the bristles of his head upon the ground, the infanticide waster of my country."
In that form the story re-appears in a pagan philosopher and an Alexandrian father but, in both, as borrowed from the Alexandrian poet. Others, who were unacquainted with Lycophron, pagan
And Christian alike, knew nothing of it. One Christian writer, at the end of the 5th century , a Platonic philosopher, gives an account, distinct from any other, pagan or Christian, probably confused from both. In speaking of marvelous deliverances, he says ; "As Hercules too is sung" (i. e., in Greek poetry), "when his ship was broken, to have been swallowed up by a κητὸς kē tos, and, having come within, was preserved." In the midst of the 11th century after our Lord, some writers on Greek fable, in order to get rid of the very offensive story of the conception of Hercules, interpreted the word of Lycophron which alludes to it, of his employing, in the destruction of the monster, three periods of 24 hours, called "nights" from the darkness in which he was enveloped. Truly, full often have those words of God been fulfilled, that Ti2 4:4. men shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. People, who refused to believe the history of Jonah, although attested by our Lord, considered AEneas Gazaeus, who lived about 13 centuries after Jonah, to be an authentic witness of an imaginary Phoenician tradition , 13 centuries before his own time; and that, simply on the ground that he has his name from Gaza; whereas he expressly refers, not to Phoenician tradition but to Greek poetry.
Such are the stories, which became a traditional argument among unbelieving critics to justify their disbelief in miracles accredited by our Lord. Flimsy spider-webs, which a critic of the same school brushes away as soon as he has found some other expedient, as flimsy, to serve his purpose! The majestic simplicity of Holy Scripture and its moral greatness stand out the more, in contrast with the unmeaning fables, with which men have dared, amid much self-applause, to compare it. A more earnest, but misled, mind, even while unhappily disbelieving the miracle of Jonah, held the comparison, on ground of "reason, ludicrous; but not the less frivolous and irRev_erent, as applied to Holy Scripture."
It was assumed by those who first wrote against the Book of Jonah, that the thanksgiving in it was later than Jonah, "a cento from the Psalms." They objected that it did not allude to the history of Jonah. One critic repeated after the other , that the Psalm was a "mere cento" of Psalms. However untrue, nothing was less doubted. A later critic felt that the Psalm must have been the thanksgiving of one delivered from great peril of life in the sea. "The images," he says , "are too definite, they relate too exclusively to such a situation, to admit of being understood vaguely of any great peril to life, as may Psalms 18 and Psa 42:1-11, (Which the writer may have had in his mind) or Psa 124:1-8." Another, to whom attention has been recently drawn, maintained the early date of the thanksgiving, and held that it contained so much of the first part of Jonah's history, that that history might be founded on the thanksgiving. This was one step backward toward the truth.
It is admitted that the thanksgiving is genuine, is Jonah's, and relates to a real deliverance of the real prophet. But the thanksgiving would not suggest the history Jonah thanks God for his deliverance from the depths of the sea, from which no man could be delivered, except by miracle.
He describes himself, not as struggling with the waves, but as sunk beneath them to the bottom of the sea, from where no other ever rose . Jonah does not tell God, how He had delivered him. Who does? He rehearses to God the hopeless peril, out of which He had delivered him. On this the soul dwells, for this is the ground of its thankfulness. The delivered soul loves to describe to God the death out of which it had been delivered. Jonah thanks God for one miracle; he gives no hint of the other, which, when he uttered the thanksgiving, was not yet completed. The thanksgiving bears witness to it miracle; but does not suggest its nature. The history supplies it.
It is instructive that the writer who, disbelieving the miracles in the book of Jonah, "restorers his history" by effacing them, has also to "restore the history "of the Saviour of the world, by omitting His testimony to them. But this is to subject the Rev_elation of God to the variations of the mind of His creatures, believing what they like, disbelieving what they dislike.
Our Lord Himself attested that this miracle on Jonah was an image of His own entombment and Resurrection. He has compared the preaching of Jonah with His own. He compares it as a real history, as He does the coming of the Queen of Sheba to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Modern writers have lost sight of the principle, that men, as individuals, amid their infirmities and sins, are but types of man; in their history alone, their office, their sufferings, can they be images of their Redeemer. God portrayed doctrines of the Gospel in the ritual of the law. Of the offices of Christ and, at times, His history, he gave some faint outline in offices which He instituted, or persons whose history He guided. But they are types only, in that which is of God. Even that which was good in any was no type of His goodness; nay, the more what is human is recorded of them, the less they are types of Him. Abraham who acted much, is a type, not of Christ, but of the faithful.
Isaac, of whom little is recorded, except his sacrifice, becomes the type of Christ. Melchizedek, who comes forth once in that great loneliness, a King of Righteousness and of peace, a priest of God, refreshing the father of the faithful with the sacrificial bread and wine, is a type, the more, of Christ's everlasting priesthood, in that he stands alone, without father, without known descent, without known beginning or end, majestic in his one office, and then disappearing from our sight. Joseph was a type of our Lord, not in his chastity or his personal virtues but in his history; in that he was rejected by his brethren, sold at the price of a slave, yet, with kingly authority, received, supported, pardoned, gladdened, feasted, his brethren who had sold him. Even so the history of Jonah had two aspects. It is, at once, the history of his mission and of his own personal conduct in it.
These are quite distinct. The one is the history of God's doings in him and through him; the other is the account of his own soul, its rebellions, struggles, conviction. As a man, he is himself the penitent; as a prophet, he is the preacher of repentance. In what was human infirmity in him, he was a picture of his people, whose cause he espoused with too narrow a zeal. Zealous too for the honor of God, although not with God's all-enfolding love, willing that that honor should be vindicated in his own way, unwilling to be God's instrument on God's terms, yet silenced and subdued at last, he was the image and lesson to those who complained at Peter's mission to Cornelius, and who, only when they heard how God the Holy Spirit had come down upon Cornelius' household, "held their peace and glorified God, saying, then hath God to the Gentiles also granted repentance unto life. Act 11:18. what coinciding visions to Cornelius and Peter, what evident miracles of power and of grace, were needed after the Resurrection to convince the Jewish converts of that same truth, which God made known to and through Jonah! The conversion of the Gentiles and the saving of a remnant only of the Jews are so bound together in the prophets, that it may be that the repugnance of the Jewish converts was founded on an instinctive dread of the same sort which so moved Jonah. It was a superhuman love, through which S. Paul contemplated "their fall as the riches of the Gentiles" Rom 11:12.
On the other hand, that, in which Jonah was an image of our Lord, was very simple and distinct. It was where Jonah was passive, where nothing of his own was mingled. The storm, the casting over of Jonah, were the works of God's Providence; his preservation through the fish was a miracle of God's power; the conversion of the Ninevites was a manifold miracle of His grace. It might have pleased God to send to convert a pagan people one whom He had not so delivered; or to have subdued the will of the prophet whom He sent on some other mission. But now sign answers to sign, and mission shadows out mission. Jonah was first delivered from his three days' burial in that living tomb by a sort of resurrection, and then, whereas he had pRev_iously been a prophet to Israel, he thenceforth became a prophet to the pagan, whom, and not Israel, he converted, and, in their conversion, his, as it were, resurrection was operative.
The correspondence is there. We may lawfully dwell on subordinate details, how man was tempest-tost and buffeted by the angry waves of this perilous and bitter world; Christ, as one of us, gave His life for our lives, the storm at once was hushed, there is a deep calm of inward peace, and our haven was secured. But the great outstanding facts, which our Lord Himself has pointed out, are, that he who had heretofore been the prophet of Israel only, was, after a three days' burial, restored through miracle to life, and then the pagan were converted. Our Lord has set His seal upon the facts. They were to Israel a sacred enigma, a hidden prophecy, waiting for their explanation. They were a warning, how those on whom God then seemed not to have pity, might become the object of His pity, while they themselves were cast out. Now the marvelous correspondence is, even on the surface, a witness to the miracle. Centuries before our Lord came, there was the history of life preserved by miracle in death and out of death; and thereupon the history of pagan converted to God and accepted by Him. Is this, even a doubting mind might ask, accidental coincidence? or are it and the other like resemblances, the tracing of the finger of God, from whom is all harmony, Who blends in one all the gradations of His creation, all the lineaments of history, His natural and His moral world, the shadow of the law with the realities of the Gospel? How should such harmony exist, but for that harmonizing Hand, who "binds and blends in one" the morning and evening of His creation.
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
Jon 1:1, Jonah, sent to Nineveh, flees to Tarshish; Jon 1:4, He is bewrayed by a tempest; Jon 1:11, thrown into the sea; Jon 1:17, and swallowed by a fish.

1:1: Jonah: Kg2 14:25; Mat 12:39, Mat 16:4; Luk 11:29, Luk 11:30, Luk 11:32, Jonas

Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch
Mission of Jonah to Nineveh His Flight and Punishment - Jonah 1
Jonah tries to avoid fulfilling the command of God, to preach repentance to the great city Nineveh, by a rapid flight to the sea, for the purpose of sailing to Tarshish (Jon 1:1-3); but a terrible storm, which threatens to destroy the ship, brings his sin to light (Jon 1:4-10); and when the lot singles him out as the culprit, he confesses that he is guilty; and in accordance with the sentence which he pronounces upon himself, is cast into the sea (Jon 1:11-16).
John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO JONAH 1
This chapter gives an account of the call and mission of Jonah to go to Nineveh, and prophesy there, and the reason of it, Jon 1:1; his disobedience to it, Jon 1:3. God's resentment of it, by sending a storm into the sea, where he was, which terrified the mariners, and put the ship in danger of being lost, Jon 1:4; The discovery of Jonah and his disobedience as the cause of the tempest, and how it was made, Jon 1:6; The casting of him into the sea at his own motion, and with his own consent, though with great reluctance in the mariners, Jon 1:11. The preparation of a fish for him, which swallowed him up, and in which he lived three days and three nights, Jon 1:17.
1:11:1: Որ եղեւ յաւուրս Ոզիայ[10652]։ Եւ եղեւ բան Տեառն առ Յովնան Ամաթեայ՝ եւ ասէ[10653]. [10652] ՚Ի լուս՛՛. ՚ի վերայ՝ Ոզիայ, նշանակի՝ Աքազու. զոր եւ ոմանք միահետ դնեն. Ոզիայ, Աքազու։ Իսկ ոմանք ՚ի սպառ զանց առնեն զվերնագրովս։[10653] Ոսկան յաւելու. Առ Յօնան որդի Ամաթեայ։
1 Տէրը խօսեց Ամաթի որդի Յովնանի հետ եւ ասաց.
1 Տէրոջը խօսքը Ամաթիին որդիին Յովնանին եղաւ՝ ըսելով.
Եւ եղեւ բան Տեառն առ Յովնան որդի Ամաթեայ, եւ ասէ:

1:1: Որ եղեւ յաւուրս Ոզիայ[10652]։
Եւ եղեւ բան Տեառն առ Յովնան Ամաթեայ՝ եւ ասէ[10653].
[10652] ՚Ի լուս՛՛. ՚ի վերայ՝ Ոզիայ, նշանակի՝ Աքազու. զոր եւ ոմանք միահետ դնեն. Ոզիայ, Աքազու։ Իսկ ոմանք ՚ի սպառ զանց առնեն զվերնագրովս։
[10653] Ոսկան յաւելու. Առ Յօնան որդի Ամաթեայ։
1 Տէրը խօսեց Ամաթի որդի Յովնանի հետ եւ ասաց.
1 Տէրոջը խօսքը Ամաթիին որդիին Յովնանին եղաւ՝ ըսելով.
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:11:1 И было слово Господне к Ионе, сыну Амафиину:
1:1 καὶ και and; even ἐγένετο γινομαι happen; become λόγος λογος word; log κυρίου κυριος lord; master πρὸς προς to; toward Ιωναν ιωνας Iōnas; Ionas τὸν ο the τοῦ ο the Αμαθι αμαθι tell; declare
1:1 וַֽ wˈa וְ and יְהִי֙ yᵊhˌî היה be דְּבַר־ dᵊvar- דָּבָר word יְהוָ֔ה [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to יֹונָ֥ה yônˌā יֹונָה Jonah בֶן־ ven- בֵּן son אֲמִתַּ֖י ʔᵃmittˌay אֲמִתַּי Amittai לֵ lē לְ to אמֹֽר׃ ʔmˈōr אמר say
1:1. et factum est verbum Domini ad Ionam filium Amathi dicensNow the word of the Lord came to Jonas, the son of Amathi, saying:
1. Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
1:1. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying:
1:1. Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying:

1:1 И было слово Господне к Ионе, сыну Амафиину:
1:1
καὶ και and; even
ἐγένετο γινομαι happen; become
λόγος λογος word; log
κυρίου κυριος lord; master
πρὸς προς to; toward
Ιωναν ιωνας Iōnas; Ionas
τὸν ο the
τοῦ ο the
Αμαθι αμαθι tell; declare
1:1
וַֽ wˈa וְ and
יְהִי֙ yᵊhˌî היה be
דְּבַר־ dᵊvar- דָּבָר word
יְהוָ֔ה [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH
אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to
יֹונָ֥ה yônˌā יֹונָה Jonah
בֶן־ ven- בֵּן son
אֲמִתַּ֖י ʔᵃmittˌay אֲמִתַּי Amittai
לֵ לְ to
אמֹֽר׃ ʔmˈōr אמר say
1:1. et factum est verbum Domini ad Ionam filium Amathi dicens
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonas, the son of Amathi, saying:
1:1. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying:
1:1. Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
jfb▾ jg▾ gnv▾ kad▾ ab▾ ac▾ mh▾ tb▾ all ▾
А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
1: «И было» (vajehij) — так начинаются многие книги В. Зав. (Нав I:1; Руфь I:1; Суд I:1; 1: Цар I:1: и др.) и на основании такого начала неправильно делают предположение, будто книга пророка Ионы представляет собою не цельное произведение, а отрывок.

«…слово Господне» — обычное обозначение в Библии божественного откровения, сообщаемого именно пророкам (Ис II:1, LI:16; Иер I:1; II:1; VII:1; Иер I:3; Ос I:1; Соф I:1; Мих I:1; Агг I:3; Зах I:9; VII:7: и др.). Что касается формы этого откровения, то на нее в данном случае нет никаких указаний. По аналогии с другими местами Библии, в которых употребляется это выражение, можно представлять это слово простым внутренним влечением, которое человек сознает не как свое собственное, а как приходящее к нему извне, от высшей силы, именно от Бога. Если, таким образом, бывшее пророку Ионе откровение не сопровождалось никаким чрезвычайными знамениями, а происходило всецело внутри его, то станет удобопонятным, каким образом пророк решился ослушаться «слова Господня».

«…к Ионе, сыну Амитая» (слав. Амафии). Имя пророка — «Иона» (от глагола janah в страдат. значении — быть угнетаемым) по объяснению блаженного Иеронима означает существо угнетенное, стенящее, а затем стонущего голубя. Сыном Амитая он, несомненно, называется по отцу, а не в нарицательном смысле — «сын истины» (amitai с евр. знач. истина), как это объясняется раввинами (Д. Кимхи, И. Абарбаналем), чтобы подтвердить иудейское предание, отождествляющее Иову с сыном Сарептской вдовы, воскрешенным пророком Илией (3: Цар XVII:17–23).
Matthew Henry: Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible - 1706
1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. 3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
Observe, 1. The honour God put upon Jonah, in giving him a commission to go and prophesy against Nineveh. Jonah signifies a dove, a proper name for all God's prophets, all his people, who ought to be harmless as doves, and to mourn as doves for the sins and calamities of the land. His father's name was Amittai--My truth; for God's prophets should be sons of truth. To him the word of the Lord came--to him it was (so the word signifies), for God's word is a real thing; men's words are but wind, but God's words are substance. He has been before acquainted with the word of the Lord, and knew his voice from that of a stranger; the orders now given him were, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, v. 2. Nineveh was at this time the metropolis of the Assyrian monarchy, an eminent city (Gen. x. 11), a great city, that great city, forty-eight miles in compass (some make it much more), great in the number of the inhabitants, as appears by the multitude of infants in it (ch. iv. 11), great in wealth (there was no end of its store, Nah. ii. 9), great in power and dominion; it was the city that for some time ruled over the kings of the earth. But great cities, as well as great men, are under God's government and judgment. Nineveh was a great city, and yet a heathen city, without the knowledge and worship of the true God. How many great cities and great nations are there that sit in darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death! This great city was a wicked city: Their wickedness has come up before me (their malice, so some read it); their wickedness was presumptuous, and they sinned with a high hand. It is sad to think what a great deal of sin is committed in great cities, where there are many sinners, who are not only all sinners, but making one another sin. Their wickedness has come up, that is, it has come to a high degree, to the highest pitch; the measure of it is full to the brim; their wickedness has come up, as that of Sodom, Gen. xviii. 20, 21. It has come up before me--to my face (so the word is); it is a bold and open affront to God; it is sinning against him, in his sight; therefore Jonah must cry against it; he must witness against their great wickedness, and must warn them of the destruction that was coming upon them for it. God is coming forth against it, and he sends Jonah before, to proclaim war, and to sound an alarm. Cry aloud, spare not. He must not whisper his message in a corner, but publish it in the streets of Nineveh; he that hath ears let him hear what God has to say by his prophet against that wicked city. When the cry of sin comes up to God the cry of vengeance comes out against the sinner. He must go to Nineveh, and cry there upon the spot against the wickedness of it. Other prophets were ordered to send messages to the neighbouring nations, and the prophecy of Nahum is particularly the burden of Nineveh; but Jonah must go and carry the message himself: "Arise quickly; apply thyself to the business with speed and courage, and the resolution that becomes a prophet; arise, and go to Nineveh." Those that go on God's errands must rise and go, must stir themselves to the work cut out for them. The prophets were sent first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, yet not to them only; they had the children's bread, but Nineveh eats of the crumbs. 2. The dishonour Jonah did to God in refusing to obey his orders, and to go on the errand on which he was sent (v. 3): But Jonah, instead of rising to go to Nineveh, rose up to flee to Tarshish, to the sea, not bound for any port, but desirous to get away from the presence of the Lord; and, if he might but do that, he card not whither he went, not as if he thought he could go any where from under the eye of God's inspection, but from his special presence, from the spirit of prophecy, which, when it put him upon this work, he thought himself haunted with, and coveted to get out of the hearing of. Some think Jonah went upon the opinion of some of the Jews that the spirit of prophecy was confined to the land of Israel (which in Ezekiel and Daniel was effectually proved to be a mistake), and therefore he hoped he should get clear of it if he could but get out of the borders of that land. (1.) Jonah would not go to Nineveh to cry against it either because it was a long and dangerous journey thither, and in a road he knew not, or because he was afraid it would be as much as his life was worth to deliver such an ungrateful message to that great and potent city. He consulted with flesh and blood, and declined the embassy because he could not go with safety, or because he was jealous for the prerogatives of his country, and not willing that any other nation should share in the honour of divine revelation; he feared it would be the beginning of the removal of the kingdom of God from the Jews to another nation, that would bring forth more of the fruits of it. He owns himself (ch. iv. 2) that the reason of his aversion to this journey was because he foresaw that the Ninevites would repent, and God would forgive them and take them into favour, which would be a slur upon the people of Israel, who had been so long a peculiar people to God. (2.) He therefore went to Tarshish, to Tarsus in Cilicia (so some), probably because he had friends and relations there, with whom he hoped for some time to sojourn. He went to Joppa, a famous seaport in the land of Israel, in quest of a ship bound for Tarshish, and there he found one. Providence seemed to favour his design, and give him an opportunity to escape. We may be out of the way of duty and yet may meet with a favourable gale. The ready way is not always the right way. He found the ship just ready to weigh anchor perhaps, and to set sail for Tarshish, and so he lost no time. Or, perhaps, he went to Tarshish because he found the ship going thither; otherwise all places were alike to him. He did not think himself out of his way, the way he would go, provided he was not in his way, the way he should go. So he paid the fare thereof; for he did not regard the charge, so he could but gain his point, and get to a distance from the presence of the Lord. He went with them, with the mariners, with the passengers, with the merchants, whoever they were that were going to Tarshish. Jonah, forgetting his dignity as well as his duty, herded with them, and went down into the ship to go with them to Tarshish. See what the best of men are when God leaves them to themselves, and what need we have, when the word of the Lord comes to us, to have the Spirit of the Lord come along with the word, to bring every thought within us into obedience to it. The prophet Isaiah owns that therefore he was not rebellious, neither turned away back, because God not only spoke to him, but opened his ear, Isa. l. 5. Let us learn hence to cease from man, and not to be too confident either of ourselves or others in a time of trial; but let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:1: Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah - All that is certainly known about this prophet has already been laid before the reader. He was of Gath-hepher, in the tribe of Zebulun, in lower Galilee, Jos 19:13; and he prophesied in the reigns of Jeroboam the Second, and Joash, kings of Israel. Jeroboam came to the throne eight hundred and twenty-three years before the Christian era, and reigned in Samaria forty-one years, Kg2 14:23-25. As a prophet, it is likely that he had but this one mission.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:1: Now the word of the Lord - , literally, "And, ..." This is the way in which the several inspired writers of the Old Testament mark that what it was given them to write was united onto those sacred books which God had given to others to write, and it formed with them one continuous whole. The word, "And," implies this. It would do so in any language, and it does so in Hebrew as much as in any other. As neither we, nor any other people, would, without any meaning, use the word, And, so neither did the Hebrews. It joins the four first books of Moses together; it carries on the history through Joshua, Judges, the Books of Samuel and of the Kings. After the captivity, Ezra and Nehemiah begin again where the histories before left off; the break of the captivity is bridged over; and Ezra, going back in mind to the history of God's people before the captivity, resumes the history, as if it had been of yesterday, "And in the first year of Cyrus." It joins in the story of the Book of Ruth before the captivity, and that of Esther afterward. At times, even prophets employ it, in using the narrative form of themselves, as Ezekiel, "and it was in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, and I was in the captivity by the river of Chebar, the heavens opened and I saw." If a prophet or historian wishes to detach his prophecy or his history, he does so; as Ezra probably began the Book of Chronicles anew from Adam, or as Daniel makes his prophecy a whole by itself. But then it is the more obvious that a Hebrew prophet or historian, when he does begin with the word, "And," has an object in so beginning; he uses an universal word of all languages in its uniform meaning in all language, to join things together.
And yet more precisely; this form, "and the word of the Lord came to - saying," occurs over and over again, stringing together the pearls of great price of God's Rev_elations, and uniting this new Rev_elation to all those which had preceded it. The word, "And," then joins on histories with histories, Rev_elations with Rev_elations, uniting in one the histories of God's works and words, and blending the books of Holy Scripture into one divine book.
But the form of words must have suggested to the Jews another thought, which is part of our thankfulness and of our being Act 11:18, "then to the Gentiles also hath God given repentance unto life." The words are the self-same familiar words with which some fresh Rev_elation of God's will to His people had so often been announced. Now they are prefixed to God's message to the pagan, and so as to join on that message to all the other messages to Israel. Would then God deal thenceforth with the pagan as with the Jews? Would they have their prophets? Would they be included in the one family of God? The mission of Jonah in itself was an earnest that they would, for God. Who does nothing fitfully or capriciously, in that He had begun, gave an earnest that He would carry on what He had begun. And so thereafter, the great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, were prophets to the nations also; Daniel was a prophet among them, to them as well as to their captives.
But the mission of Jonah might, so far, have been something exceptional. The enrolling his book, as an integral part of the Scriptures, joining on that prophecy to the other prophecies to Israel, was an earnest that they were to be parts of one system. But then it would be significant also, that the records of God's prophecies to the Jews, all embodied the accounts of their impenitence. Here is inserted among them an account of God's Rev_elation to the pagan, and their repentance. "So many prophets had been sent, so many miracles performed, so often had captivity been foreannounced to them for the multitude of their sins. and they never repented. Not for the reign of one king did they cease from the worship of the calves; not one of the kings of the ten tribes departed from the sins of Jeroboam? Elijah, sent in the Word and Spirit of the Lord, had done many miracles, yet obtained no abandonment of the calves. His miracles effected this only, that the people knew that Baal was no god, and cried out, "the Lord He is the God." Elisha his disciple followed him, who asked for a double portion of the Spirit of Elijah, that he might work more miracles, to bring back the people.
He died, and, after his death as before it, the worship of the calves continued in Israel. The Lord marveled and was weary of Israel, knowing that if He sent to the pagan they would bear, as he saith to Ezekiel. To make trial of this, Jonah was chosen, of whom it is recorded in the Book of Kings that he prophesied the restoration of the border of Israel. When then he begins by saying, "And the word of the Lord came to Jonah," prefixing the word "And," he refers us back to those former things, in this meaning. The children have not hearkened to what the Lord commanded, sending to them by His servants the prophets, but have hardened their necks and given themselves up to do evil before the Lord and provoke Him to anger; "and" therefore "the word of the Lord came to Jonah, saying, Arise and go to Nineveh that great city, and preach unto her," that so Israel may be shewn, in comparison with the pagan, to be the more guilty, when the Ninevites should repent, the children of Israel persevered in unrepentance."
Jonah the son of Amittai - Both names occur here only in the Old Testament, Jonah signifies "Dove," Amittai, "the truth of God." Some of the names of the Hebrew prophets so suit in with their times, that they must either have been given them propheticly, or assumed by themselves, as a sort of watchword, analogous to the prophetic names, given to the sons of Hosea and Isaiah. Such were the names of Elijah and Elisha, "The Lord is my God," "my God is salvation." Such too seems to be that of Jonah. The "dove" is everywhere the symbol of "mourning love." The side of his character which Jonah records is that of his defect, his want of trust in God, and so his unloving zeal against those, who were to be the instruments of God against his people. His name perhaps preserves that character by which he willed to be known among his people, one who moaned or mourned over them.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch
1:1
The narrative commences with ויהי, as Ruth (Ruth 1:1), 1 Samuel (1Kings 1:1), and others do. This was the standing formula with which historical events were linked on to one another, inasmuch as every occurrence follows another in chronological sequence; so that the Vav (and) simply attaches to a series of events, which are assumed as well known, and by no means warrants the assumption that the narrative which follows is merely a fragment of a larger work (see at Josh 1:1). The word of the Lord which came to Jonah was this: "Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach against it." על does not stand for אל (Jon 3:2), but retains its proper meaning, against, indicating the threatening nature of the preaching, as the explanatory clause which follows clearly shows. The connection in Jon 3:2 is a different one. Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian kingdom, and the residence of the great kings of Assyria, which was built by Nimrod according to Gen 10:11, and by Ninos, the mythical founder of the Assyrian empire, according to the Greek and Roman authors, is repeatedly called "the great city" in this book (Jon 3:2-3; Jon 4:11), and its size is given as three days' journey (Jon 3:3). This agrees with the statements of classical writers, according to whom Νῖνος, Ninus, as Greeks and Romans call it, was the largest city in the world at that time. According to Strabo (Rom 16:1, Rom 16:3), it was much larger than Babylon, and was situated in a plain, Ἀτουρίας, of Assyria i.e., on the left bank of the Tigris. According to Ctesias (in Diod. ii. 3), its circumference was as much as 480 stadia, i.e., twelve geographical miles; whereas, according to Strabo, the circumference of the wall of Babylon was not more than 365 stadia. These statements have been confirmed by modern excavations upon the spot. The conclusion to which recent discoveries lead is, that the name Nineveh was used in two senses: first, for one particular city; and secondly, for a complex of four large primeval cities (including Nineveh proper), the circumvallation of which is still traceable, and a number of small dwelling-places, castles, etc., the mounds (Tell) of which cover the land. This Nineveh, in the broader sense, is bounded on three sides by rivers - viz. on the north-west by the Khosr, on the west by the Tigris, and on the south-west by the Gazr Su and the Upper or Great Zab - and on the fourth side by mountains, which ascend from the rocky plateau; and it was fortified artificially all round on the river-sides with dams, sluices for inundating the land, and canals, and on the land side with ramparts and castles, as we may still see from the heaps of ruins. It formed a trapezium, the sharp angles of which lay towards the north and south, the long sides being formed by the Tigris and the mountains. The average length is about twenty-five English miles; the average breadth fifteen. The four large cities were situated on the edge of the trapezium, Nineveh proper (including the ruins of Kouyunjik, Nebbi Yunas, and Ninua) being at the north-western corner, by the Tigris; the city, which was evidently the later capital (Nimrud), and which Rawlinson, Jones, and Oppert suppose to have been Calah, at the south-western corner, between Tigris and Zab; a third large city, which is now without a name, and has been explored last of all, but within the circumference of which the village of Selamiyeh now stands, on the Tigris itself, from three to six English miles to the north of Nimrud; and lastly, the citadel and temple-mass, which is now named Khorsabad, and is said to be called Dur-Sargina in the inscriptions, from the palace built there by Sargon, on the Khosr, pretty near to the north-eastern corner (compare M. v. Niebuhr, Geschichte Assurs, p. 274ff., with the ground-plan of the city of Nineveh, p. 284). But although we may see from this that Nineveh could very justly be called the great city, Jonah does not apply this epithet to it with the intention of pointing out to his countrymen its majestic size, but, as the expression gedōlâh lē'lōhı̄m in Jon 3:3 clearly shows, and as we may see still more clearly from Jon 4:11, with reference to the importance which Nineveh had, both in the eye of God, and with regard to the divine commission which he had received, as the capital of the Gentile world, quae propter tot animarum multitudinem Deo curae erat (Michaelis). Jonah was to preach against this great Gentile city, because its wickedness had come before Jehovah, i.e., because the report or the tidings of its great corruption had penetrated to God in heaven (cf. Gen 18:21; 1Kings 5:12).
Geneva 1599
1:1 Now the word of the LORD came (a) unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
The Argument - When Jonah had long prophesied in Israel and had little profited, God gave him specific charge to go and denounce his judgments against Nineveh, the chief city of the Assyrians, because he had appointed that those who were of the heathen, should convert by the mighty power of his word. And this was so that within three day's preaching, Israel might see how horribly they had provoked God's wrath, who for the space of so many years, had not converted to the Lord, for so many prophets and such diligent preaching. He prophesied under Jonah, and Jeroboam; (4Kings 14:25).
(a) After he had preached a long time in Israel: and so Ezekiel, after he had prophesied in Judah for a time, had visions in Babylon; (Ezek 1:1).
John Gill
1:1 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai,.... Or, "and the word of the Lord was" (l); not that this is to be considered as connected with something the prophet had on his mind and in his thoughts when he began to write this book; or as a part detached from a prophecy not now extant; for it is no unusual thing with the Hebrews to begin books after this manner, especially historical ones, of which kind this chiefly is, as the books of Ruth, First and Second Samuel, and Esther; besides, the "vau", is here not copulative, but conversive; doing its office by changing the future tense into the past; which otherwise must have been rendered, "the word of the Lord shall be", or "shall come"; which would not only give another, but a wrong sense. "The word of the Lord" often signifies a prophecy from the Lord; and so the Targum, renders it,
"the word of prophecy from the Lord;''
and it may be so interpreted, since Jonah, under a spirit of prophecy, foretold that Nineveh should be destroyed within forty days; though the phrase here rather signifies the order and command of the Lord to the prophet to do as is expressed in Jon 1:2; whose name was Jonah "the son of Amittai"; of whom see the introduction to this book. Who his father Amittai was is not known: if the rule of the Jews would hold good, that when a prophet mentions his own name, and the name of his father, he is a prophet, the son of a prophet, then Amittai was one; but this is not to be depended on. The Syriac version calls him the son of Mathai, or Matthew; though the Arabians have a notion that Mathai is his mother's name; and observe that none are called after their mothers but Jonas and Jesus Christ: but the right name is Amittai, and signifies "my truth"; and to be sons of truth is an agreeable character of the prophets and ministers of the word, who should be given to truth, possessed of it, and publish it:
saying; as follows:
(l) "et fuit", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius; "factum fuit", Piscator.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:1 JONAH'S COMMISSION TO NINEVEH, FLIGHT, PUNISHMENT, AND PRESERVATION BY MIRACLE. (Jon. 1:1-17)
Jonah--meaning in Hebrew, "dove." Compare , where the dove in vain seeks rest after flying from Noah and the ark: so Jonah. GROTIUS not so well explains it, "one sprung from Greece" or Ionia, where there were prophets called AmythaonidÃ&brvbr;.
Amittai--Hebrew for "truth," "truth-telling"; appropriate to a prophet.
1:21:2: Արի՛ եւ գնա՛ ՚ի Նինուէ քաղաք մեծ, եւ քարոզեսջի՛ր անդ, զի ե՛լ աղաղակ չարութեան նորա առ իս։
2 «Ելի՛ր եւ գնա՛ Նինուէ մեծ քաղաքը եւ քարոզի՛ր այնտեղ, քանի որ նրա չարութեան համբաւը հասաւ ինձ»:
2 «Ելի՛ր, Նինուէ մեծ քաղաքը գնա՛ ու քարոզէ՛, քանզի անոնց չարութիւնը իմ առջեւս ելաւ»։
Արի եւ գնա ի Նինուէ քաղաք մեծ, եւ քարոզեսջիր [1]անդ, զի ել աղաղակ չարութեան նորա առ իս:

1:2: Արի՛ եւ գնա՛ ՚ի Նինուէ քաղաք մեծ, եւ քարոզեսջի՛ր անդ, զի ե՛լ աղաղակ չարութեան նորա առ իս։
2 «Ելի՛ր եւ գնա՛ Նինուէ մեծ քաղաքը եւ քարոզի՛ր այնտեղ, քանի որ նրա չարութեան համբաւը հասաւ ինձ»:
2 «Ելի՛ր, Նինուէ մեծ քաղաքը գնա՛ ու քարոզէ՛, քանզի անոնց չարութիւնը իմ առջեւս ելաւ»։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:21:2 встань, иди в Ниневию, город великий, и проповедуй в нем, ибо злодеяния его дошли до Меня.
1:2 ἀνάστηθι ανιστημι stand up; resurrect καὶ και and; even πορεύθητι πορευομαι travel; go εἰς εις into; for Νινευη νινευι Nineuΐ; Ninei τὴν ο the πόλιν πολις city τὴν ο the μεγάλην μεγας great; loud καὶ και and; even κήρυξον κηρυσσω herald; proclaim ἐν εν in αὐτῇ αυτος he; him ὅτι οτι since; that ἀνέβη αναβαινω step up; ascend ἡ ο the κραυγὴ κραυγη cry; outcry τῆς ο the κακίας κακια badness; vice αὐτῆς αυτος he; him πρός προς to; toward με με me
1:2 ק֠וּם qûm קום arise לֵ֧ךְ lˈēḵ הלך walk אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to נִֽינְוֵ֛ה nˈînᵊwˈē נִינְוֵה Nineveh הָ hā הַ the עִ֥יר ʕˌîr עִיר town הַ ha הַ the גְּדֹולָ֖ה ggᵊḏôlˌā גָּדֹול great וּ û וְ and קְרָ֣א qᵊrˈā קרא call עָלֶ֑יהָ ʕālˈeʸhā עַל upon כִּֽי־ kˈî- כִּי that עָלְתָ֥ה ʕālᵊṯˌā עלה ascend רָעָתָ֖ם rāʕāṯˌām רָעָה evil לְ lᵊ לְ to פָנָֽי׃ fānˈāy פָּנֶה face
1:2. surge vade in Nineven civitatem grandem et praedica in ea quia ascendit malitia eius coram meArise and go to Ninive, the great city, and preach in it: For the wickedness thereof is come up before me.
2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
1:2. Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it. For its malice has ascended before my eyes.
1:2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me:

1:2 встань, иди в Ниневию, город великий, и проповедуй в нем, ибо злодеяния его дошли до Меня.
1:2
ἀνάστηθι ανιστημι stand up; resurrect
καὶ και and; even
πορεύθητι πορευομαι travel; go
εἰς εις into; for
Νινευη νινευι Nineuΐ; Ninei
τὴν ο the
πόλιν πολις city
τὴν ο the
μεγάλην μεγας great; loud
καὶ και and; even
κήρυξον κηρυσσω herald; proclaim
ἐν εν in
αὐτῇ αυτος he; him
ὅτι οτι since; that
ἀνέβη αναβαινω step up; ascend
ο the
κραυγὴ κραυγη cry; outcry
τῆς ο the
κακίας κακια badness; vice
αὐτῆς αυτος he; him
πρός προς to; toward
με με me
1:2
ק֠וּם qûm קום arise
לֵ֧ךְ lˈēḵ הלך walk
אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to
נִֽינְוֵ֛ה nˈînᵊwˈē נִינְוֵה Nineveh
הָ הַ the
עִ֥יר ʕˌîr עִיר town
הַ ha הַ the
גְּדֹולָ֖ה ggᵊḏôlˌā גָּדֹול great
וּ û וְ and
קְרָ֣א qᵊrˈā קרא call
עָלֶ֑יהָ ʕālˈeʸhā עַל upon
כִּֽי־ kˈî- כִּי that
עָלְתָ֥ה ʕālᵊṯˌā עלה ascend
רָעָתָ֖ם rāʕāṯˌām רָעָה evil
לְ lᵊ לְ to
פָנָֽי׃ fānˈāy פָּנֶה face
1:2. surge vade in Nineven civitatem grandem et praedica in ea quia ascendit malitia eius coram me
Arise and go to Ninive, the great city, and preach in it: For the wickedness thereof is come up before me.
1:2. Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it. For its malice has ascended before my eyes.
1:2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
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А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
2: «Встань, иди в Ниневию…» Посольство еврейского пророка с проповедью в языческую Ниневию многим кажется событием беспримерным в истории еврейского профетизма, противоречащим самому назначению пророческого служения, учрежденного для охранения истинной религиозной жизни в одном еврейском народе, а потому даже невероятным. Нельзя отрицать, конечно, что ближайшая задача ветхозаветных пророков состояла в том, чтобы «быть стражами дома Израилева» (Иез III:17), но в соответствии с тем, что еврейский народ имел мировое назначение, и пророческое служение должно было осуществляться не национальные только, а и универсальные задачи. И мы можем указать не мало примеров того, что слово пророческое было обращено прямо к языческим народам и призывало их к исправлению и участию в спасении. (Ис ХIII–ХXIV; Иер XLVI–LI; Иез XXV–XXXII; Ам I:3–II:3). Если так, то в посольстве Ионы в Ниневию нет ничего странного, когда другие пророки пророчествовали об Египте, Едоме, Моаве, Сирии, Вавилоне и даже о той же самой Ниневии (Наум I–III гл.; Соф II:13–15).

«…проповедуй в нем, ибо злодеяния его дошли до Меня». Еврейское «ki», переведенное в этом стихе через «ибо» (слав. яко, лат. quia), чаще означает не причинную связь, а союз дополнительного предложения — «что». Переводя так в данном месте, мы получаем указание на содержание проповеди Ионы в Ниневии: проповедуй, что злодеяния дошли до Меня. Таким образом, проповедь Ионы в Ниневии должна была заключать в себе не одно только предсказание ее скорой гибели, как может показаться на основании III:4, а и обличение их злых дел, несомненно сопровождаемое призывом к покаянию, а следовательно, и спасению. Так свою миссию понял сам пророк Иона, почему и бежал от нее, чтобы не быть вестником спасения язычникам; равным образом и Иисус Христос указывает на покаяние и спасение Ниневитян, как на плод слова Ионы (Мф XII:42). Данное понимание подтверждает и употребленный здесь еврейский глагол «kara», означающий не предсказывать будущее, а проповедовать в широком смысле этого слова, провозглашать, обнародовать то, что повелел Бог.
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:2: Go to Nineveh - This was the capital of the Assyrian empire, and one of the most ancient cities of the world, Gen 10:10; and one of the largest, as it was three days' journey in circumference. Ancient writers represent it as oblong; being in length one hundred and fifty stadia, and ninety in breadth, the compass being four hundred and eighty stadia. Now as the stadium is allowed to have been equal to our furlong, eight of which make a mile, this amounts to fifty-four English miles: see on Jon 3:3 (note). But we must not suppose that all this space was covered with compact streets and buildings; it took in a considerable space of country, probably all the cultivated ground necessary to support all the inhabitants of that district. Calmet computes the measurement of the circumference to be equal to twenty-five French leagues. It is reported to have had walls one hundred feet high, and so broad that three chariots might run abreast upon them. It was situated on the Tigris, or a little to the west, or on the west side of that river. It was well peopled, and had at this time one hundred and twenty thousand persons in it reputed to be in a state of infancy, which on a moderate computation would make the whole number six hundred thousand persons. But some, supposing that persons not being able to distinguish their right hand from their left must mean children under two years of age, and reckoning one such child for every twenty persons from that age upwards, make the population amount to two millions five hundred thousand. Nor can this be considered an exaggerated estimate, when we know that London, not one-tenth of the size of ancient Nineveh, contains a population of upwards of one million. But calculations of this kind, relative to matters of such remote antiquity, are generally precarious, and not very useful: and ancient authors, though the only guides, are not always safe conductors. Mosul is generally supposed to be the same as the ancient Nineveh. It is in the province of Dearbekir, on the west bank of the Tigris.
Their wickedness is come up before me - This is a personification of evil. It ascends from earth to heaven; and stands before the Supreme Judge, to bear witness against its own delinquency, and that of the persons whom it has seduced.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:2: Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city - The Assyrian history, as far as it has yet been discovered, is very bare of events in regard to this period. We have as yet the names of three kings only for 150 years. But Assyria, as far as we know its history, was in its meridian. Just before the time of Jonah, perhaps ending in it, were the victorious reigns of Shalmanubar and Shamasiva; after him was that of Ivalush or Pul, the first aggressor upon Israel. It is clear that this was a time Of Assyrian greatness: since God calls it "that great city," not in relation to its extent only, but its power. A large weak city would not have been called a "great city unto God" Jon 3:3.
And cry against it - The substance of that cry is recorded afterward, but God told to Jonah now, what message he was to cry aloud to it. For Jonah relates afterward, how he expostulated now with God, and that his expostulation was founded on this, that God was so merciful that He would not fulfill the judgment which He threatened. Faith was strong in Jonah, while, like Apostles "the sons of thunder," before the Day of Pentecost, he knew not" what spirit he was of." Zeal for the people and, as he doubtless thought, for the glory of God, narrowed love in him. He did not, like Moses, pray Exo 32:32, "or else blot me also out of Thy book," or like Paul, desire even to be "an anathema from Christ" Rom 9:3 for his people's sake, so that there might be more to love his Lord. His zeal was directed, like that of the rebuked Apostles, against others, and so it too was rebuked. But his faith was strong. He shrank back from the office, as believing, not as doubting, the might of God. He thought nothing of preaching, amid that multitude of wild warriors, the stern message of God. He was willing, alone, to confront the violence of a city of 600, 000, whose characteristic was violence. He was ready, at God's bidding, to enter what Nahum speaks of as a den of lions Nah 2:11-12; "The dwelling of the lions and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses." He feared not the fierceness of their lion-nature, but God's tenderness, and lest that tenderness should be the destruction of his own people.
Their wickedness is come up before Me - So God said to Cain, Gen 4:10. "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground:" and of Sodom Gen 18:20 :21, "The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, because their sin is very grievous; the cry of it is come up unto Me." The "wickedness" is not the mere mass of human sin, of which it is said Jo1 5:19, "the whole world lieth in wickedness," but evil-doing toward others. This was the cause of the final sentence on Nineveh, with which Nahum closes his prophecy, "upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?" It bad been assigned as the ground of the judgment on Israel through Nineveh Hos 10:14-15. "So shall Bethel do unto you, on account of the wickedness of your wickedness." It was the ground of the destruction by the flood Gen 6:5. "God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth." God represents Himself, the Great Judge, as sitting on His Throne in heaven, Unseen but All-seeing, to whom the wickedness and oppressiveness of man against man "goes up," appealing for His sentence against the oppressor. The cause seems ofttimes long in pleading. God is long-suffering with the oppressor too, that if so be, he may repent. So would a greater good come to the oppressed also, if the wolf became a lamb. But meanwhile, " every iniquity has its own voice at the hidden judgment seat of God." Mercy itself calls for vengeance on the unmerciful.
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:2: Nineveh: Jon 3:2, Jon 4:11; Gen 10:11; Kg2 19:36; Nah 1:1, Nah 2:1-3:19; Zep 2:13-15
cry: Jon 3:2; Isa 58:1; Jer 1:7-10; Eze 2:7, Eze 3:5-9; Mic 3:8; Mat 10:18
for: Gen 18:20, Gen 18:21; Ezr 9:6; Jam 5:4; Rev 18:5
Geneva 1599
1:2 Arise, go to (b) Nineveh, that (c) great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
(b) For seeing the great obstipation of the Israelites, he sent his Prophet to the Gentiles, that they might provoke them to repentance, or at least make them inexcusable: for Nineveh was the chief city of the Assyrians.
(c) For as authors write, it contained in circuit about forty-eight miles, and had 1500 towers, and at this time there were 120,000 children in it; (Jon 4:11).
John Gill
1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city,.... That is, arise from the place where he was, and leave the business he was about, and prepare for a long journey to the place mentioned, and be as expeditious in it as possible. Nineveh was the metropolis of the Assyrian empire at this time; it was an ancient city built by Ashur, not by Nimrod; though he by some is said to go into Ashur or Assyria, and build it, Gen 10:11; and called it after the name of his son Ninus; for it signifies the mansion or palace of Ninus; and by most profane writers is called Ninus; according to Diodorus Siculus (m), and Strabo (n), it was built by Ninus himself in Assyria, in that part of it called by him Adiabena. It is said to be a great city, as it must, to be three days' journey in compass, and to have in it six score thousand infants, besides men and women, Jon 3:3. It is allowed by Strabo (o) to be larger than Babylon. Diodorus (p) says that it was in compass of sixty miles; and had a wall a hundred feet high, and so broad that three chariots or carriages might go abreast upon it; and it had, fifteen hundred towers, two hundred feet high. Aben Ezra calls it the royal city of Assyria, which is at this day destroyed; and the wise men of Israel, in the country of Greece, say it is called Urtia; but, whether so or not, he knew not:
and cry against it; or prophesy against it, as the Targum; he was to lift up his voice, and cry aloud, as he passed along in it, that the inhabitants might hear him; and the more to affect them, and to show that he was in earnest, and what he delivered was interesting to them, and of the greatest moment and importance: what he was to cry, preach, or publish, see Jon 3:2;
for their wickedness is come up before me; it was come to a very great height; it reached to the heavens; it was not only seen and known by the Lord, as all things are; but the cry of it was come up to him; it called aloud for vengeance, for immediate vengeance; the measure of it being filled up, and the inhabitants ripe for destruction; it was committed openly and boldly, with much impudence, in the sight of the Lord, as well as against him; and was no more to be suffered and connived at: it intends and includes their idolatry, bloodshed, oppression, rapine, fraud, and lying; see Jon 3:8.
(m) Bibliothec. l 2. p. 92. (n) Geograph. l. 16. p. 507. (o) Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 16. p. 507.) (p) Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 92.
John Wesley
1:2 That great city - It is said to have been one hundred and fifty furlongs in length, that is eighteen miles and three quarters, and eleven miles and one quarter in breadth.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:2 to Nineveh--east of the Tigris, opposite the modern Mosul. The only case of a prophet being sent to the heathen. Jonah, however, is sent to Nineveh, not solely for Nineveh's good, but also to shame Israel, by the fact of a heathen city repenting at the first preaching of a single stranger, Jonah, whereas God's people will not repent, though preached to by their many national prophets, late and early. Nineveh means "the residence of Ninus," that is, Nimrod. , where the translation ought to be, "He (Nimrod) went forth into Assyria and builded Nineveh." Modern research into the cuneiform inscriptions confirms the Scripture account that Babylon was founded earlier than Nineveh, and that both cities were built by descendants of Ham, encroaching on the territory assigned to Shem (, , , ).
great city--four hundred eighty stadia in circumference, one hundred fifty in length, and ninety in breadth [DIODORUS SICULUS, 2.3]. Taken by Arbaces the Mede, in the reign of Sardanapalus, about the seventh year of Uzziah; and a second time by Nabopolassar of Babylon and Cyaxares the Mede in 625 B.C. See on .
cry-- (; ).
come up before me-- (; ; ; ; ); that is, their wickedness is so great as to require My open interposition for punishment.
1:31:3: Եւ յարեաւ Յովնան փախչել ՚ի Թարսիս յերեսաց Տեառն. էջ ՚ի Յոպպէ եւ եգի՛տ նաւ որ երթայր ՚ի Թարսիս. ե՛տ գինս՝ եւ եմո՛ւտ ՚ի նա նաւե՛լ ընդ նոսա ՚ի Թարսիս յերեսաց Տեառն։
3 Սակայն Յովնանը ելաւ Տիրոջ ներկայութիւնից փախչելու Թարսիս: Իջաւ Յոպպէ, գտաւ մի նաւ, որը Թարսիս էր գնում, վճարեց գինը եւ մտաւ նաւ՝ նրանց հետ նաւարկելու դէպի Թարսիս՝ Տիրոջ ներկայութիւնից հեռու:
3 Բայց Յովնան ելաւ, որ Տէրոջը երեսէն Թարսիս փախչի։ Յոպպէ իջաւ ու նաւ մը գտաւ, որ Թարսիս կ’երթար։ Անոր վարձքը տուաւ ու անոր մէջ մտաւ, որպէս զի անոնց հետ Թարսիս երթայ՝ Տէրոջը երեսէն հեռու։
Եւ յարեաւ Յովնան փախչել ի Թարսիս յերեսաց Տեառն. էջ ի Յոպպէ եւ եգիտ նաւ որ երթայր ի Թարսիս, ետ գինս եւ եմուտ ի նա` նաւել ընդ նոսա ի Թարսիս յերեսաց Տեառն:

1:3: Եւ յարեաւ Յովնան փախչել ՚ի Թարսիս յերեսաց Տեառն. էջ ՚ի Յոպպէ եւ եգի՛տ նաւ որ երթայր ՚ի Թարսիս. ե՛տ գինս՝ եւ եմո՛ւտ ՚ի նա նաւե՛լ ընդ նոսա ՚ի Թարսիս յերեսաց Տեառն։
3 Սակայն Յովնանը ելաւ Տիրոջ ներկայութիւնից փախչելու Թարսիս: Իջաւ Յոպպէ, գտաւ մի նաւ, որը Թարսիս էր գնում, վճարեց գինը եւ մտաւ նաւ՝ նրանց հետ նաւարկելու դէպի Թարսիս՝ Տիրոջ ներկայութիւնից հեռու:
3 Բայց Յովնան ելաւ, որ Տէրոջը երեսէն Թարսիս փախչի։ Յոպպէ իջաւ ու նաւ մը գտաւ, որ Թարսիս կ’երթար։ Անոր վարձքը տուաւ ու անոր մէջ մտաւ, որպէս զի անոնց հետ Թարսիս երթայ՝ Տէրոջը երեսէն հեռու։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:31:3 И встал Иона, чтобы бежать в Фарсис от лица Господня, и пришел в Иоппию, и нашел корабль, отправлявшийся в Фарсис, отдал плату за провоз и вошел в него, чтобы плыть с ними в Фарсис от лица Господа.
1:3 καὶ και and; even ἀνέστη ανιστημι stand up; resurrect Ιωνας ιωνας Iōnas; Ionas τοῦ ο the φυγεῖν φευγω flee εἰς εις into; for Θαρσις θαρσις from; out of προσώπου προσωπον face; ahead of κυρίου κυριος lord; master καὶ και and; even κατέβη καταβαινω step down; descend εἰς εις into; for Ιοππην ιοππη Ioppē; Ioppi καὶ και and; even εὗρεν ευρισκω find πλοῖον πλοιον boat βαδίζον βαδιζω into; for Θαρσις θαρσις and; even ἔδωκεν διδωμι give; deposit τὸ ο the ναῦλον ναυλον he; him καὶ και and; even ἐνέβη εμβαινω embark; step in εἰς εις into; for αὐτὸ αυτος he; him τοῦ ο the πλεῦσαι πλεω sail μετ᾿ μετα with; amid αὐτῶν αυτος he; him εἰς εις into; for Θαρσις θαρσις from; out of προσώπου προσωπον face; ahead of κυρίου κυριος lord; master
1:3 וַ wa וְ and יָּ֤קָם yyˈāqom קום arise יֹונָה֙ yônˌā יֹונָה Jonah לִ li לְ to בְרֹ֣חַ vᵊrˈōₐḥ ברח run away תַּרְשִׁ֔ישָׁה taršˈîšā תַּרְשִׁישׁ Tarshish מִ mi מִן from לִּ lli לְ to פְנֵ֖י fᵊnˌê פָּנֶה face יְהוָ֑ה [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH וַ wa וְ and יֵּ֨רֶד yyˌēreḏ ירד descend יָפֹ֜ו yāfˈô יָפֹו Joppa וַ wa וְ and יִּמְצָ֥א yyimṣˌā מצא find אָנִיָּ֣ה׀ ʔāniyyˈā אֳנִיָּה ship בָּאָ֣ה bāʔˈā בוא come תַרְשִׁ֗ישׁ ṯaršˈîš תַּרְשִׁישׁ Tarshish וַ wa וְ and יִּתֵּ֨ן yyittˌēn נתן give שְׂכָרָ֜הּ śᵊḵārˈāh שָׂכָר hire וַ wa וְ and יֵּ֤רֶד yyˈēreḏ ירד descend בָּהּ֙ bˌāh בְּ in לָ lā לְ to בֹ֤וא vˈô בוא come עִמָּהֶם֙ ʕimmāhˌem עִם with תַּרְשִׁ֔ישָׁה taršˈîšā תַּרְשִׁישׁ Tarshish מִ mi מִן from לִּ lli לְ to פְנֵ֖י fᵊnˌê פָּנֶה face יְהוָֽה׃ [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH
1:3. et surrexit Iona ut fugeret in Tharsis a facie Domini et descendit Ioppen et invenit navem euntem in Tharsis et dedit naulum eius et descendit in eam ut iret cum eis in Tharsis a facie DominiAnd Jonas rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord, and he went down to Joppe, and found a ship going to Tharsis: and he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them to Tharsis from the face of the Lord,
3. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
1:3. And Jonah rose in order to flee from the face of the Lord to Tarshish. And he went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. And he paid its fare, and he went down into it, in order to go with them to Tarshish from the face of the Lord.
1:3. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD:

1:3 И встал Иона, чтобы бежать в Фарсис от лица Господня, и пришел в Иоппию, и нашел корабль, отправлявшийся в Фарсис, отдал плату за провоз и вошел в него, чтобы плыть с ними в Фарсис от лица Господа.
1:3
καὶ και and; even
ἀνέστη ανιστημι stand up; resurrect
Ιωνας ιωνας Iōnas; Ionas
τοῦ ο the
φυγεῖν φευγω flee
εἰς εις into; for
Θαρσις θαρσις from; out of
προσώπου προσωπον face; ahead of
κυρίου κυριος lord; master
καὶ και and; even
κατέβη καταβαινω step down; descend
εἰς εις into; for
Ιοππην ιοππη Ioppē; Ioppi
καὶ και and; even
εὗρεν ευρισκω find
πλοῖον πλοιον boat
βαδίζον βαδιζω into; for
Θαρσις θαρσις and; even
ἔδωκεν διδωμι give; deposit
τὸ ο the
ναῦλον ναυλον he; him
καὶ και and; even
ἐνέβη εμβαινω embark; step in
εἰς εις into; for
αὐτὸ αυτος he; him
τοῦ ο the
πλεῦσαι πλεω sail
μετ᾿ μετα with; amid
αὐτῶν αυτος he; him
εἰς εις into; for
Θαρσις θαρσις from; out of
προσώπου προσωπον face; ahead of
κυρίου κυριος lord; master
1:3
וַ wa וְ and
יָּ֤קָם yyˈāqom קום arise
יֹונָה֙ yônˌā יֹונָה Jonah
לִ li לְ to
בְרֹ֣חַ vᵊrˈōₐḥ ברח run away
תַּרְשִׁ֔ישָׁה taršˈîšā תַּרְשִׁישׁ Tarshish
מִ mi מִן from
לִּ lli לְ to
פְנֵ֖י fᵊnˌê פָּנֶה face
יְהוָ֑ה [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH
וַ wa וְ and
יֵּ֨רֶד yyˌēreḏ ירד descend
יָפֹ֜ו yāfˈô יָפֹו Joppa
וַ wa וְ and
יִּמְצָ֥א yyimṣˌā מצא find
אָנִיָּ֣ה׀ ʔāniyyˈā אֳנִיָּה ship
בָּאָ֣ה bāʔˈā בוא come
תַרְשִׁ֗ישׁ ṯaršˈîš תַּרְשִׁישׁ Tarshish
וַ wa וְ and
יִּתֵּ֨ן yyittˌēn נתן give
שְׂכָרָ֜הּ śᵊḵārˈāh שָׂכָר hire
וַ wa וְ and
יֵּ֤רֶד yyˈēreḏ ירד descend
בָּהּ֙ bˌāh בְּ in
לָ לְ to
בֹ֤וא vˈô בוא come
עִמָּהֶם֙ ʕimmāhˌem עִם with
תַּרְשִׁ֔ישָׁה taršˈîšā תַּרְשִׁישׁ Tarshish
מִ mi מִן from
לִּ lli לְ to
פְנֵ֖י fᵊnˌê פָּנֶה face
יְהוָֽה׃ [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH
1:3. et surrexit Iona ut fugeret in Tharsis a facie Domini et descendit Ioppen et invenit navem euntem in Tharsis et dedit naulum eius et descendit in eam ut iret cum eis in Tharsis a facie Domini
And Jonas rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord, and he went down to Joppe, and found a ship going to Tharsis: and he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them to Tharsis from the face of the Lord,
1:3. And Jonah rose in order to flee from the face of the Lord to Tarshish. And he went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. And he paid its fare, and he went down into it, in order to go with them to Tarshish from the face of the Lord.
1:3. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
jfb▾ jw▾ jg▾ gnv▾ kad▾ tr▾ ab▾ ac▾ tb▾ all ▾
А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
3: «И встал Иона, чтобы бежать в Фарсис от лица Господня». Под Фарсисом, куда бежал Иона, нужно разуметь страну, населенную потомками Фарсиса, сына Иована (Быт X:11). Первоначально потомки Фарсиса поселились в Киликии, где построили город Тарс; однако в данном случае нужно разуметь не близкий к Палестине Тарс, а скорее далекую Испанию, главное место морской торговли финикиян (Ис ХXIII:1–14; Иер X:9), от имени которого корабли далекого плавания назывались Фарсийскими (Пс LXII:10; 3: Цар Х:22). Побуждением для Ионы бежать в Фарсис было несомненно то, что он хотел этим отклонить от себя посольство в Ниневию. Пример попытки уклониться от божественного посольства в истории ветхозаветных пророков — не единственный (Исх III:11; IV:10–13; Иер I:6), но он является особенным по своим мотивам и отчасти по форме (бегство). Пророк решил не идти в Ниневию потому, что не хотел ее спасения, не хотел, чтобы это спасение совершилось через него. «Потому я и побежал в Фарсис, ибо знал, что Ты — Бог благий и милосердый» (IV:2) говорил он в раздражении, тогда увидел, что Ниневия не погибла. Такие мысли и чувства достойны ли ветхозаветного пророка и мыслимы ли они, как черты характера посланника Божия? Чтобы правильно решить себе этот вопрос, нужно отрешиться от того предвзятого взгляда, по которому библейские священные лица для сохранения за ними ореола святости представляются нам в какой то духовной неподвижности. Нужно помнить что библейские святые — «подобострастные нам человецы», потому своей нравственной высоты они достигали не сразу, не без борьбы и мучений, не без зависимости от окружавших влияний времени и среды. И пророк Иона был человек своего времени и своего народа. Евреи же тогда вообще думали, что все язычники — враги Иеговы и заслуживают только Его гнева и наказания. Такое отношение к язычникам воспитывал в них отчасти сам закон в целях отвращения их от всего языческого. Вполне естественно, что и пророк Иона до своего призвания думал о язычниках так, как думали его соотечественники. Теперь, когда голос Божий внутри его призывал пророка идти с проповедью покаяния и спасения к ниневитянам, в душе его происходит глубокая борьба. Он должен был побороть в себе впитанный с рождения узкий религиозный национализм, по которому только евреи считались народом Божиим и усвоить противоположное воззрение, что у Бога милость для всех, что и язычники призваны и способны усвоить спасение Божие. Без проникновения этим убеждением пророк не мог идти на проповедь в Ниневию, его послушание Иегове не могло быть автоматическим. И вот пророк не скрывает от нас той человеческой слабости, какую он обнаруживает в этой душевной борьбе: без чрезвычайных знамений Божиих он не мог перевоспитать себя и потому решил «бежать в Фарсис от лица Господня». Такой способ уклонения от посольства Иона избрал вероятно потому, что полагал, что за пределами обетованной земли как места oсобенного присутствия Божия («лица Божия» ср. Быт IV:14, 16), он уже не будет слышать в себе призывающий его на проповедь язычникам голос.

Православная Церковь в своем песнопении дополняет сделанное замечание о мотивах бегства пророка Ионы тем, что пророк бежал «дабы пророчеству не солгатися» (канон Андрея Критского). Значит, пророк Иона не надеялся на искренность и прочность раскаяния язычников и думал, что, получит, спасение за мимолетное раскаяние, а затем, вернувшись снова к своим грехам, они будут смеяться над не исполнившимся над ними пророчеством, глумиться над бессилием еврейского Бога и оскорблять Его. Таким образом, бегство пророка было не сознательным противлением воле Божией, а обнаружение особой ревности о славе Иеговы перед язычниками.

«…пришел в Иоппию…» единственную у евреев гавань со времен Соломона. (О ней см. 3: Цар V:23; 2: Пар II:16; 1: Езд III:32; 1: Мак Х:76, XIV:5).
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:3: To flee unto Tarshish - Some say Tartessus, in Spain, near the straits of Gibraltar, others, Tarsus, in Cilicia; and others, Taprobana, or the island of Ceylon, formerly called Taprobah; and Tabrobavagh in Sanscrit, to the present day.
And went down to Joppa - This place is celebrated as that where Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus, was chained to a rock, and exposed to be devoured by a sea-monster, from which she was delivered by the valor of Perseus. It is the nearest port to Jerusalem on that side of the Mediterranean.
And he found a ship - The Phoenicians carried on a considerable trade with Tartessus, Eze 27:12; and it was probably in one of their ships that Jonah embarked.
He paid the fare thereof - He paid for his passage. This shows that there was traffic between the two places, and that each passenger paid a stated fare.
From the presence of the Lord - He considered that God was peculiarly resident in Judea; and if he got out of that land, the Lord would most probably appoint another prophet to carry the message; for Jonah appears to have considered the enterprise as difficult and dangerous, and therefore wished to avoid it.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:3: But (And) Jonah rose up to flee ... from the presence of the Lord - literally "from being before the Lord." Jonah knew well, that man could not escape from the presence of God, whom he knew as the Self-existing One, He who alone is, the Maker of heaven, earth and sea. He did not "flee" then "from His presence," knowing well what David said Psa 139:7, Psa 139:9-10, "whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand shall hold me." Jonah fled, not from God's presence, but from standing before him, as His servant and minister. He refused God's service, because, as he himself tells God afterward Jon 4:2, he knew what it would end in, and he misliked it.
So he acted, as people often do, who dislike God's commands. He set about removing himself as far as possible from being under the influence of God, and from the place where he "could" fulfill them. God commanded him to go to Nineveh, which lay northeast from his home; and he instantly set himself to flee to the then furthermost west. Holy Scripture sets the rebellion before us in its full nakedness. "The word of the Lord came unto Jonah, go to Nineveh, and Jonah rose up;" he did something instantly, as the consequence of God's command. He "rose up," not as other prophets, to obey, but to disobey; and that, not slowly nor irresolutely, but "to flee, from" standing "before the Lord." He renounced his office. So when our Lord came in the flesh, those who found what He said to be "hard sayings," went away from Him, "and walked no more with Him" Joh 6:66. So the rich "young man went away sorrowful Mat 19:22, for he had great possessions."
They were perhaps afraid of trusting themselves in His presence; or they were ashamed of staying there, and not doing what He said. So men, when God secretly calls them to prayer, go and immerse themselves in business; when, in solitude, He says to their souls something which they do not like, they escape His Voice in a throng. If He calls them to make sacrifices for His poor, they order themselves a new dress or some fresh sumptuousness or self-indulgence; if to celibacy, they engage themselves to marry immediately; or, contrariwise, if He calls them not to do a thing, they do it at once, to make an end of their struggle and their obedience; to put obedience out of their power; to enter themselves on a course of disobedience. Jonah, then, in this part of his history, is the image of those who, when God calls them, disobey His call, and how He deals with them, when he does not abandon them. He lets them have their way for a time, encompasses them with difficulties, so that they shall "flee back from God displeased to God appeased."
"The whole wisdom, the whole bliss, the whole of man lies in this, to learn what God wills him to do, in what state of life, calling, duties, profession, employment, He wills him to serve Him." God sent each one of us into the world, to fulfill his own definite duties, and, through His grace, to attain to our own perfection in and through fulfilling them. He did not create us at random, to pass through the world, doing whatever self-will or our own pleasure leads us to, but to fulfill His will. This will of His, if we obey His earlier calls, and seek Him by prayer, in obedience, self-subdual, humility, thoughtfulness, He makes known to each by His own secret drawings, and, in absence of these, at times by His Providence or human means. And then , "to follow Him is a token of predestination." It is to place ourselves in that order of things, that pathway to our eternal mansion, for which God created us, and which God created for us.
So Jesus says Joh 10:27-28, "My sheep hear My voice and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My Hand." In these ways, God has foreordained for us all the graces which we need; in these, we shall be free from all temptations which might be too hard for us, in which our own special weakness would be most exposed. Those ways, which people choose out of mere natural taste or fancy, are mostly those which expose them to the greatest peril of sin and damnation. For they choose them, just because such pursuits flatter most their own inclinations, and give scope to their natural strength and their moral weakness. So Jonah, disliking a duty, which God gave him to fulfill, separated himself from His service, forfeited his past calling, lost, as far as in him lay, his place among "the goodly fellowship of the prophets," and, but for God's overtaking grace, would have ended his days among the disobedient. As in Holy Scripture, David stands alone of saints, who had been after their calling, bloodstained; as the penitent robber stands alone converted in death; as Peter stands singly, recalled after denying his Lord; so Jonah stands, the one prophet, who, having obeyed and then rebelled, was constrained by the overpowering providence and love of God, to return and serve Him.
"Being a prophet, Jonah could not be ignorant of the mind of God, that, according to His great Wisdom and His unsearchable judgments and His untraceable and incomprehensible ways, He, through the threat, was providing for the Ninevites that they should not suffer the things threatened. To think that Jonah hoped to hide himself in the sea and elude by flight the great Eye of God, were altogether absurd and ignorant, which should not be believed, I say not of a prophet, but of no other sensible person who had any moderate knowledge of God and His supreme power. Jonah knew all this better than anyone, that, planning his flight, he changed his place, but did not flee God. For this could no man do, either by hiding himself in the bosom of the earth or depths of the sea or ascending (if possible) with wings into the air, or entering the lowest hell, or encircled with thick clouds, or taking any other counsel to secure his flight.
This, above all things and alone, can neither be escaped nor resisted, God. When He willeth to hold and grasp in His Hand, He overtaketh the swift, baffleth the intelligent, overthroweth the strong, boweth the lofty, tameth rashness, subdueth might. He who threatened to others the mighty Hand of God, was not himself ignorant of nor thought to flee, God. Let us not believe this. But since he saw the fall of Israel and perceived that the prophetic grace would pass over to the Gentiles, he withdrew himself from the office of preaching, and put off the command." "The prophet knoweth, the Holy Spirit teaching him, that the repentance of the Gentiles is the ruin of the Jews. A lover then of his country, he does not so much envy the deliverance of Nineveh, as will that his own country should not perish. - Seeing too that his fellow-prophets are sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to excite the people to repentance, and that Balaam the soothsayer too prophesied of the salvation of Israel, he grieveth that he alone is chosen to be sent to the Assyrians, the enemies of Israel, and to that greatest city of the enemies where was idolatry and ignorance of God. Yet more he feared lest they, on occasion of his preaching, being converted to repentance, Israel should be wholly forsaken. For he knew by the same Spirit whereby the preaching to the Gentiles was entrusted to him, that the house of Israel would then perish; and he feared that what was at one time to be, should take place in his own time." "The flight of the prophet may also be referred to that of man in general who, despising the commands of God, departed from Him and gave himself to the world, where subsequently, through the storms of ill and the wreck of the whole world raging against him, he was compelled to feel the presence of God, and to return to Him whom he had fled. Whence we understand, that those things also which men think for their good, when against the will of God, are turned to destruction; and help not only does not benefit those to whom it is given, but those too who give it, are alike crushed. As we read that Egypt was conquered by the Assyrians, because it helped Israel against the will of God. The ship is emperiled which had received the emperiled; a tempest arises in a calm; nothing is secure, when God is against us."
Tarshish - , named after one of the sons of Javan, Gen 10:4. was an ancient merchant city of Spain, once proverbial for its wealth (Psa 72:10. Strabo iii. 2. 14), which supplied Judaea with silver Jer 10:9, Tyre with "all manner of riches," with iron also, tin, lead. Eze 27:12, Eze 27:25. It was known to the Greeks and Romans, as (with a harder pronunciation) Tartessus; but in our first century, it had either ceased to be, or was known under some other name. Ships destined for a voyage, at that time, so long, and built for carrying merchandise, were naturally among the largest then constructed. "Ships of Tarshish" corresponded to the "East-Indiamen" which some of us remember. The breaking of "ships of Tarshish by the East Wind" Psa 48:7 is, on account of their size and general safety, instanced as a special token of the interposition of God.
And went down to Joppa - Joppa, now Jaffa (Haifa), was the one well-known port of Israel on the Mediterranean. There the cedars were brought from Lebanon for both the first and second temple Ch2 3:16; Ezr 2:7. Simon the Maccabee (1 Macc. 14:5) "took it again for a haven, and made an entrance to the isles of the sea." It was subsequently destroyed by the Romans, as a pirate-haven. (Josephus, B. J. iii. 9. 3, and Strabo xvi. 2. 28.) At a later time, all describe it as an unsafe haven. Perhaps the shore changed, since the rings, to which Andromeda was tabled to have been fastened, and which probably were once used to moor vessels, were high above the sea. Perhaps, like the Channel Islands, the navigation was safe to those who knew the coast, unsafe to others. To this port Jonah "went down" from his native country, the mountain district of Zabulon. Perhaps it was not at this time in the hands of Israel. At least, the sailors were pagan. He "went down," as the man who fell among the thieves, is said to "have gone down from Jerusalem to Jericho." Luk 10:30. He "went down" from the place which God honored by His presence and protection.
And he paid the fare thereof - Jonah describes circumstantially, how he took every step to his end. He went down, found a strongly built ship going where he wished, paid his fare, embarked. He seemed now to have done all. He had severed himself from the country where his office lay. He had no further step to take. Winds and waves would do the rest. He had but to be still. He went, only to be brought back again.
"Sin brings our soul into much senselessness. For as those overtaken by heaviness of head and drunkenness, are borne on simply and at random, and, be there pit or precipice or whatever else below them, they fall into it unawares; so too, they who fall into sin, intoxicated by their desire of the object, know not what they do, see nothing before them, present or future. Tell me, Fleest thou the Lord? Wait then a little, and thou shalt learn from the event, that thou canst not escape the hands of His servant, the sea. For as soon as he embarked, it too roused its waves and raised them up on high; and as a faithful servant, finding her fellow-slave stealing some of his master's property, ceases not from giving endless trouble to those who take him in, until she recover him, so too the sea, finding and recognizing her fellow-servant, harasses the sailors unceasingly, raging, roaring, not dragging them to a tribunal but threatening to sink the vessel with all its unless they restore to her, her fellow-servant."
"The sinner "arises," because, will he, nill he, toil he must. If he shrinks from the way of God, because it is hard, he may not yet be idle. There is the way of ambition, of covetousness, of pleasure, to be trodden, which certainly are far harder. 'We wearied ourselves (Wisdom 5:7),' say the wicked, 'in the way of wickedness and destruction, yea, we have gone through deserts where there lay no way; but the way of the Lord we have not known.' Jonah would not arise, to go to Nineveh at God's command; yet he must needs arise, to flee to Tarshish from before the presence of God. What good can he have who fleeth the Good? what light, who willingly forsaketh the Light? "He goes down to Joppa." WheRev_er thou turnest, if thou depart from the will of God, thou goest down. Whatever glory, riches, power, honors, thou gainest, thou risest not a whit; the more thou advancest, while turned from God, the deeper and deeper thou goest down. Yet all these things are not had, without paying the price. At a price and with toil, he obtains what he desires; he receives nothing gratis, but, at great price purchases to himself storms, griefs, peril. There arises a great tempest in the sea, when various contradictory passions arise in the heart of the sinner, which take from him all tranquility and joy. There is a tempest in the sea, when God sends strong and dangerous disease, whereby the frame is in peril of being broken. There is a tempest in the sea, when, thro' rivals or competitors for the same pleasures, or the injured, or the civil magistrate, his guilt is discovered, he is laden with infamy and odium, punished, withheld from his wonted pleasures. Psa 107:23-27. "They who go down to the sea of this world, and do business in mighty waters - their soul melteth away because of trouble; they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man, and all their wisdom is swallowed up."
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:3: to flee: Jon 4:2; Exo 4:13, Exo 4:14; Kg1 19:3, Kg1 19:9; Jer 20:7-9; Eze 3:14; Luk 9:62; Act 15:38, Act 26:19; Co1 9:16
from: Gen 3:8, Gen 4:16; Job 1:12, Job 2:7; Psa 139:7-12; Th2 1:9
Joppa: Jos 19:46; Ch2 2:16; Act 9:36
Tarshish: As Jonah embarked at Joppa, a seaport on the Mediterranean, it was probably either Tarsus in Cilicia, or rather Tartessus in Spain, to which he intended to flee. When we reflect how such a message would be received in the streets of London at this day, we shall not wonder at the prophet's reluctance to announce the destruction of the proud and idolatrous Nineveh. Isa 2:16, Isa 23:1, Isa 23:6, Isa 23:10, Isa 60:9; Eze 27:12
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch
1:3
Jonah sets out upon his journey; not to Nineveh, however, but to flee to Tarshish, i.e., Tartessus, a Phoenician port in Spain (see at Gen 10:4 and Is 23:1), "from the face of Jehovah," i.e., away from the presence of the Lord, out of the land of Israel, where Jehovah dwelt in the temple, and manifested His presence (cf. Gen 4:16); not to hide himself from the omnipresent God, but to withdraw from the service of Jehovah, the God-King of Israel.
(Note: Marck has already correctly observed, that "this must not be understood as flight from the being and knowledge of God, lest we should attribute to the great prophet gross ignorance of the omnipresence and omniscience of God; but as departure from the land of Canaan, the gracious seat of God, outside which he thought, that possibly, at any rate at that time, the gift and office of a prophet would not be conferred upon him.")
The motive for this flight was not fear of the difficulty of carrying out the command of God, but, as Jonah himself says in Jon 4:2, anxiety lest the compassion of God should spare the sinful city in the event of its repenting. He had no wish to co-operate in this; and that not merely because "he knew, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that the repentance of the Gentiles would be the ruin of the Jews, and, as a lover of his country, was actuated not so much by envy of the salvation of Nineveh, as by unwillingness that his own people should perish," as Jerome supposes, but also because he really grudged salvation to the Gentiles, and feared lest their conversion to the living God should infringe upon the privileges of Israel above the Gentile world, and put an end to its election as the nation of God.
(Note: Luther has already deduced this, the only true reason, from Jon 4:1-11, in his Commentary on the Prophet Jonah: "Because Jonah was sorry that God was so kind, he would rather not preach, yea, would rather die, than that the grace of God, which was to be the peculiar privilege of the people of Israel, should be communicated to the Gentiles also, who had neither the word of God, nor the laws of Moses, nor the worship of God, nor prophets, nor anything else, but rather strove against God, and His word, and His people." But in order to guard against a false estimate of the prophet, on account of these "carnal, Jewish thoughts of God," Luther directs attention to the fact that "the apostles also held at first the carnal opinion that the kingdom of Christ was to be an outward one; and even afterwards, when they understood that it was to be a spiritual one, they thought that it was to embrace only the Jews, and therefore 'preached the gospel to the Jews only' (Acts 8), until God enlightened them by a vision from heaven to Peter (Acts 10), and by the public calling of Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13), and by wonders and signs; and it was at last resolved by a general council (Acts 15), that God would also show mercy to the Gentiles, and that He was the God of the Gentiles also. For it was very hard for the Jews to believe that there were any other people outside Israel who helped to form the people of God, because the sayings of the Scripture stop there and speak of Israel and Abraham's seed; and the word of God, the worship of God, the laws and the holy prophets, were with them alone.")
He therefore betook himself to Yāphō, i.e., Joppa, the port on the Mediterranean Sea (vid., comm. on Josh 19:46), and there found a ship which was going to Tarshish; and having paid the sekhârâh, the hire of the ship, i.e., the fare for the passage, embarked "to go with them (i.e., the sailors) to Tarshish."
Geneva 1599
1:3 But Jonah rose up to (d) flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to (e) Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the (f) presence of the LORD.
(d) By which he declares his weakness, that would not promptly follow the Lord's calling, but gave place to his own reason, which persuaded him that he would not profit these people at all, seeing he had done such little good among his own people; (Jon 4:2).
(e) Which was the haven, and port to take shipping there, also called Joppa.
(f) From that vocation to which God had called him, and in which he would have assisted him.
John Gill
1:3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord,.... He was not obedient to the heavenly vision; he rose up, but not to go to Nineveh, but to Tarshish, the reverse of it; to the sea, as the Targum, the Mediterranean sea, which lay west, as Nineveh was to the east. Tarshish sometimes is used for the sea; see Ps 48:7; he determined to go to sea; he did not care where, or to what place he might find a ship bound; or to Tarsus in Cilicia, the birthplace of the Apostle Paul, Acts 22:3; so Josephus (q) and Saadiah Gaon; or to Tunis in Africa, as R. Melasser in Aben Ezra; or to Carthage, as Theodoret, and others; or Tartessus in Spain, as others. Among this difference of interpreters, it is hard to say what place it was: it seems best to understand it of Tarsus. The prophet had better knowledge of God, and of the perfections of his nature, than to imagine he could flee from his general presence, which is everywhere, and from which there is no fleeing, Ps 139:7; but his view was to flee out of that land where he granted his special presence to his people; and from that place where were the symbols of his presence, the ark, the mercy seat, and cherubim, and in which he stood, and ministered before the Lord; but now upon this order left his post, and deserted his station. The reasons given of his conduct are various. The Jewish writers suppose that he concerned more for the glory of Israel than the glory of God; that he was fearful, should he do as he was bid, the word of the Lord would be carried from Judea into the Gentile world, and there remain; that he was of opinion that the Heathens would repent of their sins at his preaching, though Israel did not, which would turn to the reproach and condemnation of the latter; see Mt 12:41; and that he knew that the spirit of prophecy did not dwell upon any out of the land of Israel, and therefore got as fast as he could out of it, that he might not be further urged with such a message; which notion is confuted by the instances of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; to this, sense the Targum inclines, which adds,
"lest he should prophesy in the name of the Lord:''
but there is no need to seek for reasons, and which are given by others; such as going out of his own country into a foreign one; the length of the journey; the opposition and difficulties he might expect to meet with; and the risk he should run of his life, by prophesying in and against the metropolis of the Assyrian empire, where the king's court and palace were; and he not only a Heathen, but a sovereign and arbitrary prince; when the true reasons are suggested by the prophet himself; as that he supposed the people would repent; he knew that God was gracious and merciful, and upon their repentance would not inflict the punishment pronounced; and he should be reckoned a false prophet, Jon 4:2;
and went down to Joppa; a seaport town in the tribe of Dan, upon the Mediterranean sea, where was a haven of ships, formerly called Japho, Josh 19:16; at this time Joppa, as it was in the times of the apostles: here Peter raised Dorcas to life, and from hence he was sent for by Cornelius, Acts 9:36; it is now called Jaffa; of which Monsieur Thevenot (r) says,
"it is a town built upon the top of a rock, whereof there remains no more at present but some towers; and the port of it was at the foot of the said rock.--It is at present a place of few inhabitants; and all that is to be seen of it is a little castle with two towers, one round, and another square; and a great tower separate from it on one side. There are no houses by the seaside, but five grottos cut in the rock, of which the fourth is in a place of retreat for Christians.--There is a harbour still in the same place where it was formerly; but there is so little water in it, that none but small barks can enter.''
Tit was a very ancient city, said (s) to be older than the flood; and built on a hill so high, that Strabo says (t) Jerusalem might be seen from thence, which was forty miles from it. It had its name from Jope the daughter of Aeolus, the wife of Cepheus, the founder of it (u). Jonah went thither, either from Jerusalem, or from Gathhepher, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe: if from the former, it was forty miles to Joppa, as Jerom says; and if from the latter, it is supposed to be about fifty: a journey of this length must be some time in performing, which shows with what deliberation and resolution he sinned in disobeying the divine command:
and he found a ship going to Tarshish; just ready to put to sea, and bound for this place: Providence seemed to favour him, and answer to his wishes; from whence it may be observed, that the goodness of an action, and its acceptableness to God, are not to be concluded from its wished for success:
so he paid the fare thereof; the freight of the ship; the whole of it, according to Jarchi; that haste and a quicker dispatch might be made, and no stay for passengers or goods; but that it might be put under, sail directly, and he be the sooner out of the land; which, if true, would show him to be a man of substance; and agrees with a notion of the Jews, and serves to illustrate and confirm it, that the spirit of prophecy does not dwell upon any but a rich man; for which reason the above interpreter catches at it; but Aben Ezra more truly observes, that he paid his part, what came to his share, what was usual to be paid for a passage to such a place: and whereas it might be usual then, as now, not to pay till they were arrived at port, and went out of the ship; he paid his fare at entrance, to secure his passage, lest through any pretence he should not be took in upon sailing; so determined was he to fly from God, and disobey his orders:
and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord; having paid his fare, he entered the ship directly, lest he should be left behind; and went down into the cabin perhaps, to go along with the mariners and merchants, all Heathens to Tarshish, whither they were bound, in order to be clear of any fresh order from the Lord, to go and prophesy against Nineveh: here again the Targum adds,
"lest he should prophesy in the name of the Lord.''
(q) Antiqu. l. 9. c. 10. sect. 2. (r) Travels, par. 1. B. 2. c. 52. p. 208. (s) Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 13. (t) Geograph. l. 16. p. 522. (u) Stephanus apud Reland. Palestina Illustrata, tom. 2. p. 865.
John Wesley
1:3 From the presence - From the place where God usually had shewed himself present, by revealing his word and will to his prophets. Perhaps he might think God would not put him upon this work, when he was got into a strange country.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:3 flee--Jonah's motive for flight is hinted at in : fear that after venturing on such a dangerous commission to so powerful a heathen city, his prophetical threats should be set aside by God's "repenting of the evil," just as God had so long spared Israel notwithstanding so many provocations, and so he should seem a false prophet. Besides, he may have felt it beneath him to discharge a commission to a foreign idolatrous nation, whose destruction he desired rather than their repentance. This is the only case of a prophet, charged with a prophetical message, concealing it.
from the presence of the Lord--(Compare ). Jonah thought in fleeing from the land of Israel, where Jehovah was peculiarly present, that he should escape from Jehovah's prophecy-inspiring influence. He probably knew the truth stated in , but virtually ignored it (compare ; ).
went down--appropriate in going from land to the sea ().
Joppa--now Jaffa, in the region of Dan; a harbor as early as Solomon's time ().
Tarshish--Tartessus in Spain; in the farthest west at the greatest distance from Nineveh in the east.
1:41:4: Եւ Տէր յարոյց հողմ ՚ի ծովուն՝ եւ եղեւ մրրիկ մեծ ՚ի ծովուն. եւ նաւն ՚ի վտանգի կայր ՚ի խորտակել[10654]։ [10654] ՚Ի բազումս պակասի. ՚Ի ծովուն՝ եւ եղեւ մրրիկ մեծ ՚ի ծովուն։
4 Տէրը հողմ բարձրացրեց ծովում: Մեծ փոթորիկ եղաւ ծովում, եւ նաւը խորտակուելու վտանգի մէջ էր:
4 Տէրը ծովուն մէջ մեծ հով մը հանեց ու ծովուն մէջ մեծ փոթորիկ մը եղաւ, այնպէս որ նաւը խորտակուելու վտանգին մէջ էր։
Եւ Տէր յարոյց [2]հողմ ի ծովուն եւ եղեւ մրրիկ մեծ ի ծովուն, եւ նաւն ի վտանգի կայր ի խորտակել:

1:4: Եւ Տէր յարոյց հողմ ՚ի ծովուն՝ եւ եղեւ մրրիկ մեծ ՚ի ծովուն. եւ նաւն ՚ի վտանգի կայր ՚ի խորտակել[10654]։
[10654] ՚Ի բազումս պակասի. ՚Ի ծովուն՝ եւ եղեւ մրրիկ մեծ ՚ի ծովուն։
4 Տէրը հողմ բարձրացրեց ծովում: Մեծ փոթորիկ եղաւ ծովում, եւ նաւը խորտակուելու վտանգի մէջ էր:
4 Տէրը ծովուն մէջ մեծ հով մը հանեց ու ծովուն մէջ մեծ փոթորիկ մը եղաւ, այնպէս որ նաւը խորտակուելու վտանգին մէջ էր։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:41:4 Но Господь воздвиг на море крепкий ветер, и сделалась на море великая буря, и корабль готов был разбиться.
1:4 καὶ και and; even κύριος κυριος lord; master ἐξήγειρεν εξεγειρω raise up; awakened πνεῦμα πνευμα spirit; wind εἰς εις into; for τὴν ο the θάλασσαν θαλασσα sea καὶ και and; even ἐγένετο γινομαι happen; become κλύδων κλυδων tempest μέγας μεγας great; loud ἐν εν in τῇ ο the θαλάσσῃ θαλασσα sea καὶ και and; even τὸ ο the πλοῖον πλοιον boat ἐκινδύνευεν κινδυνευω in danger συντριβῆναι συντριβω fracture; smash
1:4 וַֽ wˈa וְ and יהוָ֗ה [yhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH הֵטִ֤יל hēṭˈîl טול cast רֽוּחַ־ rˈûₐḥ- רוּחַ wind גְּדֹולָה֙ gᵊḏôlˌā גָּדֹול great אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to הַ ha הַ the יָּ֔ם yyˈom יָם sea וַ wa וְ and יְהִ֥י yᵊhˌî היה be סַֽעַר־ sˈaʕar- סַעַר storm גָּדֹ֖ול gāḏˌôl גָּדֹול great בַּ ba בְּ in † הַ the יָּ֑ם yyˈom יָם sea וְ wᵊ וְ and הָ֣ hˈā הַ the אֳנִיָּ֔ה ʔᵒniyyˈā אֳנִיָּה ship חִשְּׁבָ֖ה ḥiššᵊvˌā חשׁב account לְ lᵊ לְ to הִשָּׁבֵֽר׃ hiššāvˈēr שׁבר break
1:4. Dominus autem misit ventum magnum in mari et facta est tempestas magna in mari et navis periclitabatur conteriBut the Lord sent a great wind to the sea: and a great tempest was raised in the sea, and the ship was in danger to be broken.
4. But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
1:4. But the Lord sent a great wind into the sea. And a great tempest took place in the sea, and the ship was in danger of being crushed.
1:4. But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken:

1:4 Но Господь воздвиг на море крепкий ветер, и сделалась на море великая буря, и корабль готов был разбиться.
1:4
καὶ και and; even
κύριος κυριος lord; master
ἐξήγειρεν εξεγειρω raise up; awakened
πνεῦμα πνευμα spirit; wind
εἰς εις into; for
τὴν ο the
θάλασσαν θαλασσα sea
καὶ και and; even
ἐγένετο γινομαι happen; become
κλύδων κλυδων tempest
μέγας μεγας great; loud
ἐν εν in
τῇ ο the
θαλάσσῃ θαλασσα sea
καὶ και and; even
τὸ ο the
πλοῖον πλοιον boat
ἐκινδύνευεν κινδυνευω in danger
συντριβῆναι συντριβω fracture; smash
1:4
וַֽ wˈa וְ and
יהוָ֗ה [yhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH
הֵטִ֤יל hēṭˈîl טול cast
רֽוּחַ־ rˈûₐḥ- רוּחַ wind
גְּדֹולָה֙ gᵊḏôlˌā גָּדֹול great
אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to
הַ ha הַ the
יָּ֔ם yyˈom יָם sea
וַ wa וְ and
יְהִ֥י yᵊhˌî היה be
סַֽעַר־ sˈaʕar- סַעַר storm
גָּדֹ֖ול gāḏˌôl גָּדֹול great
בַּ ba בְּ in
הַ the
יָּ֑ם yyˈom יָם sea
וְ wᵊ וְ and
הָ֣ hˈā הַ the
אֳנִיָּ֔ה ʔᵒniyyˈā אֳנִיָּה ship
חִשְּׁבָ֖ה ḥiššᵊvˌā חשׁב account
לְ lᵊ לְ to
הִשָּׁבֵֽר׃ hiššāvˈēr שׁבר break
1:4. Dominus autem misit ventum magnum in mari et facta est tempestas magna in mari et navis periclitabatur conteri
But the Lord sent a great wind to the sea: and a great tempest was raised in the sea, and the ship was in danger to be broken.
1:4. But the Lord sent a great wind into the sea. And a great tempest took place in the sea, and the ship was in danger of being crushed.
1:4. But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
jfb▾ jg▾ kad▾ tr▾ ab▾ ac▾ mh▾ tb▾ all ▾
А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
4: «Господь воздвиг на море крепкий ветер, и сделалась на море великая буря…» Буря на Средиземном море и особенно у берегов иоппийской гавани — обыкновенное явление. По свидетельству Иосифа Флавия («Об иудейской войне» III, 9, 3) и новых путешественников (де-Сольси, Норова) рейд иоппийской гавани и вообще юго-восточный берег Средиземного моря подвержены действию ветров, поэтому здесь часто наблюдается волнение. Ввиду сказанного книге пророка Ионы часто делают упрек в избытке чудесности. Говорят, что самые естественные явления, как поднятие бури на море и ее прекращение (I:4, 15), поглощение человека большой рыбой (II:1), полуденный зной, жгучий ветер, червь, подтачивающий растения (IV:6–8), происходящие по естественным силам и законам природы, в ней представляются, как особенные действия Божии, совершающиеся по непосредственному велению Божию. Таким образом, для полной естественности явления необходимым считается устранить всякую мысль об участии в жизни природы Бога. Таково, несомненно, распространенное воззрение нашего времени, но не таково религиозное воззрение на мир. По нему все совершающееся в мире, по так называемым законам природы и ее силам, представляется вместе с тем делом Бога, правящего миром. Самые законы природы составляют не что-либо совершенно отдельное от воли Божией, а рассматриваются, как выражение воли Творца о природе. При таком понимании, нет ничего странного, что человек и естественные явления представляет совершающимися по воле Божией и умалчивает о законах природы, как причинах только посредствующих. В книге Ионы, как произведении имеющем религиозно-нравственное назначение, такое упоминание более чем уместно, (хотя в ней упоминаются и естественные факторы естественных явлений: ветер, производящий бурю, червь подтачивающий растения). На основании этого можно только отметить религиозность ее автора, а не упрекать в избытке чудесности и будто невероятности рассказа.
Matthew Henry: Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible - 1706
4 But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. 6 So the ship-master came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. 7 And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. 8 Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? 9 And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. 10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
When Jonah was set on ship-board, and under sail for Tarshish, he thought himself safe enough; but here we find him pursued and overtaken, discovered and convicted as a deserter from God, as one that had run his colours.
I. God sends a pursuer after him, a mighty tempest in the sea, v. 4. God has the winds in his treasure (Ps. cxxxv. 7), and out of these treasures God sent forth, he cast forth (so the word is), with force and violence, a great wind into the sea; even stormy winds fulfil his word, and are often the messengers of his wrath; he gathers the winds in his fist (Prov. xxx. 4), where he holds them, and whence he squeezes them when he pleases; for though, as to us, the wind blows where it listeth, yet not as to God, but where he directs. The effect of this wind as a mighty tempest; for when the winds rise the waves rise. Note, Sin brings storms and tempests into the soul, into the family, into churches and nations; it is a disquieting disturbing thing. The tempest prevailed to such a degree that the ship was likely to be broken; the mariners expected no other; that ship (so some read it), that and no other. Other ships were upon the same sea at the same time, yet, it should seem, that ship in which Jonah was was tossed more than any other and was more in danger. This wind was sent after Jonah, to fetch him back again to God and to his duty; and it is a great mercy to be reclaimed and called home when we go astray, though it be by a tempest.
II. The ship's crew were alarmed by this mighty tempest, but Jonah only, the person concerned, was unconcerned, v. 5. The mariners were affected with their danger, though it was not with them that God has this controversy. 1. They were afraid; though, their business leading them to be very much conversant with dangers of this kind, they used to make light of them, yet now the oldest and stoutest of them began to tremble, being apprehensive that there was something more than ordinary in this tempest, so suddenly did it rise, so strongly did it rage. Note, God can strike a terror upon the most daring, and make even great men and chief captains call for shelter from rocks and mountains. 2. They cried every man unto his god; this was the effect of their fear. Many will not be brought to prayer till they are frightened to it; he that would learn to pray, let him go to sea. Lord, in trouble they have visited thee. Every man of them prayed; they were not some praying and others reviling, but every man engaged; as the danger was general, so was the address to heaven; there was not one praying for them all, but every one for himself. They cried every man to his god, the god of his country or city, or his own tutelar deity; it is a testimony against atheism that every man had a god, and had the belief of a God; but it is an instance of the folly of paganism that they had gods many, every man the god he had a fancy for, whereas there can be but one God, there needs to be no more. But, though they had lost that dictate of the light of nature that there is but one God, they still were governed by that direction of the law of nature that God is to be prayed to (Should not a people seek under their God? Isa. viii. 19), and that he is especially to be prayed to when we are in distress and danger. Call upon me in the time of trouble. Is any afflicted? Is any frightened? Let him pray. 3. Their prayers for deliverance were seconded with endeavours, and, having called upon their gods to help them, they did what they could to help themselves; for that is the rule, Help thyself and God will help thee. They cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them, as Paul's mariners in a like case cast forth even the tackling of the ship, and the wheat, Acts xxvii. 18, 19, 38. They were making a trading voyage, as it should seem, and were laden with many goods and much merchandise, by which they hoped to get gain; but now they are content to suffer loss by throwing them overboard. to save their lives. See how powerful the natural love of life is. Skin for skin, and all that a man has, will he give for it. And shall we not put a like value upon the spiritual life, the life of the soul, reckoning that the gain of all the world cannot countervail the loss of the soul? See the vanity of worldly wealth, and the uncertainty of its continuance with us. Riches make themselves wings and fly away; nay, and the case may be such that we may be under a necessity of making wings for them, and driving them away, as here, when they could not be kept for the owners thereof but to their hurt, so that they themselves are glad to be rid of them, and sink that which otherwise would sink them, though they have no prospect of ever recovering it. Oh that men would be thus wise for their souls, and would be willing to part with that wealth, pleasure, and honour which they cannot keep without making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience and ruining their souls for ever! Those that thus quit their temporal interests for the securing of their spiritual welfare will be unspeakable gainers at last; for what they lose upon those terms they shall find again to life eternal. But where is Jonah all this while? One would have expected gone down into his cabin, nay, into the hold, between the sides of the ship, and there he lies, and is fast asleep; neither the noise without, for the sense of guilt within, awoke him. Perhaps for some time before he had avoiding sleeping, for fear of God's speaking to him again in a dream; and now that he imagined himself out of the reach of that danger, he slept so much the more soundly. Note, Sin is of a stupifying nature, and we are concerned to take heed lest at any time our hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness of it. It is the policy of Satan, when by his temptations he has drawn men from God and their duty, to rock them asleep in carnal security, that they may not be sensible of their misery and danger. It concerns us all to watch therefore.
III. The master of the ship called Jonah up to his prayers, v. 6. The ship-master came to him, and bade him for shame get up, both to pray for life and to prepare for death; he gave him, 1. A just and necessary chiding: What meanest thou, O sleeper? Here we commend the ship-master, who gave him this reproof; for, though he was a stranger to him, he was, for the present, as one of his family; and whoever has a precious soul we must help, as we can, to save it from death. We pity Jonah, who needed this reproof; as a prophet of the Lord, if he had been in his place, he might have been reproving the king of Nineveh, but, being out of the way of his duty, he does himself lie open to the reproofs of a sorry ship-master. See how men by their sin and folly diminish themselves and make themselves mean. Yet we must admire God's goodness in sending him this seasonable reproof, for it was the first step towards his recovery, as the crowing of the cock was to Peter. Note, Those that sleep in a storm may well be asked what they mean. 2. A pertinent word of advice: "Arise, call upon thy God; we are here crying every man to his god, why dost not thou get up and cry to thine? Art not thou equally concerned with the rest both in the danger dreaded and in the deliverance desired?" Note, The devotions of others should quicken ours; and those who hope to share in a common mercy ought in all reason to contribute their quota towards the prayers and supplications that are made for it. In times of public distress, if we have any interest at the throne of grace, we ought to improve it for the public good. And the servants of God themselves have sometimes need to be called and stirred up to this part of their duty. 3. A good reason for this advice: If so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. It should seem, the many gods they called upon were considered by them only as mediators between them and the supreme God, and intercessors for them with him; for the ship-master speaks of one God still, from whom he expected relief. To engage prayer, he suggested that the danger was very great and imminent: "We are all likely to perish; there is but a step between us and death, and that just ready to be stepped." Yet he suggested that there was some hope remaining that their destruction might be prevented and they might not perish. While there is still life there is hope, and while there is hope there is room for prayer. He suggested also that it was God only that could effect their deliverance, and it must come from his power and his pity. "If he think upon us, and act for us, we may yet be saved." And therefore to him we must look, and in him we must put our trust, when the danger is ever so imminent.
IV. Jonah is found out to be the cause of the storm.
1. The mariners observed so much peculiar and uncommon either in the storm itself or in their own distress by it that they concluded it was a messenger of divine justice sent to arrest some one of those that were in that ship, as having been guilty of some enormous crime, judging as the barbarous people (Acts xxviii. 4), "no doubt one of us is a murderer, or guilty of sacrilege, or perjury, or the like, who is thus pursued by the vengeance of the sea, and it is for his sake that we all suffer." Even the light of nature teaches that in extraordinary judgments the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against some extraordinary sins and sinners. Whatever evil is upon us at any time we must conclude there is a cause for it; there is evil done by us, or else this evil would not be upon us; there is a ground for God's controversy.
2. They determined to refer it to the lot which of them was the criminal that had occasioned this storm: Let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause the evil is upon us. None of them suspected himself, or said, Is it I, Lord; is it I? But they suspected one another, and would find out the man. Note, It is a desirable thing, when any evil is upon us, to know for what cause it is upon us, that what is amiss may be amended, and, the grievance being redressed, the grief may be removed. In order to this we must look up to heaven, and pray, Lord, show me wherefore thou contendest with me; that which I see not teach thou me. These mariners desired to know the person that was the dead weight in their ship, the accursed thing, that that one man might die for the people and that the whole ship might not be lost; this was not only expedient, but highly just. In order to this they cast lots, by which they appealed to the judgment of God, to whom all hearts are open, and from whom no secret is hid, agreeing to acquiesce in his discovery and determination, and to take that for true which the lot spoke; for they knew by the light of nature, what the scripture tells us, that the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposal thereof is of the Lord. Even the heathen looked upon the casting of lots to be a sacred thing, to be done with seriousness and solemnity, and not to be made a sport of. It is a shame for Christians if they have not a like reverence for an appeal to Providence.
3. The lot fell upon Jonah, who could have saved them this trouble if he would but have told them what his own conscience told him, Thou are the man; but as is usual with criminals, he never confesses till he finds he cannot help it, till the lot falls upon him. We may suppose there were those in the ship who, upon other accounts, were greater sinners than Jonah, and yet he is the man that the tempest pursues and that the lot pitches upon; for it is his own child, his own servant, that the parent, that the master, corrects, if they do amiss; others that offend he leaves to the law. The storm is sent after Jonah, because God has work for him to do, and it is sent to fetch him back to it. Note, God has many ways of bringing to light concealed sins and sinners, and making manifest that folly which was thought to be hidden from the eyes of all living. God's right hand will find out all his servants that desert him, as well as all his enemies that have designs against him; yea, though they flee to the uttermost parts of the sea, or go down to the sides of the ship.
4. Jonah is hereupon brought under examination before the master and mariners. He was a stranger; none of them could say that they knew the prisoner, or had any thing to lay to his charge, and therefore they must extort a confession from him and judge him out of his own mouth; and for this there needed no rack, the shipwreck they were in danger of was sufficient to frighten him, so as to make him tell the truth. Though it was discovered by the lot that he was the person for whose sake they were thus damaged and exposed, yet they did not fly outrageously upon him, as one would fear they might have done, but calmly and mildly enquired into his case. There is a compassion due to offenders when they are discovered and convicted. They give him no hard words, but, "Tell us, we pray thee, what is the matter?" Two things they enquire of him:-- (1.) Whether he would himself own that he was the person for whose sake the storm was sent, as the lot had intimated: "Tell us for whose cause this evil is upon us; is it indeed for thy cause, and, if so, for what cause? What is this offence for which thou art thus prosecuted?" Perhaps the gravity and decency of Jonah's aspect and behaviour made them suspect that the lot had missed its man, had missed its mark, and therefore they would not trust it, unless he would himself own his guilt; they therefore begged of him that he would satisfy them in this matter. Note, Those that would find out the cause of their troubles must not only begin, but pursue the enquiry, must descend to particulars and accomplish a diligent search. (2.) What his character was, both as to his calling and as to his country. [1.] They enquire concerning his calling: What is thy occupation? This was a proper question to be put to a vagrant. Perhaps they suspected his calling to be such as might bring this trouble upon them: "Art thou a diviner, a sorcerer, a student in the black art? Hast thou been conjuring for this wind? Or what business are thou now going on? It is like Balaam's, to curse any of God's people, and is this wind send to stop thee?" [2.] They enquire concerning his country. One asked, Whence comest thou? Another, not having patience to stay for an answer to that, asked, What is thy country? A third to the same purport, "Of what people art thou? Art thou of the Chaldeans," that were noted for divination, "or of the Arabians," that were noted for stealing? They wished to know of what country he was, that, knowing who was the god of his country, they might guess whether he was one that could do them any kindness in this storm.
5. In answer to these interrogatories Jonah makes a full discovery. (1.) Did they enquire concerning his country? He tells them he is a Hebrew (v. 9), not only of the nation of Israel, but of their religion, which they received from their fathers. He is a Hebrew, and therefore is the more ashamed to own that he is a criminal; for the sins of Hebrews, that make such a profession of religion and enjoy such privileges, are greater than the sins of others, and more exceedingly sinful. (2.) Did they enquire concerning his calling--What is thy occupation? In answer to that he gives an account of his religion, for that was his calling, that was his occupation, that was it that he made a business of: "I fear the Lord Jehovah; that is the God I worship, the God I pray to, even the God of heaven, the sovereign Lord of all, that has made the sea and the dry land and has command of both." Not the god of one particular country, which they enquired after, and such as the gods were that they had been every man calling upon, but the God of the whole earth, who, having made both the sea and the dry land, makes what work he pleases in both and makes what use he pleases of both. This he mentions, not only as condemning himself for his folly, in fleeing from the presence of this God, but as designing to bring these mariners from the worship and service of their many gods to the knowledge and obedience of the one only living and true God. When we are among those that are strangers to us we should do what we can to bring them acquainted with God, by being ready upon all occasions to own our relation to him and our reverence for him. (3.) Did they enquire concerning his crime, for which he is now persecuted? He owns that he fled from the presence of the Lord, that he was here running away from his duty, and the storm was sent to fetch him back. We have reason to think that he told them this with sorrow and shame, justifying God and condemning himself and intimating to the mariners what a great God Jehovah is, who could send such a messenger as this tempest was after a runagate servant.
6. We are told what impression this made upon the mariners: The men were exceedingly afraid, and justly, for they perceived, (1.) That God was angry, even that God that made the sea and the dry land. This tempest comes from the hand of an offended justice, and therefore they have reason to fear it will go hard with them. Judgments inflicted for some particular sin have a peculiar weight and terror in them. (2.) That God was angry with one that feared and worshipped him, only for once running from his work in particular instance; this made them afraid for themselves. "If a prophet of the Lord be thus severely punished for one offence, what will become of us that have been guilty of so many, and great, and heinous offences?" If the righteous be thus scarcely saved, and for a single act of disobedience thus closely pursued, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 1 Pet. iv. 17, 18. They said to him, "Why hast thou done this? If thou fearest the God that made the sea and the dry land, why wast thou such a fool as to think thou couldst flee from his presence? What an absurd unaccountable thing is it!" Thus he was reproved, as Abraham by Abimelech (Gen. xx. 16); for if the professors of religion do a wrong thing they must expect to hear of it from those that make no such profession. "Why hast thou done this to us?" (so it may be taken) "Why has thou involved us in the prosecution?" Note, Those that commit a willful sin know not how far the mischievous consequences of it may reach, nor what mischief may be done by it.
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:4: A great wind - They were overtaken with a storm, which appears from the sequel to have come by the immediate direction of God.
Like to be broken - They had nearly suffered shipwreck.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:4: But (And) the Lord sent out - (literally 'cast along'). Jonah had done his all. Now God's part began. This He expresses by the word, "And." Jonah took "his" measures, "and" now God takes "His." He had let him have his way, as He often deals with those who rebel against Him. He lets them have their way up to a certain point. He waits, in the tranquility of His Almightiness, until they have completed their preparations; and then, when man has ended, He begins, that man may see the more that it is His doing . "He takes those who flee from Him in their flight, the wise in their counsels, sinners in their conceits and sins, and draws them back to Himself and compels them to return. Jonah thought to find rest in the sea, and lo! a tempest." Probably, God summoned back Jonah, as soon as he had completed all on his part, and sent the tempest, soon after he left the shore.
At least, such tempests often swept along that shore, and were known by their own special name, like the Euroclydon off Crete. Jonah too alone had gone down below deck to sleep, and, when the storm came, the mariners thought it possible to put back. Josephus says of that shore, "Joppa having by nature no haven, for it ends in a rough shore, mostly abrupt, but for a short space having projections, i. e., deep rocks and cliffs advancing into the sea, inclining on either side toward each other (where the traces of the chains of Andromeda yet shown accredit the antiquity of the fable,) and the north wind beating right on the shore, and dashing the high waves against the rocks which receive them, makes the station there a harborless sea. As those from Joppa were tossing here, a strong wind (called by those who sail here, the black north wind) falls upon them at daybreak, dashing straightway some of the ships against each other, some against the rocks, and some, forcing their way against the waves to the open sea, (for they fear the rocky shore ...) the breakers towering above them, sank."
The ship was like - (literally 'thought') To be broken Perhaps Jonah means by this very vivid image to exhibit the more his own dullness. He ascribes, as it were, to the ship a sense of its own danger, as she heaved and rolled and creaked and quivered under the weight of the storm which lay on her, and her masts groaned, and her yard-arms shivered. To the awakened conscience everything seems to have been alive to God's displeasure, except itself.
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:4: the Lord: Exo 10:13, Exo 10:19, Exo 14:21, Exo 15:10; Num 11:31; Psa 107:24-31, Psa 135:7; Amo 4:13; Mat 8:24-27; Act 27:13-20
sent out: Heb. cast forth
like: Heb. thought
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch
1:4
Jonah's foolish hope of being able to escape from the Lord was disappointed. "Jehovah threw a great wind (i.e., a violent wind) upon the sea." A mighty tempest (סער, rendered appropriately κλύδων by the lxx) arose, so that "the ship thought to be dashed to pieces," i.e., to be wrecked (השּׁב used of inanimate things, equivalent to "was very nearly" wrecked). In this danger the seamen (mallâch, a denom. of melach, the salt flood) cried for help, "every one to his god." They were heathen, and probably for the most part Phoenicians, but from different places, and therefore worshippers of different gods. But as the storm did not abate, they also resorted to such means of safety as they had at command. They "threw the waves in the ship into the sea, to procure relief to themselves" (להקל מעליהם as in Ex 18:22 and 3Kings 12:10). The suffix refers to the persons, not to the things. By throwing the goods overboard, they hoped to preserve the ship from sinking beneath the swelling waves, and thereby to lighten, i.e., diminish for themselves the danger of destruction which was so burdensome to them. "But Jonah had gone down into the lower room of the ship, and had there fallen fast asleep;" not, however, just at the time of the greatest danger, but before the wind had risen into a dangerous storm. The sentence is to be rendered as a circumstantial one in the pluperfect. Yarkethē hassephı̄nâh (analogous to harkethē habbayith in Amos 6:10) is the innermost part of the vessel, i.e., the lower room of the ship. Sephı̄nâh, which only occurs here, and is used in the place of אניּה, is the usual word for a ship in Arabic and Aramaean. Nirdam: used for deep sleep, as in Judg 4:21. This act of Jonah's is regarded by most commentators as a sign of an evil conscience. Marck supposes that he had lain down to sleep, hoping the better to escape either the dangers of sea and air, or the hand of God; others, that he had thrown himself down in despair, and being utterly exhausted and giving himself up for lost, had fallen asleep; or as Theodoret expresses it, being troubled with the gnawings of conscience and overpowered with mourning, he had sought comfort in sleep and fallen into a deep sleep. Jerome, on the other hand, expresses the idea that the words indicate "security of mind" on the part of the prophet: "he is not disturbed by the storm and the surrounding dangers, but has the same composed mind in the calm, or with shipwreck at hand;" and whilst the rest are calling upon their gods, and casting their things overboard, "he is so calm, and feels so safe with his tranquil mind, that he goes down to the interior of the ship and enjoys a most placid sleep." The truth probably lies between these two views. It was not an evil conscience, or despair occasioned by the threatening danger, which induced him to lie down to sleep; nor was it his fearless composure in the midst of the dangers of the storm, but the careless self-security with which he had embarked on the ship to flee from God, without considering that the hand of God could reach him even on the sea, and punish him for his disobedience. This security is apparent in his subsequent conduct.
John Gill
1:4 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea,.... He took a wind out of his treasures, and hurled it, as the word (w) signifies, into the sea: "into that sea" (x); that part of it where the ship was Jonah was in. Winds are at the command of God, which he raises at his pleasure, and fulfil his will, and are servants of his that obey his orders: this here was sent in pursuit of Jonah, to stop him in his voyage, when he thought he had got clear off, and was safe enough. The Jews say (y) this was done when he had been one day's voyage:
and there was a great tempest in the sea; which caused the waves to rise and roar, and become very tumultuous: this wind was an extraordinary one, like that "laelaps" or storm of wind which came down into the sea when the disciples of Christ were on it in a ship; or like the "Euroclydon", in which the Apostle Paul was, Acts 27:14;
so that the ship was like to be broken; it was in danger of it; it seemed as if it would, the waves of the sea were so strong, and beat so hard upon it. It is in the original text, "the ship thought it should be broken" (z); that is, the men in it; they that had the management of it thought nothing less but that it would be dashed to pieces, and all their goods and lives lost; so great was the hurricane occasioned by the wind the Lord sent. It may be rendered, "that ship (a) was like", &c. The Jews (b) have a notion that other ships passed to and fro in great tranquillity, and this only was in distress.
(w) "projecit", Mercerus, Drusius; "conjecit", Cocceius. (x) "in mare illud", Mercerus. (y) Pirke Eliezer, c. 10. fol. 10. 1. (z) "putabat", Montanus; "cogitavit", Vatablus, Burkius; "cogitabat", Drusius, Cocceius. (a) "navem iliam", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (b) Pirke Eliezer, c. 10. fol. 10. 1. So Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, and Abendana in loc.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:4 sent out--literally, caused a wind to burst forth. COVERDALE translates, "hurled a greate wynde into the see."
1:51:5: Եւ երկեա՛ն նաւավարքն երկեւղ մեծ, եւ աղաղակէին առ իւրաքանչիւր աստուածս իւր. եւ ընկեցին զկարասին որ էր ՚ի նաւին ՚ի ծով անդր՝ զի թեթեւացուսցեն յինքեանց։ Եւ Յովնան իջեալ ՚ի խորշ մի նաւին՝ ննջէ՛ր եւ խորդայր[10655]։ [10655] Ոսկան. Յերկիւղ մեծ... առ իւրաքանչիւր աստուածս իւրեանց։ Յոմանս պակասի. Զկարասին որ էր ՚ի նաւին։
5 Նաւավարները խիստ վախեցան, եւ իւրաքանչիւրը օգնութեան էր կանչում իր աստծուն: Նաւի վրայ եղած կարասին գցեցին ծովը, որպէսզի նուազեցնեն վտանգն իրենցից: Իսկ Յովնանը իջել էր նաւի մի խորշը, ննջում էր եւ խռմփացնում:
5 Նաւաստիները վախցան եւ ամէն մէկը իր աստուծոյն կ’աղաղակէր ու նաւուն մէջի կարասիները ծովը նետեցին, որպէս զի զանիկա թեթեւցնեն. բայց Յովնան նաւուն խորշը իջնելով պառկեր էր ու խորունկ կը քնանար։
Եւ երկեան նաւավարքն [3]երկեւղ մեծ, եւ աղաղակէին առ իւրաքանչիւր աստուածս`` իւր. եւ ընկեցին զկարասին որ էր ի նաւին ի ծով անդր, զի թեթեւացուսցեն յինքեանց. եւ Յովնան իջեալ ի խորշ մի նաւին` ննջէր եւ խորդայր:

1:5: Եւ երկեա՛ն նաւավարքն երկեւղ մեծ, եւ աղաղակէին առ իւրաքանչիւր աստուածս իւր. եւ ընկեցին զկարասին որ էր ՚ի նաւին ՚ի ծով անդր՝ զի թեթեւացուսցեն յինքեանց։ Եւ Յովնան իջեալ ՚ի խորշ մի նաւին՝ ննջէ՛ր եւ խորդայր[10655]։
[10655] Ոսկան. Յերկիւղ մեծ... առ իւրաքանչիւր աստուածս իւրեանց։ Յոմանս պակասի. Զկարասին որ էր ՚ի նաւին։
5 Նաւավարները խիստ վախեցան, եւ իւրաքանչիւրը օգնութեան էր կանչում իր աստծուն: Նաւի վրայ եղած կարասին գցեցին ծովը, որպէսզի նուազեցնեն վտանգն իրենցից: Իսկ Յովնանը իջել էր նաւի մի խորշը, ննջում էր եւ խռմփացնում:
5 Նաւաստիները վախցան եւ ամէն մէկը իր աստուծոյն կ’աղաղակէր ու նաւուն մէջի կարասիները ծովը նետեցին, որպէս զի զանիկա թեթեւցնեն. բայց Յովնան նաւուն խորշը իջնելով պառկեր էր ու խորունկ կը քնանար։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:51:5 И устрашились корабельщики, и взывали каждый к своему богу, и стали бросать в море кладь с корабля, чтобы облегчить его от нее; Иона же спустился во внутренность корабля, лег и крепко заснул.
1:5 καὶ και and; even ἐφοβήθησαν φοβεω afraid; fear οἱ ο the ναυτικοὶ ναυτικος and; even ἀνεβόων αναβοαω scream out ἕκαστος εκαστος each πρὸς προς to; toward τὸν ο the θεὸν θεος God αὐτῶν αυτος he; him καὶ και and; even ἐκβολὴν εκβολη jettisoning ἐποιήσαντο ποιεω do; make τῶν ο the σκευῶν σκευος vessel; jar τῶν ο the ἐν εν in τῷ ο the πλοίῳ πλοιον boat εἰς εις into; for τὴν ο the θάλασσαν θαλασσα sea τοῦ ο the κουφισθῆναι κουφιζω lighten ἀπ᾿ απο from; away αὐτῶν αυτος he; him Ιωνας ιωνας Iōnas; Ionas δὲ δε though; while κατέβη καταβαινω step down; descend εἰς εις into; for τὴν ο the κοίλην κοιλος the πλοίου πλοιον boat καὶ και and; even ἐκάθευδεν καθευδω asleep; sleep καὶ και and; even ἔρρεγχεν ρεγχω snore
1:5 וַ wa וְ and יִּֽירְא֣וּ yyˈîrᵊʔˈû ירא fear הַ ha הַ the מַּלָּחִ֗ים mmallāḥˈîm מַלָּח mariner וַֽ wˈa וְ and יִּזְעֲקוּ֮ yyizʕᵃqˈû זעק cry אִ֣ישׁ ʔˈîš אִישׁ man אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to אֱלֹהָיו֒ ʔᵉlōhāʸw אֱלֹהִים god(s) וַ wa וְ and יָּטִ֨לוּ yyāṭˌilû טול cast אֶת־ ʔeṯ- אֵת [object marker] הַ ha הַ the כֵּלִ֜ים kkēlˈîm כְּלִי tool אֲשֶׁ֤ר ʔᵃšˈer אֲשֶׁר [relative] בָּֽ bˈā בְּ in † הַ the אֳנִיָּה֙ ʔᵒniyyˌā אֳנִיָּה ship אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to הַ ha הַ the יָּ֔ם yyˈom יָם sea לְ lᵊ לְ to הָקֵ֖ל hāqˌēl קלל be slight מֵֽ mˈē מִן from עֲלֵיהֶ֑ם ʕᵃlêhˈem עַל upon וְ wᵊ וְ and יֹונָ֗ה yônˈā יֹונָה Jonah יָרַד֙ yārˌaḏ ירד descend אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to יַרְכְּתֵ֣י yarkᵊṯˈê יַרְכָּה backside הַ ha הַ the סְּפִינָ֔ה ssᵊfînˈā סְפִינָה vessel וַ wa וְ and יִּשְׁכַּ֖ב yyiškˌav שׁכב lie down וַ wa וְ and יֵּרָדַֽם׃ yyērāḏˈam רדם sleep
1:5. et timuerunt nautae et clamaverunt viri ad deum suum et miserunt vasa quae erant in navi in mare ut adleviaretur ab eis et Iona descendit ad interiora navis et dormiebat sopore graviAnd the mariners were afraid, and the men cried to their god: and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship, into the sea, to lighten it of them: and Jonas went down into the inner part of the ship, and fell into a deep sleep.
5. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god; and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it unto them. But Jonah was gone down into the innermost parts of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
1:5. And the mariners were afraid, and the men cried out to their god. And they threw the containers that were in the ship into the sea in order to lighten it of them. And Jonah went down into the interior of the ship, and he fell into a painful deep sleep.
1:5. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that [were] in the ship into the sea, to lighten [it] of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that [were] in the ship into the sea, to lighten [it] of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep:

1:5 И устрашились корабельщики, и взывали каждый к своему богу, и стали бросать в море кладь с корабля, чтобы облегчить его от нее; Иона же спустился во внутренность корабля, лег и крепко заснул.
1:5
καὶ και and; even
ἐφοβήθησαν φοβεω afraid; fear
οἱ ο the
ναυτικοὶ ναυτικος and; even
ἀνεβόων αναβοαω scream out
ἕκαστος εκαστος each
πρὸς προς to; toward
τὸν ο the
θεὸν θεος God
αὐτῶν αυτος he; him
καὶ και and; even
ἐκβολὴν εκβολη jettisoning
ἐποιήσαντο ποιεω do; make
τῶν ο the
σκευῶν σκευος vessel; jar
τῶν ο the
ἐν εν in
τῷ ο the
πλοίῳ πλοιον boat
εἰς εις into; for
τὴν ο the
θάλασσαν θαλασσα sea
τοῦ ο the
κουφισθῆναι κουφιζω lighten
ἀπ᾿ απο from; away
αὐτῶν αυτος he; him
Ιωνας ιωνας Iōnas; Ionas
δὲ δε though; while
κατέβη καταβαινω step down; descend
εἰς εις into; for
τὴν ο the
κοίλην κοιλος the
πλοίου πλοιον boat
καὶ και and; even
ἐκάθευδεν καθευδω asleep; sleep
καὶ και and; even
ἔρρεγχεν ρεγχω snore
1:5
וַ wa וְ and
יִּֽירְא֣וּ yyˈîrᵊʔˈû ירא fear
הַ ha הַ the
מַּלָּחִ֗ים mmallāḥˈîm מַלָּח mariner
וַֽ wˈa וְ and
יִּזְעֲקוּ֮ yyizʕᵃqˈû זעק cry
אִ֣ישׁ ʔˈîš אִישׁ man
אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to
אֱלֹהָיו֒ ʔᵉlōhāʸw אֱלֹהִים god(s)
וַ wa וְ and
יָּטִ֨לוּ yyāṭˌilû טול cast
אֶת־ ʔeṯ- אֵת [object marker]
הַ ha הַ the
כֵּלִ֜ים kkēlˈîm כְּלִי tool
אֲשֶׁ֤ר ʔᵃšˈer אֲשֶׁר [relative]
בָּֽ bˈā בְּ in
הַ the
אֳנִיָּה֙ ʔᵒniyyˌā אֳנִיָּה ship
אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to
הַ ha הַ the
יָּ֔ם yyˈom יָם sea
לְ lᵊ לְ to
הָקֵ֖ל hāqˌēl קלל be slight
מֵֽ mˈē מִן from
עֲלֵיהֶ֑ם ʕᵃlêhˈem עַל upon
וְ wᵊ וְ and
יֹונָ֗ה yônˈā יֹונָה Jonah
יָרַד֙ yārˌaḏ ירד descend
אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to
יַרְכְּתֵ֣י yarkᵊṯˈê יַרְכָּה backside
הַ ha הַ the
סְּפִינָ֔ה ssᵊfînˈā סְפִינָה vessel
וַ wa וְ and
יִּשְׁכַּ֖ב yyiškˌav שׁכב lie down
וַ wa וְ and
יֵּרָדַֽם׃ yyērāḏˈam רדם sleep
1:5. et timuerunt nautae et clamaverunt viri ad deum suum et miserunt vasa quae erant in navi in mare ut adleviaretur ab eis et Iona descendit ad interiora navis et dormiebat sopore gravi
And the mariners were afraid, and the men cried to their god: and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship, into the sea, to lighten it of them: and Jonas went down into the inner part of the ship, and fell into a deep sleep.
1:5. And the mariners were afraid, and the men cried out to their god. And they threw the containers that were in the ship into the sea in order to lighten it of them. And Jonah went down into the interior of the ship, and he fell into a painful deep sleep.
1:5. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that [were] in the ship into the sea, to lighten [it] of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
jfb▾ jw▾ jg▾ gnv▾ tr▾ ab▾ ac▾ tb▾ all ▾
А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
5: «И устрашились корабельщики и взывали каждый к своему Богу». Корабельщики — не случайные пассажиры корабля, а люди, у которых мореходство было промыслом, с евр. malahijm — гребцы, весельники. Они несомненно были язычники и происходили, вероятно, из финикийских приморских городов. В религии всех вообще приморских жителей видное место занимали боги моря и воды, к ним-то, естественно, корабельщики обращались с молитвой о спасении от бушующих волн. Наряду с этим, они не пренебрегали и естественными средствами спасения: «стали бросать в море кладь с корабля, чтобы облегчить его от нее».

«Иона же спустился во внутренность корабля, лег и крепко заснул». Странным представляется поведение пророка: в то время, когда другие на корабле в страхе за свою жизнь молятся о спасении, он идет в трюм и спокойно засыпает. Это произошло оттого, что автор текста в данном месте о последующем моменте сказал раньше предшествующего, употребил оборот usteron proteron, как и в 10: ст. и IV:5: ст. В действительности пророк Иона для отдыха пошел несомненно раньше, чем случилась буря. Утомленный происходившей в нем внутренней борьбой и, может быть, спешным путешествием в Иоппию, успокоившись принятым наконец решением, Иона «крепко заснул». Весь дальнейший рассказ книги до II гл. включительно некоторые толковники понимают, как бывшее пророку сновидение. Однако в тексте нет решительно никаких оснований для этого предположения и историческая достоверность рассказа II-ой гл. засвидетельствована не менее других частей книги. (См. об этом в Введении).
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:5: Cried every man unto his god - The ship's crew were all heathens; and, it is probable, heathens who had each a different object of religious worship.
Cast forth the wares - Threw the lading overboard to lighten the ship, hoping the better to ride out the storm.
Jonah was gone down - Most probably into the hold or cabin under the deck; or where they had berths for passengers in the sides of the ship, something in the manner of our packets.
Was fast asleep - Probably quite exhausted and overcome with distress, which in many cases terminates in a deep sleep. So the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:5: And cried, every man unto his God - They did what they could. "Not knowing the truth, they yet know of a Providence, and, amid religious error, know that there is an Object of Rev_erence." In ignorance they had received one who offended God. And now God, "whom they ignorantly worshiped" Act 17:23, while they cried to the gods, who, they thought, disposed of them, heard them. They escaped with the loss of their wares, but God saved their lives and Rev_ealed Himself to them. God hears ignorant prayer, when ignorance is not willful and sin.
To lighten it of them - , literally "to lighten from against them, to lighten" what was so much "against them," what so oppressed them. "They thought that the ship was weighed down by its wonted lading, and they knew not that the whole weight was that of the fugitive prophet." "The sailors cast forth their wares," but the ship was not lightened. For the whole weight still remained, the body of the prophet, that heavy burden, not from the nature of the body, but from the burden of sin. For nothing is so onerous and heavy as sin and disobedience. Whence also Zechariah Zac 5:7 represented it under the image of lead. And David, describing its nature, said Psa 38:4, "my wickednesses are gone over my head; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me." And Christ cried aloud to those who lived in many sins, Mat 11:28. "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will refresh you."
Jonah was gone down - , probably before the beginning of the storm, not simply before the lightening of the vessel. He could hardly have fallen asleep "then." A pagan ship was a strange place for a prophet of God, not as a prophet, but as a fugitive; and so, probably, ashamed of what he had completed, he had withdrawn from sight and notice. He did not embolden himself in his sin, but shrank into himself. The conscience most commonly awakes, when the sin is done. It stands aghast as itself; but Satan, if he can, cuts off its retreat. Jonah had no retreat now, unless God had made one.
And was fast asleep - The journey to Joppa had been long and hurried; he had "fled." Sorrow and remorse completed what fatigue began. Perhaps he had given himself up to sleep, to dull his conscience. For it is said, "he lay down and was fast asleep." Grief produces sleep; from where it is said of the apostles in the night before the Lord's Passion, when Jesus "rose up from prayer and was come to His disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow" Luk 22:45 . "Jonah slept heavily. Deep was the sleep, but it was not of pleasure but of grief; not of heartlessness, but of heavy-heartedness. For well-disposed servants soon feel their sins, as did he. For when the sin has been done, then he knows its frightfulness. For such is sin. When born, it awakens pangs in the soul which bare it, contrary to the law of our nature. For so soon as we are born, we end the travail-pangs; but sin, so soon as born, rends with pangs the thoughts which conceived it." Jonah was in a deep sleep, a sleep by which he was fast held and bound; a sleep as deep as that from which Sisera never woke. Had God allowed the ship to sink, the memory of Jonah would have been that of the fugitive prophet. As it is, his deep sleep stands as an image of the lethargy of sin . "This most deep sleep of Jonah signifies a man torpid and slumbering in error, to whom it sufficed not to flee from the face of God, but his mind, drowned in a stupor and not knowing the displeasure of God, lies asleep, steeped in security."
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:5: cried: Jon 1:6, Jon 1:14, Jon 1:16; Kg1 18:26; Isa 44:17-20, Isa 45:20; Jer 2:28; Hos 7:14
and cast: Job 2:4; Act 27:18, Act 27:19, Act 27:38; Phi 3:7, Phi 3:8
the sides: Sa1 24:3
and was: Jdg 16:19; Mat 25:5, Mat 26:40, Mat 26:41, Mat 26:43, Mat 26:45; Luk 22:45, Luk 22:46
Geneva 1599
1:5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that [were] in the ship into the sea, to lighten [it] of them. But Jonah was gone down (g) into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
(g) As one that would have cast off this care and concern by seeking rest and quietness.
John Gill
1:5 Then the mariners were afraid,.... Perceiving that the storm was not an ordinary, but a supernatural one; and that the ship and all in it were in extreme danger, and no probability of being saved. This shows that the storm must be very violent, to frighten such men who were used to the sea, and to storms, and were naturally bold and intrepid. The word used signifies "salters", so called from the salt sea they used, as they are by us "mariners", from "mare", the "sea"; though R. Japhet in Aben Ezra thinks the commodity they carried in their vessel was salt:
and cried every man to his god: to help them, and save them out of their distress. In the ship it seems were men of different nations, and who worshipped different gods. It was a notion of the Jews, and which Jarchi mentions as his own, that there were men of the seventy nations of the earth in it; and as each of them had a different god, they separately called upon them. The polytheism of the Pagans is to be condemned, and shows the great uncertainty of their religion; yet this appears to be agreeable to the light of nature that there is a God, and that God is to be prayed unto, and called upon, especially in time of trouble:
and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them; or, "the vessels" (c), a word the Hebrews use for all sorts of goods, utensils, &c. it includes, with others, their military weapons they had to defend themselves, their provisions, the ship's stores or goods it was freighted with; finding their prayers to their gods were ineffectual, they betook themselves to this prudential method to lighten the ship, that they might be able to keep its head above water. So the Targum,
"when they saw there was no profit in them;''
that is in the gods they called upon, then they did this; the other was a matter of religion this a point of prudence; such a step the mariners took that belonged to the ship in which the Apostle Paul was, Acts 27:18;
but Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; into one of its sides, into a cabin there; the lowest side, as the Targum:
and he lay, and was fast asleep; even snored, as some versions have it: it may seem strange he should when the wind was so strong and boisterous; the sea roaring; the waves beating; the ship rolling about; the mariners hurrying from place to place, and calling to each other to do their duty; and the passengers crying; and, above all, that he should fall into so sound a sleep, and continue in it, when he had such a guilty conscience. This shows that he was asleep in a spiritual as well as in a corporeal sense.
(c) "vasa", V. L. Vatablus, Grotius.
John Wesley
1:5 Into the sides - ln some cabin or other, whither he went before the storm arose.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:5 mariners were afraid--though used to storms; the danger therefore must have been extreme.
cried every man unto his god--The idols proved unable to save them, though each, according to Phœnician custom, called on his tutelary god. But Jehovah proved able: and the heathen sailors owned it in the end by sacrificing to Him ().
into the sides--that is, the interior recesses (compare ; , ). Those conscious of guilt shrink from the presence of their fellow man into concealment.
fast asleep--Sleep is no necessary proof of innocence; it may be the fruit of carnal security and a seared conscience. How different was Jesus' sleep on the Sea of Galilee! (). Guilty Jonah's indifference to fear contrasts with the unoffending mariners' alarm. The original therefore is in the nominative absolute: "But as for Jonah, he," &c. Compare spiritually, .
1:61:6: Մատեաւ առ նա նաւապետն՝ եւ ասէ. Զի՞նչ է այդ՝ զի խորդասդ, արի՛ կարդա՛ զՏէր Աստուած քո. թերեւս ապրեցուսցէ զմեզ Աստուած՝ եւ մի՛ կորիցուք[10656]։ [10656] Ոմանք. Արի՛ եւ կարդա՛։
6 Նաւապետը մօտեցաւ նրան եւ ասաց. «Ի՞նչ ես խռմփացնում, վե՛ր կաց, աղաչի՛ր քո Տէր Աստծուն, թերեւս մեզ փրկի, եւ մենք կորստի չմատնուենք»:
6 Նաւապետը անոր մօտեցաւ ու անոր ըսաւ. «Քեզի ի՞նչ եղաւ, ո՜վ խորունկ քնացող. ելի՛ր քու Աստուծոյդ աղաղակէ, թերեւս Աստուած մեզ յիշէ ու չկորսուինք»։
Մատեաւ առ նա նաւապետն, եւ ասէ. Զի՞նչ է այդ` զի խորդասդ, արի կարդա [4]զՏէր Աստուած քո. թերեւս ապրեցուսցէ`` զմեզ Աստուած, եւ մի՛ կորիցուք:

1:6: Մատեաւ առ նա նաւապետն՝ եւ ասէ. Զի՞նչ է այդ՝ զի խորդասդ, արի՛ կարդա՛ զՏէր Աստուած քո. թերեւս ապրեցուսցէ զմեզ Աստուած՝ եւ մի՛ կորիցուք[10656]։
[10656] Ոմանք. Արի՛ եւ կարդա՛։
6 Նաւապետը մօտեցաւ նրան եւ ասաց. «Ի՞նչ ես խռմփացնում, վե՛ր կաց, աղաչի՛ր քո Տէր Աստծուն, թերեւս մեզ փրկի, եւ մենք կորստի չմատնուենք»:
6 Նաւապետը անոր մօտեցաւ ու անոր ըսաւ. «Քեզի ի՞նչ եղաւ, ո՜վ խորունկ քնացող. ելի՛ր քու Աստուծոյդ աղաղակէ, թերեւս Աստուած մեզ յիշէ ու չկորսուինք»։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:61:6 И пришел к нему начальник корабля и сказал ему: что ты спишь? встань, воззови к Богу твоему; может быть, Бог вспомнит о нас, и мы не погибнем.
1:6 καὶ και and; even προσῆλθεν προσερχομαι approach; go ahead πρὸς προς to; toward αὐτὸν αυτος he; him ὁ ο the πρωρεὺς πρωρευς and; even εἶπεν επω say; speak αὐτῷ αυτος he; him τί τις.1 who?; what? σὺ συ you ῥέγχεις ρεγχω stand up; resurrect καὶ και and; even ἐπικαλοῦ επικαλεω invoke; nickname τὸν ο the θεόν θεος God σου σου of you; your ὅπως οπως that way; how διασώσῃ διασωζω thoroughly save; bring safely through ὁ ο the θεὸς θεος God ἡμᾶς ημας us καὶ και and; even μὴ μη not ἀπολώμεθα απολλυμι destroy; lose
1:6 וַ wa וְ and יִּקְרַ֤ב yyiqrˈav קרב approach אֵלָיו֙ ʔēlāʸw אֶל to רַ֣ב rˈav רַב chief הַ ha הַ the חֹבֵ֔ל ḥōvˈēl חֹבֵל sailor וַ wa וְ and יֹּ֥אמֶר yyˌōmer אמר say לֹ֖ו lˌô לְ to מַה־ mah- מָה what לְּךָ֣ llᵊḵˈā לְ to נִרְדָּ֑ם nirdˈām רדם sleep ק֚וּם ˈqûm קום arise קְרָ֣א qᵊrˈā קרא call אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ ʔᵉlōhˈeʸḵā אֱלֹהִים god(s) אוּלַ֞י ʔûlˈay אוּלַי perhaps יִתְעַשֵּׁ֧ת yiṯʕaššˈēṯ עשׁת think הָ hā הַ the אֱלֹהִ֛ים ʔᵉlōhˈîm אֱלֹהִים god(s) לָ֖נוּ lˌānû לְ to וְ wᵊ וְ and לֹ֥א lˌō לֹא not נֹאבֵֽד׃ nōvˈēḏ אבד perish
1:6. et accessit ad eum gubernator et dixit ei quid tu sopore deprimeris surge invoca Deum tuum si forte recogitet Deus de nobis et non pereamusAnd the ship master came to him and said to him: Why art thou fast asleep? rise up call upon thy God, if so be that God will think of us that we may not perish.
6. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
1:6. And the helmsman approached him, and he said to him, “Why are you weighed down with sleep? Rise, call upon your God, so perhaps God will be mindful of us and we might not perish.”
1:6. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not:

1:6 И пришел к нему начальник корабля и сказал ему: что ты спишь? встань, воззови к Богу твоему; может быть, Бог вспомнит о нас, и мы не погибнем.
1:6
καὶ και and; even
προσῆλθεν προσερχομαι approach; go ahead
πρὸς προς to; toward
αὐτὸν αυτος he; him
ο the
πρωρεὺς πρωρευς and; even
εἶπεν επω say; speak
αὐτῷ αυτος he; him
τί τις.1 who?; what?
σὺ συ you
ῥέγχεις ρεγχω stand up; resurrect
καὶ και and; even
ἐπικαλοῦ επικαλεω invoke; nickname
τὸν ο the
θεόν θεος God
σου σου of you; your
ὅπως οπως that way; how
διασώσῃ διασωζω thoroughly save; bring safely through
ο the
θεὸς θεος God
ἡμᾶς ημας us
καὶ και and; even
μὴ μη not
ἀπολώμεθα απολλυμι destroy; lose
1:6
וַ wa וְ and
יִּקְרַ֤ב yyiqrˈav קרב approach
אֵלָיו֙ ʔēlāʸw אֶל to
רַ֣ב rˈav רַב chief
הַ ha הַ the
חֹבֵ֔ל ḥōvˈēl חֹבֵל sailor
וַ wa וְ and
יֹּ֥אמֶר yyˌōmer אמר say
לֹ֖ו lˌô לְ to
מַה־ mah- מָה what
לְּךָ֣ llᵊḵˈā לְ to
נִרְדָּ֑ם nirdˈām רדם sleep
ק֚וּם ˈqûm קום arise
קְרָ֣א qᵊrˈā קרא call
אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to
אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ ʔᵉlōhˈeʸḵā אֱלֹהִים god(s)
אוּלַ֞י ʔûlˈay אוּלַי perhaps
יִתְעַשֵּׁ֧ת yiṯʕaššˈēṯ עשׁת think
הָ הַ the
אֱלֹהִ֛ים ʔᵉlōhˈîm אֱלֹהִים god(s)
לָ֖נוּ lˌānû לְ to
וְ wᵊ וְ and
לֹ֥א lˌō לֹא not
נֹאבֵֽד׃ nōvˈēḏ אבד perish
1:6. et accessit ad eum gubernator et dixit ei quid tu sopore deprimeris surge invoca Deum tuum si forte recogitet Deus de nobis et non pereamus
And the ship master came to him and said to him: Why art thou fast asleep? rise up call upon thy God, if so be that God will think of us that we may not perish.
1:6. And the helmsman approached him, and he said to him, “Why are you weighed down with sleep? Rise, call upon your God, so perhaps God will be mindful of us and we might not perish.”
1:6. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
jfb▾ jw▾ jg▾ gnv▾ kad▾ tr▾ ab▾ ac▾ tb▾ all ▾
А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
6: В этом стихе не должно смущать то обстоятельство, что кормчий-язычник обращается к иноверцу еврею с просьбой, чтобы он молился своему Богу, причем выражает надежду получить от Него спасение. Язычник-политеист наряду со своими богами признавал действительное существование и богов других народов. В частности, о случаях признания язычниками Иеговы, как Бога еврейского, Библия говорит не однократно (4: Цар ХVIII:25, 33–35; Езд I:2–3), то же самое мы имеем в данном месте.
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:6: The shipmaster - Either the captain or the pilot.
Arise, call upon thy God - He supposed that Jonah had his god, as well as they had theirs; and that, as the danger was imminent, every man should use the influence he had, as they were all equally involved in it.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:6: What meanest thou? - or rather, "what aileth thee?" (literally "what is to thee?") The shipmaster speaks of it (as it was) as a sort of disease, that he should be thus asleep in the common peril. "The shipmaster," charged, as he by office was, with the common weal of those on board, would, in the common peril, have one common prayer. It was the prophet's office to call the pagan to prayers and to calling upon God. God reproved the Scribes and Pharisees by the mouth of the children who "cried Hosanna" Mat 21:15; Jonah by the shipmaster; David by Abigail; Sa1 25:32-34; Naaman by his servants. Now too he reproves worldly priests by the devotion of laymen, sceptic intellect by the simplicity of faith.
If so be that God will think upon us - , (literally "for us") i. e., for good; as David says, Psa 40:17. "I am poor and needy, the Lord thinketh upon" (literally "for") "me." Their calling upon their own gods had failed them. Perhaps the shipmaster had seen something special about Jonah, his manner, or his prophet's garb. He does not only call Jonah's God, "thy" God, as Darius says to Daniel "thy God" Dan 6:20, but also "the God," acknowledging the God whom Jonah worshiped, to be "the God." It is not any pagan prayer which he asks Jonah to offer. It is the prayer of the creature in its need to God who can help; but knowing its own ill-desert, and the separation between itself and God, it knows not whether He will help it. So David says Psa 25:7, "Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions; according to Thy mercy remember Thou me for Thy goodness' sake, O Lord."
"The shipmaster knew from experience, that it was no common storm, that the surges were an infliction borne down from God, and above human skill, and that there was no good in the master's skill. For the state of things needed another Master who ordereth the heavens, and craved the guidance from on high. So then they too left oars, sails, cables, gave their hands rest from rowing, and stretched them to heaven and called on God."
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:6: What: Isa 3:15; Eze 18:2; Act 21:13; Rom 13:11; Eph 5:14
arise: Psa 78:34, Psa 107:6, Psa 107:12, Psa 107:13, Psa 107:18-20, Psa 107:28, Psa 107:29; Jer 2:27, Jer 2:28; Mar 4:37-41
if: Jon 3:9; Sa2 12:22; Est 4:16; Joe 2:11; Amo 5:15
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch
1:6
When the danger was at its height, the upper-steersman, or ship's captain (rabh hachōbhēl, the chief of the ship's governors; chōbhēl with the article is a collective noun, and a denom. from chebhel, a ship's cable, hence the one who manages, steers, or guides the ship), wakes him with the words, "How canst thou sleep soundly? Arise, and call upon thy God; perhaps God (hâ'ĕlōhı̄m with the article, 'the true God') will think of us, that we may not perish." The meaning of יתעשּׁת is disputed. As עשׁת is used in Jer 5:28 in the sense of shining (viz., of fat), Calvin and others (last of all, Hitzig) have maintained that the hithpael has the meaning, shown himself shining, i.e., bright (propitious); whilst others, including Jerome, prefer the meaning think again, which is apparently better supported than the former, not only by the Chaldee, but also by the nouns עשׁתּוּת (Job 12:5) and עשׁתּון (Ps 146:4). God's thinking of a person involves the idea of active assistance. For the thought itself, compare Ps. 40:18. The fact that Jonah obeyed this awakening call is passed over as self-evident; and in Jon 1:7 the narrative proceeds to relate, that as the storm had not abated in the meantime, the sailors, firmly believing that some one in the ship had committed a crime which had excited the anger of God that was manifesting itself in the storm, had recourse to the lot to find out the culprit. בּשׁלּמי = בּאשׁר למי (Jon 1:8), as שׁ is the vulgar, and in conversation the usual contraction for אשׁר: "on account of whom" (בּאשׁר, in this that = because, or followed by ל, on account of). הרעה, the misfortune (as in Amos 3:6), - namely, the storm which is threatening destruction. The lot fell upon Jonah. "The fugitive is taken by lot, not from any virtue in lots themselves, least of all the lots of heathen, but by the will of Him who governs uncertain lots" (Jerome).
When Jonah had been singled out by the lot as the culprit, the sailors called upon him to confess his guilt, asking him at the same time about his country, his occupation, and his parentage. The repetition of the question, on whose account this calamity had befallen them, which is omitted in the lxx (Vatic.), the Socin. prophets, and Cod. 195 of Kennicott, is found in the margin in Cod. 384, and is regarded by Grimm and Hitzig as a marginal gloss that has crept into the text. It is not superfluous, however; still less does it occasion any confusion; on the contrary, it is quite in order. The sailors wanted thereby to induce Jonah to confess with his own mouth that he was guilty, now that the lot had fallen upon him, and to disclose his crime (Ros. and others). As an indirect appeal to confess his crime, it prepares the way for the further inquiries as to his occupation, etc. They inquired about this occupation, because it might be a disreputable one, and one which excited the wrath of the gods; also about his parentage, and especially about the land and people from which he sprang, that they might be able to pronounce a safe sentence upon his crime.
Geneva 1599
1:6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy (h) God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
(h) As they had called on their idols, which declares that idolaters have no rest nor certainty, but in their troubles seek what they do not even know.
John Gill
1:6 So the shipmaster came to him,.... The master of the vessel, who had the command of it; or the governor of it, as Jarchi; though Josephus (d) distinguishes between the governor and the shipmaster: "the master of the ropers" (e), as it may be rendered; of the sailors, whose business it was to draw the ropes, to loose or gather the sails, at his command: missing him, very probably, he sought after him, and found him in the hold, in the bottom of the ship, on one side of it, fast asleep:
and said unto him, what meanest thou, O sleeper? this is not a time to sleep, when the ship is like to be broke to pieces, all lives lost, and thine own too: thus the prophet, who was sent to rebuke the greatest monarch in the world, is himself rebuked by a shipmaster, and a Heathen man. Such an expostulation as this is proper enough to be used with professors of religion that are gotten in a spiritual sense into a sleepy and drowsy frame of spirit; it being an aggravation of it, especially when the nation they are of, the church of Christ they belong to, and their own persons also, are in danger; see Rom 13:11 Eph 5:14;
arise, call upon thy God; the gods of this shipmaster and his men were insufficient to help them; they had ears, but they heard not; nor could they answer them, or relieve them; he is therefore desirous the prophet would pray to his God, though he was unknown to him; or at least it suggests that it would better come him to awake, and be up, and praying to his God, than to lie sleeping there; and the manner in which the words are expressed, without a copulative, show the hurry of his spirit, the ardour of his mind, and the haste he was in to have that done he advises to: every good man has a God to pray unto, a covenant God and Father, and who is a prayer hearing God; is able to help in time of need, and willing to do it; and it is the duty and interest of such to call upon him in a time of trouble; yea, they should arise and stir up themselves to this service; and it may be observed, that the best of men may sometimes be in such a condition and circumstances as to need to be stirred up to it by others; see Lk 22:46;
if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not; the supreme God; for the gods they had prayed to they looked upon as mediators with the true God they knew not. The shipmaster saw, that, to all human probability, they were all lost men, just ready to perish; that if they were saved, (as who knew but they might, upon Jonah's praying to his God?) it must be owing to the kind thoughts of God towards them; to the serenity of his countenance, and gracious acceptance of prayer, and his being propitious and merciful through that means; all which seems to be the import of the word used: so the saving of sinners in a lost and perishing condition, in which all men are, though all are not sensible of it, is owing to God's thoughts of peace, to his good will, free favour, and rich grace in Christ Jesus, and through him, as the propitiatory sacrifice. The Targum is,
"if so be mercy may be granted from the Lord, and we perish not.''
(d) Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 10. sect. 2.) (e) "magister funalis", Munster; "magister funiculaiorum", so some in ;Mercer; "magister funis", Calvin.
John Wesley
1:6 Will think upon us - With pity and favour.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:6 call upon thy God--The ancient heathen in dangers called on foreign gods, besides their national ones (compare ). MAURER translates the preceding clause, "What is the reason that thou sleepest?"
think upon us--for good (compare ; ; , ; ).
1:71:7: Եւ ասեն իւրաքանչիւր ցընկեր իւր. Եկա՛յք արկցուք վիճակս՝ եւ գիտասցուք. վասն ո՞յր են չարիքս այս ՚ի վերայ մեր։ Արկին վիճակս՝ եւ ել վիճակն Յովնանու[10657]։ [10657] Ոմանք. Արկցուք վիճակս՝ եւ տեսցուք։
7 Եւ իւրաքանչիւրն ասաց իր ընկերոջը. «Եկէ՛ք վիճակ գցենք եւ իմանանք, թէ ում պատճառով են այս չարիքները պատահում մեզ»: Վիճակ գցեցին, եւ վիճակն ընկաւ Յովնանին:
7 Իրարու ըսին. «Եկէ՛ք, վիճա՛կ ձգենք, որպէս զի գիտնանք թէ այս չարիքը որո՞ւն պատճառով մեր վրայ եկաւ»։ Երբ վիճակ ձգեցին, վիճակը Յովնանին ելաւ։
Եւ ասեն իւրաքանչիւր ցընկեր իւր. Եկայք արկցուք վիճակս, եւ գիտասցուք, վասն ո՞յր են չարիքս այս ի վերայ մեր: Արկին վիճակս, եւ ել վիճակն Յովնանու:

1:7: Եւ ասեն իւրաքանչիւր ցընկեր իւր. Եկա՛յք արկցուք վիճակս՝ եւ գիտասցուք. վասն ո՞յր են չարիքս այս ՚ի վերայ մեր։ Արկին վիճակս՝ եւ ել վիճակն Յովնանու[10657]։
[10657] Ոմանք. Արկցուք վիճակս՝ եւ տեսցուք։
7 Եւ իւրաքանչիւրն ասաց իր ընկերոջը. «Եկէ՛ք վիճակ գցենք եւ իմանանք, թէ ում պատճառով են այս չարիքները պատահում մեզ»: Վիճակ գցեցին, եւ վիճակն ընկաւ Յովնանին:
7 Իրարու ըսին. «Եկէ՛ք, վիճա՛կ ձգենք, որպէս զի գիտնանք թէ այս չարիքը որո՞ւն պատճառով մեր վրայ եկաւ»։ Երբ վիճակ ձգեցին, վիճակը Յովնանին ելաւ։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:71:7 И сказали друг другу: пойдем, бросим жребии, чтобы узнать, за кого постигает нас эта беда. И бросили жребии, и пал жребий на Иону.
1:7 καὶ και and; even εἶπεν επω say; speak ἕκαστος εκαστος each πρὸς προς to; toward τὸν ο the πλησίον πλησιον near; neighbor αὐτοῦ αυτος he; him δεῦτε δευτε come on βάλωμεν βαλλω cast; throw κλήρους κληρος lot; allotment καὶ και and; even ἐπιγνῶμεν επιγινωσκω recognize; find out τίνος τις.1 who?; what? ἕνεκεν ενεκα for the sake of; on account of ἡ ο the κακία κακια badness; vice αὕτη ουτος this; he ἐστὶν ειμι be ἐν εν in ἡμῖν ημιν us καὶ και and; even ἔβαλον βαλλω cast; throw κλήρους κληρος lot; allotment καὶ και and; even ἔπεσεν πιπτω fall ὁ ο the κλῆρος κληρος lot; allotment ἐπὶ επι in; on Ιωναν ιωνας Iōnas; Ionas
1:7 וַ wa וְ and יֹּאמְר֞וּ yyōmᵊrˈû אמר say אִ֣ישׁ ʔˈîš אִישׁ man אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to רֵעֵ֗הוּ rēʕˈēhû רֵעַ fellow לְכוּ֙ lᵊḵˌû הלך walk וְ wᵊ וְ and נַפִּ֣ילָה nappˈîlā נפל fall גֹֽורָלֹ֔ות ḡˈôrālˈôṯ גֹּורָל lot וְ wᵊ וְ and נֵ֣דְעָ֔ה nˈēḏᵊʕˈā ידע know בְּ bᵊ בְּ in שֶׁ še שַׁ [relative] לְּ llᵊ לְ to מִ֛י mˈî מִי who הָ hā הַ the רָעָ֥ה rāʕˌā רָעָה evil הַ ha הַ the זֹּ֖את zzˌōṯ זֹאת this לָ֑נוּ lˈānû לְ to וַ wa וְ and יַּפִּ֨לוּ֙ yyappˈilû נפל fall גֹּֽורָלֹ֔ות gˈôrālˈôṯ גֹּורָל lot וַ wa וְ and יִּפֹּ֥ל yyippˌōl נפל fall הַ ha הַ the גֹּורָ֖ל ggôrˌāl גֹּורָל lot עַל־ ʕal- עַל upon יֹונָֽה׃ yônˈā יֹונָה Jonah
1:7. et dixit vir ad collegam suum venite et mittamus sortes et sciamus quare hoc malum sit nobis et miserunt sortes et cecidit sors super IonamAnd they said every one to his fellow: Come and let us cast lots, that we may know why this evil is upon us. And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonas.
7. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
1:7. And a man said to his shipmate, “Come, and let us cast lots, so that we may know why this disaster is upon us.” And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
1:7. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil [is] upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil [is] upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah:

1:7 И сказали друг другу: пойдем, бросим жребии, чтобы узнать, за кого постигает нас эта беда. И бросили жребии, и пал жребий на Иону.
1:7
καὶ και and; even
εἶπεν επω say; speak
ἕκαστος εκαστος each
πρὸς προς to; toward
τὸν ο the
πλησίον πλησιον near; neighbor
αὐτοῦ αυτος he; him
δεῦτε δευτε come on
βάλωμεν βαλλω cast; throw
κλήρους κληρος lot; allotment
καὶ και and; even
ἐπιγνῶμεν επιγινωσκω recognize; find out
τίνος τις.1 who?; what?
ἕνεκεν ενεκα for the sake of; on account of
ο the
κακία κακια badness; vice
αὕτη ουτος this; he
ἐστὶν ειμι be
ἐν εν in
ἡμῖν ημιν us
καὶ και and; even
ἔβαλον βαλλω cast; throw
κλήρους κληρος lot; allotment
καὶ και and; even
ἔπεσεν πιπτω fall
ο the
κλῆρος κληρος lot; allotment
ἐπὶ επι in; on
Ιωναν ιωνας Iōnas; Ionas
1:7
וַ wa וְ and
יֹּאמְר֞וּ yyōmᵊrˈû אמר say
אִ֣ישׁ ʔˈîš אִישׁ man
אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to
רֵעֵ֗הוּ rēʕˈēhû רֵעַ fellow
לְכוּ֙ lᵊḵˌû הלך walk
וְ wᵊ וְ and
נַפִּ֣ילָה nappˈîlā נפל fall
גֹֽורָלֹ֔ות ḡˈôrālˈôṯ גֹּורָל lot
וְ wᵊ וְ and
נֵ֣דְעָ֔ה nˈēḏᵊʕˈā ידע know
בְּ bᵊ בְּ in
שֶׁ še שַׁ [relative]
לְּ llᵊ לְ to
מִ֛י mˈî מִי who
הָ הַ the
רָעָ֥ה rāʕˌā רָעָה evil
הַ ha הַ the
זֹּ֖את zzˌōṯ זֹאת this
לָ֑נוּ lˈānû לְ to
וַ wa וְ and
יַּפִּ֨לוּ֙ yyappˈilû נפל fall
גֹּֽורָלֹ֔ות gˈôrālˈôṯ גֹּורָל lot
וַ wa וְ and
יִּפֹּ֥ל yyippˌōl נפל fall
הַ ha הַ the
גֹּורָ֖ל ggôrˌāl גֹּורָל lot
עַל־ ʕal- עַל upon
יֹונָֽה׃ yônˈā יֹונָה Jonah
1:7. et dixit vir ad collegam suum venite et mittamus sortes et sciamus quare hoc malum sit nobis et miserunt sortes et cecidit sors super Ionam
And they said every one to his fellow: Come and let us cast lots, that we may know why this evil is upon us. And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonas.
1:7. And a man said to his shipmate, “Come, and let us cast lots, so that we may know why this disaster is upon us.” And they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
1:7. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil [is] upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
jfb▾ jw▾ jg▾ gnv▾ tr▾ ab▾ ac▾ tb▾ all ▾
А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
7: И сказали друг другу: «пойдем, бросим жребий, чтобы узнать, за кого постигает нас эта беда» … В древнее время было распространенным мнением, что особенные чрезвычайные бедствия подвигают людей за какие-нибудь великие гpexи (Иов IV:8–11; XVIII:5–21). Разделяя это воззрение, корабельщики и решили, что великая буря постигла их за какой-либо чрезвычайный грех кого-либо из присутствовавших на корабле. Узнавать виновника бедствия они стали посредством жребия. Этот обычай существовал у многих народов древности, как языческих, так и у евреев, при этом те и другие верили, что не слепой случай решает дело, а Бог (или боги) владеет жребием (Нав VII:14; 1: Цар X:20–23; Деян I:26; Ciceron. De natura deorum, III:36). «И бросили жребий и жребий пал на Иону». Таким образом, книга пророка Ионы дает понять, что не только бросавшие верили, что жребием руководит Бог, но и в действительности было так.
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:7: Come, and let us cast lots - This was a very ancient mode of endeavoring to find out the mind of Divine Providence; and in this case it proves that they supposed the storm to have arisen on account of some hidden crime of some person aboard.
A philosopher being at sea in a violent storm. when the crew began to call earnestly to the gods for safety, he said, "Be silent, and cease your prayers; for should the gods know that you are here, we shall all be lost."
The lot fell upon Jonah - In this case God directed the lot.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:7: Come, and let us cast lots - Jonah too had probably prayed, and his prayers too were not heard. Probably, too, the storm had some unusual character about it, the suddenness with which it burst upon them, its violence, the quarter from where it came, its whirlwind force . "They knew the nature of the sea, and, as experienced sailors, were acquainted with the character of wind and storm, and had these waves been such as they had known before, they would never have sought by lot for the author of the threatened wreck, or, by a thing uncertain, sought to escape certain peril." God, who sent the storm to arrest Jonah and to cause him to be cast into the sea, provided that its character should set the mariners on divining, why it came. Even when working great miracles, God brings about, through man, all the forerunning events, all but the last act, in which He puts forth His might. As, in His people, he directed the lot to fall upon Achan or upon Jonathan, so here He overruled the lots of the pagan sailors to accomplish His end. " We must not, on this precedent, immediately trust in lots, or unite with this testimony that from the Acts of the Apostles, when Matthias was by lot elected to the apostolate, since the privileges of individuals cannot form a common law." "Lots," according to the ends for which they were cast, were for:
i) dividing;
ii) consulting;
iii) divining.
i) The lot for dividing is not wrong if not used,
1) "without any necessity, for this would be to tempt God:"
2) "if in case of necessity, not without Rev_erence of God, as if Holy Scripture were used for an earthly end," as in determining any secular matter by opening the Bible:
3) for objects which ought to be decided otherwise, (as, an office ought to be given to the fittest:)
4) in dependence upon any other than God Pro 16:33. "The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing of it is the Lord's." So then they are lawful "in secular things which cannot otherwise be conveniently distributed," or when there is no apparent reason why, in any advantage or disadvantage, one should be preferred to another." Augustine even allows that, in a time of plague or persecution, the lot might be cast to decide who should remain to administer the sacraments to the people, lest, on the one side, all should be taken away, or, on the other, the Church be deserted.
ii.) The lot for consulting, i. e., to decide what one should do, is wrong, unless in a matter of mere indifference, or under inspiration of God, or in some extreme necessity where all human means fail.
iii.) The lot for divining, i. e., to learn truth, whether of things present or future, of which we can have no human knowledge, is wrong, except by direct inspiration of God. For it is either to tempt God who has not promised so to Rev_eal things, or, against God, to seek superhuman knowledge by ways unsanctioned by Him. Satan may readily mix himself unknown in such inquiries, as in mesmerism. Forbidden ground is his own province.
God overruled the lot in the case of Jonah, as He did the sign which the Philistines sought . "He made the heifers take the way to Bethshemesh, that the Philistines might know that the plague came to them, not by chance, but from Hilmself" . "The fugitive (Jonah) was taken by lot, not by any virtue of the lots, especially the lots of pagan, but by the will of Him who guided the uncertain lots" "The lot betrayed the culprit. Yet not even thus did they cast him over; but, even while such a tumult and storm lay on them, they held, as it were, a court in the vessel, as though in entire peace, and allowed him a hearing and defense, and sifted everything accurately, as men who were to give account of their judgment. Hear them sifting all as in a court - The roaring sea accused him; the lot convicted and witnessed against him, yet not even thus did they pronounce against him - until the accused should be the accuser of his own sin. The sailors, uneducated, untaught, imitated the good order of courts. When the sea scarcely allowed them to breathe, whence such forethought about the prophet? By the disposal of God. For God by all this instructed the prophet to be humane and mild, all but saying aloud to him; 'Imitate these uninstructed sailors. They think not lightly of one soul, nor are unsparing as to one body, thine own. But thou, for thy part, gavest up a whole city with so many myriads. They, discovering thee to be the cause of the evils which befell them, did not even thus hurry to condemn thee. Thou, having nothing whereof to accuse the Ninevites, didst sink and destroy them. Thou, when I bade thee go and by thy preaching call them to repentance, obeyedst not; these, untaught, do all, compass all, in order to recover thee, already condemned, from punishment.'"
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:7: every: Jdg 7:13, Jdg 7:14; Isa 41:6, Isa 41:7
and let: Jos 7:14-18; Jdg 20:9, Jdg 20:10; Sa1 10:20, Sa1 10:21, Sa1 14:41, Sa1 14:42; Est 3:7; Psa 22:18; Pro 16:33; Mat 27:35; Act 1:23-26, Act 13:19
for: Jos 7:10, Jos 7:13, Jos 22:16-20; Sa1 14:38, Sa1 14:39; Job 10:2
and the: Num 32:23; Jos 7:18; Co1 4:5
Geneva 1599
1:7 And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast (i) lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil [is] upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
(i) Which declares that the matter was very extreme and in doubt, which was God's way of getting them to test for the cause: and this may not be done except in matters of great importance.
John Gill
1:7 And they said everyone to his fellow,.... That Jonah awoke and rose up, upon the shipmaster's calling to him, is certain; but whether or no he called upon his God is not; perhaps he did: and when his prayer was over, and the storm still continuing, the sailors said one to another,
come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us; for, Observing something very uncommon and extraordinary in the tempest, and all means, both natural and religious, failing to help them; and though they might know that they were each one of them sinners, yet they supposed there must be some one notorious sinner among them, that had committed some very enormous crime, which had drawn the divine resentment upon them to such a degree; and therefore they proposed to cast a lot, which was an appeal to the divine Being, in order to find out the guilty person. That the Heathens used the lot upon occasion is not only manifest from profane writers, but from the sacred Scriptures; as Haman, and other enemies of God's people; and the soldiers that attended the cross of Christ, Esther 9:24 Nahum 3:10. Drusius reports, from Xavierus, of some Heathens sailing to Japan, and other places in the East Indies, that they used to carry an idol with them, and by lots inquire of it whither they should go; and whether they should have prosperous winds, &c.
so they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah; through the overruling providence and disposing hand of God, which attended this affair; for, not to inquire whether the use of the lot was lawful or not, or whether performed in that serious and solemn manner as it should be, if used at all; it pleased God to interfere in this matter, to direct it to fall on Jonah, with whom he had a particular concern, being a prophet of his, and having disobeyed his will; see Prov 16:33. The Syriac version renders it, "the lot of Jonah came up"; that is, the piece of paper, or whatever it was, on which his name was written, was taken up first out of the vessel in which the lots were put.
John Wesley
1:7 Cast lots - "Lots are an appeal to heaven in doubtful cases, and therefore not to be used but where the matter is undeterminable in any other way."
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:7 cast lots--God sometimes sanctioned this mode of deciding in difficult cases. Compare the similar instance of Achan, whose guilt involved Israel in suffering, until God revealed the offender, probably by the casting of lots (; ). Primitive tradition and natural conscience led even the heathen to believe that one guilty man involves all his associates, though innocent, in punishment. So CICERO [The Nature of the Gods, 3.37] mentions that the mariners sailing with Diagoras, an atheist, attributed a storm that overtook them to his presence in the ship (compare HORACE'S Odes, 3.2.26).
1:81:8: Եւ ասեն ցնա. Պատմեա՛ մեզ, վասն է՞ր են չարիքս այս մեզ. զի՞նչ արուեստ է քո. ուստի՞ գաս՝ կամ յո՞ երթաս, յորմէ՞ աշխարհէ ես՝ կամ յորմէ՞ ժողովրդենէ[10658]։ [10658] ՚Ի լուս՛՛. Չարիքս այս մեծ. համաձայն այլոց ՚ի բնաբ՛՛։ Յոմանս պակասի. Զի՞նչ արուեստ է քո։
8 Ասացին նրան. «Պատմի՛ր մեզ, թէ ի՞նչն է այս չարիքների պատճառը. ի՞նչ գործ ես անում, որտեղի՞ց ես գալիս եւ ո՞ւր ես գնում, ո՞ր երկրից ես կամ ո՞ր ժողովրդից»:
8 Անոնք ըսին անոր. «Հիմա պատմէ՛ մեզի՝ թէ այս չարիքը որո՞ւն պատճառով մեր վրայ եկաւ։ Քու գործդ ի՞նչ է։ Ուրկէ՞ կու գաս։ Քու երկիրդ ո՞րն է ու դուն ո՞ր ժողովուրդէն ես»։
Եւ ասեն ցնա. Պատմեա մեզ, վասն է՞ր են չարիքս այս մեզ. զի՞նչ արուեստ է քո, ուստի՞ գաս [5]կամ յո՞ երթաս``, յորմէ՞ աշխարհէ ես կամ յորմէ՞ ժողովրդենէ:

1:8: Եւ ասեն ցնա. Պատմեա՛ մեզ, վասն է՞ր են չարիքս այս մեզ. զի՞նչ արուեստ է քո. ուստի՞ գաս՝ կամ յո՞ երթաս, յորմէ՞ աշխարհէ ես՝ կամ յորմէ՞ ժողովրդենէ[10658]։
[10658] ՚Ի լուս՛՛. Չարիքս այս մեծ. համաձայն այլոց ՚ի բնաբ՛՛։ Յոմանս պակասի. Զի՞նչ արուեստ է քո։
8 Ասացին նրան. «Պատմի՛ր մեզ, թէ ի՞նչն է այս չարիքների պատճառը. ի՞նչ գործ ես անում, որտեղի՞ց ես գալիս եւ ո՞ւր ես գնում, ո՞ր երկրից ես կամ ո՞ր ժողովրդից»:
8 Անոնք ըսին անոր. «Հիմա պատմէ՛ մեզի՝ թէ այս չարիքը որո՞ւն պատճառով մեր վրայ եկաւ։ Քու գործդ ի՞նչ է։ Ուրկէ՞ կու գաս։ Քու երկիրդ ո՞րն է ու դուն ո՞ր ժողովուրդէն ես»։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:81:8 Тогда сказали ему: скажи нам, за кого постигла нас эта беда? какое твое занятие, и откуда идешь ты? где твоя страна, и из какого ты народа?
1:8 καὶ και and; even εἶπον επω say; speak πρὸς προς to; toward αὐτόν αυτος he; him ἀπάγγειλον απαγγελλω report ἡμῖν ημιν us τίνος τις.1 who?; what? ἕνεκεν ενεκα for the sake of; on account of ἡ ο the κακία κακια badness; vice αὕτη ουτος this; he ἐστὶν ειμι be ἐν εν in ἡμῖν ημιν us τίς τις.1 who?; what? σου σου of you; your ἡ ο the ἐργασία εργασια occupation; effort ἐστίν ειμι be καὶ και and; even πόθεν ποθεν from where; how can be ἔρχῃ ερχομαι come; go καὶ και and; even ἐκ εκ from; out of ποίας ποιος of what kind; which χώρας χωρα territory; estate καὶ και and; even ἐκ εκ from; out of ποίου ποιος of what kind; which λαοῦ λαος populace; population εἶ ειμι be σύ συ you
1:8 וַ wa וְ and יֹּאמְר֣וּ yyōmᵊrˈû אמר say אֵלָ֔יו ʔēlˈāʸw אֶל to הַגִּידָה־ haggîḏā- נגד report נָּ֣א nnˈā נָא yeah לָ֔נוּ lˈānû לְ to בַּ ba בְּ in אֲשֶׁ֛ר ʔᵃšˈer אֲשֶׁר [relative] לְ lᵊ לְ to מִי־ mî- מִי who הָ hā הַ the רָעָ֥ה rāʕˌā רָעָה evil הַ ha הַ the זֹּ֖את zzˌōṯ זֹאת this לָ֑נוּ lˈānû לְ to מַה־ mah- מָה what מְּלַאכְתְּךָ֙ mmᵊlaḵtᵊḵˌā מְלֶאכֶת work וּ û וְ and מֵ mē מִן from אַ֣יִן ʔˈayin אַיִן whence תָּבֹ֔וא tāvˈô בוא come מָ֣ה mˈā מָה what אַרְצֶ֔ךָ ʔarṣˈeḵā אֶרֶץ earth וְ wᵊ וְ and אֵֽי־ ʔˈê- אֵי where מִ mi מִן from זֶּ֥ה zzˌeh זֶה this עַ֖ם ʕˌam עַם people אָֽתָּה׃ ʔˈāttā אַתָּה you
1:8. et dixerunt ad eum indica nobis cuius causa malum istud sit nobis quod est opus tuum quae terra tua et quo vel ex quo populo es tuAnd they said to him: Tell us for what cause this evil is upon us, what is thy business? of what country art thou? and whither goest thou? or of what people art thou?
8. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
1:8. And they said to him: “Explain to us what is the reason that this disaster is upon us. What is your work? Which is your country? And where are you going? Or which people are you from?”
1:8. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil [is] upon us; What [is] thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what [is] thy country? and of what people [art] thou?
Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil [is] upon us; What [is] thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what [is] thy country? and of what people [art] thou:

1:8 Тогда сказали ему: скажи нам, за кого постигла нас эта беда? какое твое занятие, и откуда идешь ты? где твоя страна, и из какого ты народа?
1:8
καὶ και and; even
εἶπον επω say; speak
πρὸς προς to; toward
αὐτόν αυτος he; him
ἀπάγγειλον απαγγελλω report
ἡμῖν ημιν us
τίνος τις.1 who?; what?
ἕνεκεν ενεκα for the sake of; on account of
ο the
κακία κακια badness; vice
αὕτη ουτος this; he
ἐστὶν ειμι be
ἐν εν in
ἡμῖν ημιν us
τίς τις.1 who?; what?
σου σου of you; your
ο the
ἐργασία εργασια occupation; effort
ἐστίν ειμι be
καὶ και and; even
πόθεν ποθεν from where; how can be
ἔρχῃ ερχομαι come; go
καὶ και and; even
ἐκ εκ from; out of
ποίας ποιος of what kind; which
χώρας χωρα territory; estate
καὶ και and; even
ἐκ εκ from; out of
ποίου ποιος of what kind; which
λαοῦ λαος populace; population
εἶ ειμι be
σύ συ you
1:8
וַ wa וְ and
יֹּאמְר֣וּ yyōmᵊrˈû אמר say
אֵלָ֔יו ʔēlˈāʸw אֶל to
הַגִּידָה־ haggîḏā- נגד report
נָּ֣א nnˈā נָא yeah
לָ֔נוּ lˈānû לְ to
בַּ ba בְּ in
אֲשֶׁ֛ר ʔᵃšˈer אֲשֶׁר [relative]
לְ lᵊ לְ to
מִי־ mî- מִי who
הָ הַ the
רָעָ֥ה rāʕˌā רָעָה evil
הַ ha הַ the
זֹּ֖את zzˌōṯ זֹאת this
לָ֑נוּ lˈānû לְ to
מַה־ mah- מָה what
מְּלַאכְתְּךָ֙ mmᵊlaḵtᵊḵˌā מְלֶאכֶת work
וּ û וְ and
מֵ מִן from
אַ֣יִן ʔˈayin אַיִן whence
תָּבֹ֔וא tāvˈô בוא come
מָ֣ה mˈā מָה what
אַרְצֶ֔ךָ ʔarṣˈeḵā אֶרֶץ earth
וְ wᵊ וְ and
אֵֽי־ ʔˈê- אֵי where
מִ mi מִן from
זֶּ֥ה zzˌeh זֶה this
עַ֖ם ʕˌam עַם people
אָֽתָּה׃ ʔˈāttā אַתָּה you
1:8. et dixerunt ad eum indica nobis cuius causa malum istud sit nobis quod est opus tuum quae terra tua et quo vel ex quo populo es tu
And they said to him: Tell us for what cause this evil is upon us, what is thy business? of what country art thou? and whither goest thou? or of what people art thou?
1:8. And they said to him: “Explain to us what is the reason that this disaster is upon us. What is your work? Which is your country? And where are you going? Or which people are you from?”
1:8. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil [is] upon us; What [is] thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what [is] thy country? and of what people [art] thou?
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
jfb▾ jw▾ jg▾ tr▾ ab▾ ac▾ tb▾ all ▾
А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
8: Содержит в себе ряд вопросов, с которыми корабельщики обратились к Ионе, после того как жребий указал в нем виновника бедствия. Эти вопросы задавались вероятно с разных сторон и людьми взволнованными, поэтому в них нет строгой последовательности. Первого вопроса: «за кого беда сия?» в некоторых кодексах нет (Cod. 115), а в других (384) он стоит на поле; его следует понимать не как вопрос Ионе о каком-либо третьем лице, а в отношении к нему самому: кто ты такой, скажи? Следующие вопросы касаются происхождения пророка Ионы, его рода занятий и ближайших намерений (последнее ясно из добавления слав. текста: «камо идеши?») Во всем этом корабельщики думали найти что-либо позорящее Иону и объясняющее им, почему жребий пал на него.
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:8: Tell us - for whose cause - A very gentle method of bringing the charge home to himself, and the several questions here asked gave the utmost latitude to make the best of his own case.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:8: Tell us, for whose cause - Literally "for what to whom." It may be that they thought that Jonah had been guilty toward some other. The lot had pointed him out. The mariners, still fearing to do wrong, ask him thronged questions, to know why the anger of God followed him; "what" hast thou done "to whom?" "what thine occupation?" i. e., either his ordinary occupation, whether it was displeasing to God? or this particular business in which he was engaged, and for which he had come on board. Questions so thronged have been admired in human poetry, Jerome says. For it is true to nature. They think that some one of them will draw forth the answer which they wish. It may be that they thought that his country, or people, or parents, were under the displeasure of God. But perhaps, more naturally, they wished to "know all about him," as people say. These questions must have gone home to Jonah's conscience. "What is thy business?" The office of prophet which he had left. "Whence comest thou?" From standing before God, as His minister. "What thy country? of what people art thou?" The people of God, whom he had quitted for pagan; not to win them to God, as He commanded; but, not knowing what they did, to abet him in his flight.
What is thine occupation? - They should ask themselves, who have Jonah's office to speak in the name of God, and preach repentance . "What should be thy business, who hast consecrated thyself wholly to God, whom God has loaded with daily benefits? who approachest to Him as to a Friend? "What is thy business?" To live for God, to despise the things of earth, to behold the things of heaven," to lead others heavenward.
Jonah answers simply the central point to which all these questions tended:
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:8: Tell: Jos 7:19; Sa1 14:43; Jam 5:16
What is thine: Gen 47:3; Sa1 30:13
John Gill
1:8 Then they said unto him, tell us, we pray thee,.... They did not fall upon him at once in an outrageous manner, and throw him overboard; as it might be thought such men would have done, considering what they had suffered and lost by means of him; but they use him with great respect, tenderness, and lenity: and entreat him to tell them
for whose cause this evil was upon them: or rather, as the Targum,
"for what this evil is upon us;''
and so Noldius (f) renders the words; for their inquiry was not about the person for whose cause it was; that was determined by the lot; but on what account it was; what sin it was he had been guilty of, which was the cause of it; for they supposed some great sin must be committed, that had brought down the vengeance of God in such a manner:
what is thine occupation? trade or business? this question they put, to know whether he had any, or was an idle man; or rather, whether it was an honest and lawful employment; whether it was by fraud or violence, by thieving and stealing, he got his livelihood; or by conjuring, and using the magic art: or else the inquiry was about his present business, what he was going about; what he was to do at Tarshish when he came there; whether he was not upon some ill design, and sent on an unlawful errand, and going to do some ill thing, for which vengeance pursued him, and stopped him:
and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? which questions seem to relate to the same thing, what nation he was of; and put by different persons, who were eager to learn what countryman he was, that they might know who was the God he worshipped, and guess at the crime he had been guilty of.
(f) Concordant. Part. Ebr. p. 182. No. 828.
John Wesley
1:8 Tell us - What hast thou done, for which God is so angry with thee, and with us for thy sake?
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:8 The guilty individual being discovered is interrogated so as to make full confession with his own mouth. So in Achan's case ().
1:91:9: Ասէ ցնոսա. Ծառա՛յ Տեառն եմ ես, եւ զՏէր Աստուած երկնից պաշտեմ որ արա՛ր զծով եւ զցամաք։
9 Ասաց նրանց. «Ես Տիրոջ ծառան եմ, պաշտում եմ երկնքի Տէր Աստծուն, որն ստեղծեց ծովն ու ցամաքը»:
9 Անիկա ըսաւ անոնց. «Ես Եբրայեցի եմ եւ ծովն ու ցամաքը ստեղծող երկնքի Աստուածը՝ Եհովան կը պաշտեմ»։
Ասէ ցնոսա. [6]Ծառայ Տեառն`` եմ ես, եւ զՏէր Աստուած երկնից պաշտեմ որ արար զծով եւ զցամաք:

1:9: Ասէ ցնոսա. Ծառա՛յ Տեառն եմ ես, եւ զՏէր Աստուած երկնից պաշտեմ որ արա՛ր զծով եւ զցամաք։
9 Ասաց նրանց. «Ես Տիրոջ ծառան եմ, պաշտում եմ երկնքի Տէր Աստծուն, որն ստեղծեց ծովն ու ցամաքը»:
9 Անիկա ըսաւ անոնց. «Ես Եբրայեցի եմ եւ ծովն ու ցամաքը ստեղծող երկնքի Աստուածը՝ Եհովան կը պաշտեմ»։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:91:9 И он сказал им: я Еврей, чту Господа Бога небес, сотворившего море и сушу.
1:9 καὶ και and; even εἶπεν επω say; speak πρὸς προς to; toward αὐτούς αυτος he; him δοῦλος δουλος subject κυρίου κυριος lord; master ἐγώ εγω I εἰμι ειμι be καὶ και and; even τὸν ο the κύριον κυριος lord; master θεὸν θεος God τοῦ ο the οὐρανοῦ ουρανος sky; heaven ἐγὼ εγω I σέβομαι σεβομαι venerate; stand in awe of ὃς ος who; what ἐποίησεν ποιεω do; make τὴν ο the θάλασσαν θαλασσα sea καὶ και and; even τὴν ο the ξηράν ξηρος withered; dry
1:9 וַ wa וְ and יֹּ֥אמֶר yyˌōmer אמר say אֲלֵיהֶ֖ם ʔᵃlêhˌem אֶל to עִבְרִ֣י ʕivrˈî עִבְרִי Hebrew אָנֹ֑כִי ʔānˈōḵî אָנֹכִי i וְ wᵊ וְ and אֶת־ ʔeṯ- אֵת [object marker] יְהוָ֞ה [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH אֱלֹהֵ֤י ʔᵉlōhˈê אֱלֹהִים god(s) הַ ha הַ the שָּׁמַ֨יִם֙ ššāmˈayim שָׁמַיִם heavens אֲנִ֣י ʔᵃnˈî אֲנִי i יָרֵ֔א yārˈē ירא fear אֲשֶׁר־ ʔᵃšer- אֲשֶׁר [relative] עָשָׂ֥ה ʕāśˌā עשׂה make אֶת־ ʔeṯ- אֵת [object marker] הַ ha הַ the יָּ֖ם yyˌom יָם sea וְ wᵊ וְ and אֶת־ ʔeṯ- אֵת [object marker] הַ ha הַ the יַּבָּשָֽׁה׃ yyabbāšˈā יַבָּשָׁה dry land
1:9. et dixit ad eos Hebraeus ego sum et Dominum Deum caeli ego timeo qui fecit mare et aridamAnd he said to them: I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, and the God of heaven, who made both the sea and the dry land.
9. And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
1:9. And he said to them, “I am Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
1:9. And he said unto them, I [am] an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry [land].
And he said unto them, I [am] an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry:

1:9 И он сказал им: я Еврей, чту Господа Бога небес, сотворившего море и сушу.
1:9
καὶ και and; even
εἶπεν επω say; speak
πρὸς προς to; toward
αὐτούς αυτος he; him
δοῦλος δουλος subject
κυρίου κυριος lord; master
ἐγώ εγω I
εἰμι ειμι be
καὶ και and; even
τὸν ο the
κύριον κυριος lord; master
θεὸν θεος God
τοῦ ο the
οὐρανοῦ ουρανος sky; heaven
ἐγὼ εγω I
σέβομαι σεβομαι venerate; stand in awe of
ὃς ος who; what
ἐποίησεν ποιεω do; make
τὴν ο the
θάλασσαν θαλασσα sea
καὶ και and; even
τὴν ο the
ξηράν ξηρος withered; dry
1:9
וַ wa וְ and
יֹּ֥אמֶר yyˌōmer אמר say
אֲלֵיהֶ֖ם ʔᵃlêhˌem אֶל to
עִבְרִ֣י ʕivrˈî עִבְרִי Hebrew
אָנֹ֑כִי ʔānˈōḵî אָנֹכִי i
וְ wᵊ וְ and
אֶת־ ʔeṯ- אֵת [object marker]
יְהוָ֞ה [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH
אֱלֹהֵ֤י ʔᵉlōhˈê אֱלֹהִים god(s)
הַ ha הַ the
שָּׁמַ֨יִם֙ ššāmˈayim שָׁמַיִם heavens
אֲנִ֣י ʔᵃnˈî אֲנִי i
יָרֵ֔א yārˈē ירא fear
אֲשֶׁר־ ʔᵃšer- אֲשֶׁר [relative]
עָשָׂ֥ה ʕāśˌā עשׂה make
אֶת־ ʔeṯ- אֵת [object marker]
הַ ha הַ the
יָּ֖ם yyˌom יָם sea
וְ wᵊ וְ and
אֶת־ ʔeṯ- אֵת [object marker]
הַ ha הַ the
יַּבָּשָֽׁה׃ yyabbāšˈā יַבָּשָׁה dry land
1:9. et dixit ad eos Hebraeus ego sum et Dominum Deum caeli ego timeo qui fecit mare et aridam
And he said to them: I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, and the God of heaven, who made both the sea and the dry land.
1:9. And he said to them, “I am Hebrew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
1:9. And he said unto them, I [am] an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry [land].
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
jfb▾ jw▾ jg▾ kad▾ tr▾ ab▾ ac▾ tb▾ all ▾
А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
9: «Я Еврей, чту Господа Бога небес, сотворившего море и сушу»… Нужно думать, что приведенные слова составляют только начало речи пророка на корабле, затем Иона чистосердечно рассказал о посольстве его в Ниневию и о бегстве от лица Иеговы, как это видно из 2-ой половины 10-го ст. Случившаяся буря и павший на него жребий должны были поразить пророка более, чем остальных на корабле, в них он видел знамения бесконечного величия Божия и своей неправоты; то и другое он искренно исповедует перед язычниками, для этих последних он прежде всего выясняет, что Бог евреев — есть Бог вселенной (небес, моря и суши), только усвоив эту идею, язычники могли понять и все остальное в его речи: какое касательство Иеговы до Ниневии и почему страшно ослушаться такого Бога.
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:9: I fear the Lord - In this Jonah was faithful. He gave an honest testimony concerning the God he served, which placed him before the eyes of the sailors as infinitely higher than the objects of their adoration; for the God of Jonah was the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land, and governed both. He also honestly told them that he was fleeing from the presence of this God, whose honorable call he had refused to obey. See Jon 1:10.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:9: I am an Hebrew - This was the name by which Israel was known to foreigners. It is used in the Old Testament, only when they are spoken of by foreigners, or speak of themselves to foreigners, or when the sacred writers mention them in contrast with foreigners . So Joseph spoke of his land Gen 40:15, and the Hebrew midwives Exo 1:19, and Moses' sister Exo 2:7, and God in His commission to Moses Exo 3:18; Exo 7:16; Exo 9:1 as to Pharaoh, and Moses in fulfilling it Exo 5:3. They had the name, as having passed the River Euphrates, "emigrants." The title might serve to remind themselves, that they were "strangers" and "pilgrims," Heb 11:13. whose fathers had left their home at God's command and for God , "passers by, through this world to death, and through death to immortality."
And I fear the Lord - , i. e., I am a worshiper of Him, most commonly, one who habitually stands in awe of Him, and so one who stands in awe of sin too. For none really fear God, none fear Him as sons, who do not fear Him in act. To be afraid of God is not to fear Him. To be afraid of God keeps men away from God; to fear God draws them to Him. Here, however, Jonah probably meant to tell them, that the Object of his fear and worship was the One Self-existing God, He who alone is, who made all things, in whose hands are all things. He had told them before, that he had fled "from being before Yahweh." They had not thought anything of this, for they thought of Yahweh, only as the God of the Jews. Now he adds, that He, Whose service he had thus forsaken, was "the God of heaven, Who made the sea and dry land," that sea, whose raging terrified them and threatened their lives. The title, "the God of heaven," asserts the doctrine of the creation of the heavens by God, and His supremacy.
Hence, Abraham uses it to his servant Gen 24:7, and Jonah to the pagan mariners, and Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar Dan 2:37, Dan 2:44; and Cyrus in acknowledging God in his proclamation Ch2 36:23; Ezr 1:2. After his example, it is used in the decrees of Darius Ezr 6:9-10 and Artaxerxes Ezr 7:12, Ezr 7:21, Ezr 7:23, and the returned exiles use it in giving account of their building the temple to the Governor Ezr 5:11-12. Perhaps, from the habit of contact with the pagan, it is used once by Daniel Dan 2:18 and by Nehemiah Neh 1:4-5; Neh 2:4, Neh 2:20. Melchizedek, not perhaps being acquainted with the special name, Yahweh, blessed Abraham in the name of "God, the Possessor" or "Creator of heaven and earth" Gen 14:19, i. e., of all that is. Jonah, by using it, at once taught the sailors that there is One Lord of all, and why this evil had fallen on them, because they had himself with them, the renegade servant of God. "When Jonah said this, he indeed feared God and repented of his sin. If he lost filial fear by fleeing and disobeying, he recovered it by repentance."
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:9: I am: Gen 14:13, Gen 39:14; Phi 3:5
and I: Kg2 17:25, Kg2 17:28, Kg2 17:32-35; Job 1:9; Hos 3:5; Act 27:23; Rev 15:4
the Lord: or, Jehovah
the God: Ezr 1:2, Ezr 5:11, Ezr 7:12, Ezr 7:13; Neh 1:4, Neh 2:4; Psa 136:26; Dan 2:18, Dan 2:19, Dan 2:44; Rev 11:13, Rev 16:11
which: Neh 9:6; Psa 95:5, Psa 95:6, Psa 146:5, Psa 146:6; Act 14:15, Act 17:23-25
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch
1:9
Jonah begins by answering the last question, saying that he was "a Hebrew," - the name by which the Israelites designated themselves in contradistinction to other nations, and by which other nations designated them (see at Gen 14:13, and my Lehrbuch der Einleitung, 9, Anm. 2) - and that he worshipped "the God of heaven, who created the sea and the dry" (i.e., the land). ירא has been rendered correctly by the lxx σέβομαι, colo, revereor; and does not mean, "I am afraid of Jehovah, against whom I have sinned" (Abarbanel). By the statement, "I fear," etc., he had no intention of describing himself as a righteous or innocent man (Hitzig), but simply meant to indicate his relation to God - namely, that he adored the living God who created the whole earth and, as Creator, governed the world. For he admits directly after, that he has sinned against this God, by telling them, as we may see from Jon 1:10, of his flight from Jehovah. He had not told them this as soon as he embarked in the ship, as Hitzig supposes, but does so now for the first time when they ask about his people, his country, etc., as we may see most unmistakeably from Jon 1:10. In Jon 1:9 Jonah's statement is not given completely; but the principal fact, viz., that he was a Hebrew and worshipped Jehovah, is followed immediately by the account of the impression which this acknowledgement made upon the heathen sailors; and the confession of his sin is mentioned afterwards as a supplement, to assign the reason for the great fear which came upon the sailors in consequence. מה־זּאת עשׂית, What hast thou done! is not a question as to the nature of his sin, but an exclamation of horror at his flight from Jehovah, the God heaven and earth, as the following explanatory clauses כּי ידעוּ וגו clearly show. The great fear which came upon the heathen seamen at this confession of Jonah may be fully explained from the dangerous situation in which they found themselves, since the storm preached the omnipotence of God more powerfully than words could possibly do.
John Gill
1:9 And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew,.... He does not say a Jew, as the Targum wrongly renders it; for that would have been false, since he was of the tribe of Zebulun, which was in the kingdom of Israel, and not of Judah; nor does he say an Israelite, lest he should be thought to be in the idolatry of that people; but a Hebrew, which was common to both; and, besides, it not only declared what nation he was of, but what religion he professed, and who was his God:
and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land; this answers to the other question, what was his occupation or business? he was one that feared the Lord, that served and worshipped him; a prophet of the great God, as Josephus (g) expresses and so Kimchi; the mighty Jehovah, that made the "heavens", and dwells in them; and from whence that storm of wind came, which had so much distressed the ship, and still continued: and who made the "sea", which was now so boisterous and raging, and threatened them with ruin; and "the dry land", where they would be glad to have been at that instant. By this description of God, as the prophet designed to set him forth in his nature and works, so to distinguish him from the gods of Heathens, who had only particular parts of the universe assigned to them, when his Jehovah was Lord of all; but where was the prophet's fear and reverence of God when he fled from him, and disobeyed him? it was not lost, though not in exercise.
(g) Antiqu. l. 9. c. 10. sect. 2.
John Wesley
1:9 I fear - I worship and serve the true God; the eternal and almighty God, who made and ruleth the heavens.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:9 I am an Hebrew--He does not say "an Israelite." For this was the name used among themselves; "Hebrew," among foreigners (; ).
I fear the Lord--in profession: his practice belied his profession: his profession aggravated his guilt.
God . . . which . . . made the sea--appropriately expressed, as accounting for the tempest sent on the sea. The heathen had distinct gods for the "heaven," the "sea," and the "land." Jehovah is the one and only true God of all alike. Jonah at last is awakened by the violent remedy from his lethargy. Jonah was but the reflection of Israel's backsliding from God, and so must bear the righteous punishment. The guilt of the minister is the result of that of the people, as in Moses' case (). This is what makes Jonah a suitable type of Messiah, who bore the imputed sin of the people.
1:101:10: Եւ երկեան արքն երկեւղ մեծ. եւ ասեն ցնա. Զի՞նչ գործեցեր զայդ. զի գիտացին թէ յերեսաց Տեառն փախուցեալ էր, քանզի պատմեաց նոցա։
10 Մարդիկ շատ վախեցան եւ ասացին նրան. «Այդ ի՞նչ ես արել» (որովհետեւ իմացան, թէ փախել է Տիրոջից, քանի որ պատմեց նրանց):
10 Այն մարդիկը խիստ շատ վախցան ու անոր ըսին. «Այդ բանը ինչո՞ւ ըրիր»։ Քանզի այն մարդիկը գիտցան թէ Տէրոջը երեսէն կը փախչէր, վասն զի անոնց պատմեր էր։
Եւ երկեան արքն երկեւղ մեծ, եւ ասեն ցնա. Զի՞նչ գործեցեր զայդ. զի գիտացին թէ յերեսաց Տեառն փախուցեալ էր, քանզի պատմեաց նոցա:

1:10: Եւ երկեան արքն երկեւղ մեծ. եւ ասեն ցնա. Զի՞նչ գործեցեր զայդ. զի գիտացին թէ յերեսաց Տեառն փախուցեալ էր, քանզի պատմեաց նոցա։
10 Մարդիկ շատ վախեցան եւ ասացին նրան. «Այդ ի՞նչ ես արել» (որովհետեւ իմացան, թէ փախել է Տիրոջից, քանի որ պատմեց նրանց):
10 Այն մարդիկը խիստ շատ վախցան ու անոր ըսին. «Այդ բանը ինչո՞ւ ըրիր»։ Քանզի այն մարդիկը գիտցան թէ Տէրոջը երեսէն կը փախչէր, վասն զի անոնց պատմեր էր։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:101:10 И устрашились люди страхом великим и сказали ему: для чего ты это сделал? Ибо узнали эти люди, что он бежит от лица Господня, как он сам объявил им.
1:10 καὶ και and; even ἐφοβήθησαν φοβεω afraid; fear οἱ ο the ἄνδρες ανηρ man; husband φόβον φοβος fear; awe μέγαν μεγας great; loud καὶ και and; even εἶπαν επω say; speak πρὸς προς to; toward αὐτόν αυτος he; him τί τις.1 who?; what? τοῦτο ουτος this; he ἐποίησας ποιεω do; make διότι διοτι because; that ἔγνωσαν γινωσκω know οἱ ο the ἄνδρες ανηρ man; husband ὅτι οτι since; that ἐκ εκ from; out of προσώπου προσωπον face; ahead of κυρίου κυριος lord; master ἦν ειμι be φεύγων φευγω flee ὅτι οτι since; that ἀπήγγειλεν απαγγελλω report αὐτοῖς αυτος he; him
1:10 וַ wa וְ and יִּֽירְא֤וּ yyˈîrᵊʔˈû ירא fear הָֽ hˈā הַ the אֲנָשִׁים֙ ʔᵃnāšîm אִישׁ man יִרְאָ֣ה yirʔˈā יִרְאָה fear גְדֹולָ֔ה ḡᵊḏôlˈā גָּדֹול great וַ wa וְ and יֹּאמְר֥וּ yyōmᵊrˌû אמר say אֵלָ֖יו ʔēlˌāʸw אֶל to מַה־ mah- מָה what זֹּ֣את zzˈōṯ זֹאת this עָשִׂ֑יתָ ʕāśˈîṯā עשׂה make כִּֽי־ kˈî- כִּי that יָדְע֣וּ yāḏᵊʕˈû ידע know הָ hā הַ the אֲנָשִׁ֗ים ʔᵃnāšˈîm אִישׁ man כִּֽי־ kˈî- כִּי that מִ mi מִן from לִּ lli לְ to פְנֵ֤י fᵊnˈê פָּנֶה face יְהוָה֙ [yᵊhwˌāh] יְהוָה YHWH ה֣וּא hˈû הוּא he בֹרֵ֔חַ vōrˈēₐḥ ברח run away כִּ֥י kˌî כִּי that הִגִּ֖יד higgˌîḏ נגד report לָהֶֽם׃ lāhˈem לְ to
1:10. et timuerunt viri timore magno et dixerunt ad eum quid hoc fecisti cognoverunt enim viri quod a facie Domini fugeret quia indicaverat eisAnd the men were greatly afraid, and they said to him: Why hast thou done this? (For the men knew that he fled from the face of the Lord: because he had told them.)
10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, What is this that thou hast done? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
1:10. And the men were greatly afraid, and they said to him, “Why have you done this?” (For the men knew that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord, because he had told them.)
1:10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them:

1:10 И устрашились люди страхом великим и сказали ему: для чего ты это сделал? Ибо узнали эти люди, что он бежит от лица Господня, как он сам объявил им.
1:10
καὶ και and; even
ἐφοβήθησαν φοβεω afraid; fear
οἱ ο the
ἄνδρες ανηρ man; husband
φόβον φοβος fear; awe
μέγαν μεγας great; loud
καὶ και and; even
εἶπαν επω say; speak
πρὸς προς to; toward
αὐτόν αυτος he; him
τί τις.1 who?; what?
τοῦτο ουτος this; he
ἐποίησας ποιεω do; make
διότι διοτι because; that
ἔγνωσαν γινωσκω know
οἱ ο the
ἄνδρες ανηρ man; husband
ὅτι οτι since; that
ἐκ εκ from; out of
προσώπου προσωπον face; ahead of
κυρίου κυριος lord; master
ἦν ειμι be
φεύγων φευγω flee
ὅτι οτι since; that
ἀπήγγειλεν απαγγελλω report
αὐτοῖς αυτος he; him
1:10
וַ wa וְ and
יִּֽירְא֤וּ yyˈîrᵊʔˈû ירא fear
הָֽ hˈā הַ the
אֲנָשִׁים֙ ʔᵃnāšîm אִישׁ man
יִרְאָ֣ה yirʔˈā יִרְאָה fear
גְדֹולָ֔ה ḡᵊḏôlˈā גָּדֹול great
וַ wa וְ and
יֹּאמְר֥וּ yyōmᵊrˌû אמר say
אֵלָ֖יו ʔēlˌāʸw אֶל to
מַה־ mah- מָה what
זֹּ֣את zzˈōṯ זֹאת this
עָשִׂ֑יתָ ʕāśˈîṯā עשׂה make
כִּֽי־ kˈî- כִּי that
יָדְע֣וּ yāḏᵊʕˈû ידע know
הָ הַ the
אֲנָשִׁ֗ים ʔᵃnāšˈîm אִישׁ man
כִּֽי־ kˈî- כִּי that
מִ mi מִן from
לִּ lli לְ to
פְנֵ֤י fᵊnˈê פָּנֶה face
יְהוָה֙ [yᵊhwˌāh] יְהוָה YHWH
ה֣וּא hˈû הוּא he
בֹרֵ֔חַ vōrˈēₐḥ ברח run away
כִּ֥י kˌî כִּי that
הִגִּ֖יד higgˌîḏ נגד report
לָהֶֽם׃ lāhˈem לְ to
1:10. et timuerunt viri timore magno et dixerunt ad eum quid hoc fecisti cognoverunt enim viri quod a facie Domini fugeret quia indicaverat eis
And the men were greatly afraid, and they said to him: Why hast thou done this? (For the men knew that he fled from the face of the Lord: because he had told them.)
1:10. And the men were greatly afraid, and they said to him, “Why have you done this?” (For the men knew that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord, because he had told them.)
1:10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
jfb▾ jg▾ tr▾ ab▾ tb▾ all ▾
А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
10: Передается впечатление корабельщиков от речи пророка. Они «устрашились страхом великим»… «ибо узнали, что он бежит от лица Господня», значит их страх был религиозным, перед Иеговою, они устрашились Его величия и могущества. Несомненно, корабельщики почувствовали также, что пред ними стоит не обыкновенный человек, а избранный Богом для получения откровения от Него, хотя и тяжко виновный перед Ним; это видно из всего дальнейшего отношения их к пророку Ионе (12–14: ст.).
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:10: Then were the men exceedingly afraid - Before, they had feared the tempest and the loss of their lives. Now they feared God. They feared, not the creature but the Creator. They knew that what they had feared was the doing of His Almightiness. They felt how awesome a thing it was to be in His Hands. Such fear is the beginning of conversion, when people turn from dwelling on the distresses which surround them, to God who sent them.
Why hast thou done this? - They are words of amazement and wonder. Why hast thou not obeyed so great a God, and how thoughtest thou to escape the hand of the Creator ? "What is the mystery of thy flight? Why did one, who feared God and had Rev_elations from God, flee, sooner than go to fulfill them? Why did the worshiper of the One true God depart from his God?" "A servant flee from his Lord, a son from his father, man from his God!" The inconsistency of believers is the marvel of the young Christian, the repulsion of those without, the hardening of the unbeliever. If people really believed in eternity, how could they be thus immersed in things of time? If they believed in hell, how could they so hurry there? If they believed that God died for them, how could they so requite Him? Faith without love, knowledge without obedience, conscious dependence and rebellion, to be favored by God yet to despise His favor, are the strangest marvels of this mysterious world.
All nature seems to cry out to and against the unfaithful Christian, "why hast thou done this?" And what a why it is! A scoffer has recently said so truthfully : "Avowed scepticism cannot do a tenth part of the injury to practical faith, that the constant spectacle of the huge mass of worldly unreal belief does." It is nothing strange, that the world or unsanctified intellect should reject the Gospel. It is a thing of course, unless it be converted. But, to know, to believe, and to DISOBEY! To disobey God, in the name of God. To propose to halve the living Gospel, as the woman who had killed her child Kg1 3:26, and to think that the poor quivering remnants would be the living Gospel anymore! As though the will of God might, like those lower forms of His animal creation, be divided endlessly, and, keep what fragments we will, it would still be a living whole, a vessel of His Spirit! Such unrealities and inconsistencies would be a sore trial of faith, had not Jesus, who (cf. Joh 2:25), "knew what is in man," forewarned us that it should be so. The scandals against the Gospel, so contrary to all human opinion, are only all the more a testimony to the divine knowledge of the Redeemer.
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:10: were: Joh 19:8
exceedingly afraid: Heb. afraid, with great fear, Dan 5:6-9
Why: Jos 7:25; Sa2 24:3
he fled: Jon 1:3; Job 27:22
John Gill
1:10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid,.... When they found he was a Hebrew, and that it was the God of the Hebrews that was angry; of whom they had heard much, and what great and wonderful things had been done by him, and now had an experience of his power and providence, and that it was for fleeing from his presence that all this was; and therefore, since they had been guilty of greater sins than this, as they might imagine, what would be done to them? and particularly it might fill them with dread and terror, when they heard of the destruction of Nineveh, the prophet was sent to denounce; of which no doubt he had told them, and they might from hence conclude it would certainly be:
and said unto him, why hast thou done this? they wonder he should act such a foolish part as to flee from such a God he had described to them, who was Lord of heaven, earth, and sea; and therefore could meet with him, and seize him, be he where he would; and they reprove him for it, and the rather as it had involved them in so much distress and danger:
for the men knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord,
because he had told them; not when he first entered into the ship, but now, though not before mentioned; for no doubt Jonah told the whole story at length, though the whole is not recorded; how that he was sent by the Lord with a message to Nineveh, to denounce destruction to it; and that he refused to go, and fled from his face; and this was the true reason of the storm.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:10 "The men were exceedingly afraid," when made aware of the wrath of so powerful a God at the flight of Jonah.
Why hast thou done this?--If professors of religion do wrong, they will hear of it from those who make no such profession.
1:111:11: Եւ ասեն ցնա. Զի՛նչ արասցուք քեզ՝ եւ դադարեսցէ ծովս ՚ի մէնջ։ Զի ծովն առաւել եւս խռովեալ էր՝ եւ յարուցանէր մրրի՛կ ՚ի վերայ նոցա[10659]։ [10659] Ոմանք. Առաւել եւս խռովէր։
11 Ասացին նրան. «Ի՞նչ անենք քեզ, որ ծովը մեզ հանգիստ թողնի» (քանի որ ծովն աւելի էր ալեկոծուել եւ փոթորիկ էր բարձրացնում նրանց վրայ):
11 Ուստի անոր ըսին. «Քեզի ի՞նչ ընենք, որ ծովը դադարի»։ Քանզի ծովը երթալով աւելի կը սաստկանար։
Եւ ասեն ցնա. Զի՞նչ արասցուք քեզ, եւ դադարեսցէ ծովս ի մէնջ: Զի ծովն առաւել եւս խռովեալ էր [7]եւ յարուցանէր մրրիկ ի վերայ նոցա:

1:11: Եւ ասեն ցնա. Զի՛նչ արասցուք քեզ՝ եւ դադարեսցէ ծովս ՚ի մէնջ։ Զի ծովն առաւել եւս խռովեալ էր՝ եւ յարուցանէր մրրի՛կ ՚ի վերայ նոցա[10659]։
[10659] Ոմանք. Առաւել եւս խռովէր։
11 Ասացին նրան. «Ի՞նչ անենք քեզ, որ ծովը մեզ հանգիստ թողնի» (քանի որ ծովն աւելի էր ալեկոծուել եւ փոթորիկ էր բարձրացնում նրանց վրայ):
11 Ուստի անոր ըսին. «Քեզի ի՞նչ ընենք, որ ծովը դադարի»։ Քանզի ծովը երթալով աւելի կը սաստկանար։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:111:11 И сказали ему: что сделать нам с тобою, чтобы море утихло для нас? Ибо море не переставало волноваться.
1:11 καὶ και and; even εἶπαν επω say; speak πρὸς προς to; toward αὐτόν αυτος he; him τί τις.1 who?; what? σοι σοι you ποιήσωμεν ποιεω do; make καὶ και and; even κοπάσει κοπαζω exhausted; abate ἡ ο the θάλασσα θαλασσα sea ἀφ᾿ απο from; away ἡμῶν ημων our ὅτι οτι since; that ἡ ο the θάλασσα θαλασσα sea ἐπορεύετο πορευομαι travel; go καὶ και and; even ἐξήγειρεν εξεγειρω raise up; awakened μᾶλλον μαλλον rather; more κλύδωνα κλυδων tempest
1:11 וַ wa וְ and יֹּאמְר֤וּ yyōmᵊrˈû אמר say אֵלָיו֙ ʔēlāʸw אֶל to מַה־ mah- מָה what נַּ֣עֲשֶׂה nnˈaʕᵃśeh עשׂה make לָּ֔ךְ llˈāḵ לְ to וְ wᵊ וְ and יִשְׁתֹּ֥ק yištˌōq שׁתק be silent הַ ha הַ the יָּ֖ם yyˌom יָם sea מֵֽ mˈē מִן from עָלֵ֑ינוּ ʕālˈênû עַל upon כִּ֥י kˌî כִּי that הַ ha הַ the יָּ֖ם yyˌom יָם sea הֹולֵ֥ךְ hôlˌēḵ הלך walk וְ wᵊ וְ and סֹעֵֽר׃ sōʕˈēr סער be stormy
1:11. et dixerunt ad eum quid faciemus tibi et cessabit mare a nobis quia mare ibat et intumescebatAnd they said to him: What shall we do with thee, that the sea may be calm to us? for the sea flowed and swelled.
11. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea grew more and more tempestuous.
1:11. And they said to him, “What are we to do with you, so that the sea will cease for us?” For the sea flowed and swelled.
1:11. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous:

1:11 И сказали ему: что сделать нам с тобою, чтобы море утихло для нас? Ибо море не переставало волноваться.
1:11
καὶ και and; even
εἶπαν επω say; speak
πρὸς προς to; toward
αὐτόν αυτος he; him
τί τις.1 who?; what?
σοι σοι you
ποιήσωμεν ποιεω do; make
καὶ και and; even
κοπάσει κοπαζω exhausted; abate
ο the
θάλασσα θαλασσα sea
ἀφ᾿ απο from; away
ἡμῶν ημων our
ὅτι οτι since; that
ο the
θάλασσα θαλασσα sea
ἐπορεύετο πορευομαι travel; go
καὶ και and; even
ἐξήγειρεν εξεγειρω raise up; awakened
μᾶλλον μαλλον rather; more
κλύδωνα κλυδων tempest
1:11
וַ wa וְ and
יֹּאמְר֤וּ yyōmᵊrˈû אמר say
אֵלָיו֙ ʔēlāʸw אֶל to
מַה־ mah- מָה what
נַּ֣עֲשֶׂה nnˈaʕᵃśeh עשׂה make
לָּ֔ךְ llˈāḵ לְ to
וְ wᵊ וְ and
יִשְׁתֹּ֥ק yištˌōq שׁתק be silent
הַ ha הַ the
יָּ֖ם yyˌom יָם sea
מֵֽ mˈē מִן from
עָלֵ֑ינוּ ʕālˈênû עַל upon
כִּ֥י kˌî כִּי that
הַ ha הַ the
יָּ֖ם yyˌom יָם sea
הֹולֵ֥ךְ hôlˌēḵ הלך walk
וְ wᵊ וְ and
סֹעֵֽר׃ sōʕˈēr סער be stormy
1:11. et dixerunt ad eum quid faciemus tibi et cessabit mare a nobis quia mare ibat et intumescebat
And they said to him: What shall we do with thee, that the sea may be calm to us? for the sea flowed and swelled.
1:11. And they said to him, “What are we to do with you, so that the sea will cease for us?” For the sea flowed and swelled.
1:11. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
jfb▾ jg▾ kad▾ tr▾ ab▾ ac▾ mh▾ tb▾ all ▾
А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
11: «И сказали ему, что сделать нам с тобой, чтобы море утихло для нас?» В обычном случае корабельщики, конечно, знали, как надо поступить с человеком, который вызвал гнев богов и навлек великое бедствие, но здесь случай был особенный. Перед ними стоял не великий грешник, а избранник Божий, правда возводивший на себя тяжкую вину пред Богом, но они ее едва ли ясно понимали (см. 14: ст.); наказавший их Бог Иегова так не похож на их языческих богов, что умилостивлять Его обычными в язычестве способами они не решались. Поэтому они обратились к пророку, чтобы он сам произнес суд над собою и указал способ умилостивления Иеговы.
Matthew Henry: Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible - 1706
11 Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. 12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. 13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. 14 Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee. 15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows. 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.
It is plain that Jonah is the man for whose sake this evil is upon them, but the discovery of him to be so was not sufficient to answer the demands of this tempest; they had found him out, but something more was to be done, for still the sea wrought and was tempestuous (v. 11), and again (v. 13), it grew more and more tempestuous (so the margin reads it); for if we discover sin to be the cause of our troubles, and do not forsake it, we do but make bad worse. Therefore they went on with the prosecution.
I. They enquired of Jonah himself what he thought they must do with him (v. 11): What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm to us? They perceived that Jonah is a prophet of the Lord, and therefore will not do any thing, no, not in his own case, without consulting him. He appears to be a delinquent, but he appears also to be a penitent, and therefore they will not insult over him, nor offer him any rudeness. Note, We ought to act with great tenderness towards those that are overtaken in a fault and are brought into distress by it. They would not cast him into the sea if he could think of any other expedient by which to save the ship. Or, perhaps, thus they would show how plain the case was, that there was no remedy but he must be thrown overboard; let him be his own judge as he had been his own accuser, and he himself will say so. Note, When sin has raised a storm, and laid us under the tokens of God's displeasure, we are concerned to enquire what we shall do that the sea may be calm; and what shall we do? We must pray and believe, when we are in a storm, and study to answer the end for which it was sent, and then the storm shall become a calm. But especially we must consider what is to be done to the sin that raised the storm; that must be discovered, and penitently confessed; that must be detested, disclaimed, and utterly forsaken. What have I to do any more with it? Crucify it, crucify it, for this evil it has done.
II. Jonah reads his own doom (v. 12): Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea. He would not himself leap into the sea, but he put himself into their hands, to cast him into the sea, and assured them that then the sea would be calm, and not otherwise. He proposed this, in tenderness to the mariners, that the might no suffer for his sake. "Let thy hand be upon me" (says David, 1 Chron. xxi. 17), "who am guilty; let me die for me own sin, but let not the innocent suffer for it." This is the language of true penitents, who earnestly desire that none but themselves may ever smart, or fare the worse, for their sins and follies. He proposed it likewise in submission to the will of God, who sent this tempest in pursuit of him; and therefore judged himself to be cast into the sea, because to that he plainly saw God judging him, that he might not be judged of the Lord to eternal misery. Note, Those who are truly humbled for sin will cheerfully submit to the will of God, even in a sentence of death itself. If Jonah sees this to be the punishment of his iniquity, he accepts it, he subjects himself to it, and justifies God in it. No matter though the flesh be destroyed, no matter how it is destroyed, so that the spirit may be but saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, 1 Cor. v. 5. The reason he gives is, For I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. See how ready Jonah is to take all the guilt upon himself, and to look upon all the trouble as theirs: "It is purely for my sake, who have sinned, that this tempest is upon you; therefore cast me forth into the sea; for," 1. "I deserve it. I have wickedly departed from my God, and it is upon my account that he is angry with you. Surely I am unworthy to breathe in that air which for my sake has been hurried with winds, to live in that ship which for my sake has been thus tossed. Cast me into the sea after the wares which for my sake you have thrown into it. Drowning is too good for me; a single death is punishment too little for such a complicated offence." 2. "Therefore there is no way of having the sea calm. If it is I that have raised the storm, it is not casting the wares into the sea that will lay it again; no, you must cast me thither." When conscience is awakened, and a storm raised there, nothing will turn it into a calm but parting with the sin that occasioned the disturbance, and abandoning that. It is not parting with our money that will pacify conscience; no, it is the Jonah that be thrown overboard. Jonah is herein a type of Christ, that he gives his life a ransom for many; but with this material difference, that the storm Jonah gave himself up to still was of his own raising, but that storm which Christ gave himself up to still was of our raising. Yet, as Jonah delivered himself up to be cast into a raging sea that it might be calm, so did our Lord Jesus, when he died that we might live.
III. The poor mariners did what they could to save themselves from the necessity of throwing Jonah into the sea, but all in vain (v. 13): They rowed hard to bring the ship to the land, that, if they must part with Jonah, they might set him safely on shore; but they could not. All their pains were to no purpose; for the sea wrought harder than they could, and was tempestuous against them, so that they could by no means make the land. If they thought sometimes that they had gained their point, they were quickly thrown off to sea again. Still their ship was overladen; their lightening it of the wares made it never the lighter as long as Jonah was in it. And, besides, they rowed against wind and tide, the wind of God's vengeance, the tide of his counsels; and it is in vain to contend with God, in vain to think of saving ourselves any other way than by destroying our sins. By this it appears that these mariners were very loth to execute Jonah's sentence upon himself, though they knew it was for his sake that this tempest was upon them. They were thus very backward to it partly from a dread of bringing upon themselves the guilt of blood, and partly from a compassion they could not but have for poor Jonah, as a good man, as a man in distress, and as a man of sincerity. Note, The more sinners humble and abase themselves, judge and condemn themselves, the more likely they are to find pity both with God and man. The more forward Jonah was to say, Cast me into the sea, the more backward they were to do it.
IV. When they found it necessary to cast Jonah into the sea they first prayed to God that the guilt of his blood might not lie upon them, nor be laid to their charge, v. 14. When they found it in vain to row hard they quitted their oars and went to their prayers: Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, unto Jehovah, the true and living God, and no more to the gods many. and lords many, that the had cried to, v. 5. They prayed to the God of Israel, being now convinced, by the providences of God concerning Jonah and the information he had given them, that he is God alone. Having determined to cast Jonah into the sea, they first enter a protestation in the court of heaven that they do not do it willingly, much less maliciously, or with any design to be revenged upon him because it was for his sake that this tempest was upon them. No; his god forgive him, as they do! But they are forced to do it se defendendo--in self-defence, having no other way to save their own lives; and they do it as ministers of justice, both God and himself having sentenced him to so great a death. They therefore present a humble petition to the God whom Jonah feared, that they might not perish for his life. See, 1. What a fear they had of contracting the guilt of blood, especially the blood of one that feared God, and worshipped him, and had fellowship with him, as they perceived Jonah had, though in a single instance he had been faulty. Natural conscience cannot but have a dread of blood-guiltiness, and make men very earnest in prayer, as David was, to be delivered from it, Ps. li. 14. So they were here: We beseech thee, O Lord! we beseech thee, lay not upon us innocent blood. They are now as earnest in praying to be saved from the peril of sin as they were before in praying to be saved from the peril of the sea, especially because Jonah appeared to them to be no ordinary person, but a very good man, a man of God, a worshipper of the great Creator of heaven and earth, upon which account even these rude mariners conceived a veneration for him, and trembled at the thought of taking away his life. Innocent blood is precious, but saints' blood, prophets' blood, is much more precious, and so those will find to their cost that any way bring themselves under the guilt of it. The mariners saw Jonah pursued by divine vengeance, and yet could not without horror think of being his executioners. Though his God has a controversy with him, yet, think they, Let not our hand be upon him. The Israelites were at this time killing the prophets for doing their duty (witness Jezebel's late persecution), and were prodigal of their lives, which is aggravated by the tenderness these heathens had for one whom they perceived to be a prophet, though he was now out of the way of his duty. 2. What a fear they had of incurring the wrath of God; they were jealous lest he should be angry if they should be the death of Jonah, for he had said, Touch not my anointed, and do my prophets no harm; it is at your peril if you do. "Lord," say they, "let us not perish for this man's life. Let it not be such a fatal dilemma to us. We see we must perish if we spare his life; Oh let us not perish for taking away his life." And their plea is good: "For thou, O Lord! hast done as it pleased thee; thou had laid us under a necessity of doing it; the wind that pursued him, the lot that discovered him, were both under thy direction, which we are herein governed by; we are but the instruments of Providence, and it is sorely against our will that we do it; but we must say, The will of the Lord be done." Note, When we are manifestly led by Providence to do things contrary to our own inclinations, and quite beyond our own intentions, it will be some satisfaction to us to be able to say, Thou, O Lord! has done as it pleased thee. And, if God please himself, we ought to be satisfied though he do not please us.
V. Having deprecated the guilt they dreaded, they proceeded to execution (v. 15): They took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea. They cast him out of their ship, out of their company, and cast him into the sea, a raging stormy sea, that cried, "Give, give; surrender the traitor, or expect no peace." We may well think what confusion and amazement poor Jonah was in when he saw himself ready to be hurried into the presence of that God as a Judge whose presence as a Master he was now fleeing from. Note, Those know not what ruin they run upon that run away from God. Woe unto them! for they have fled from me. When sin is the Jonah that raises the storm, that must thus be cast forth into the sea; we must abandon it, and be the death of it, must drown that which otherwise will drown us in destruction and perdition. And if we thus by a thorough repentance and reformation cast our sins forth into the sea, never to recall them or return to them again, God will by pardoning mercy subdue our iniquities, and cast them into the depths of the sea too, Mic. vii. 19.
VI. The throwing of Jonah into the sea immediately put an end to the storm. The sea has what she came for, and therefore rests contended; she ceases from her raging. It is an instance of the sovereign power of God that he can soon turn the storm into a calm, and of the equity of his government that when the end of an affliction is answered and attained the affliction shall immediately be removed. He will not contend for ever, will not contend any longer till we submit ourselves and give up the cause. If we turn from our sins, he will soon turn from his anger.
VII. The mariners were hereby more confirmed in their belief that Jonah's God was the only true God (v. 16): Then the men feared the Lord with a great fear, were possessed with a deep veneration for the God of Israel, and came to a resolution that they would worship him only for the future; for there is no other God that can destroy, that can deliver, after this sort. When they saw the power of God in raising and laying the tempest, when they saw his justice upon Jonah his own servant, and when they saw his goodness to them in saving them from the brink of ruin, then they feared the Lord, Jer. v. 22. As an evidence of their fear of him, they offered sacrifice to him when they came ashore again in the land of Israel, and for the present made vows that they would do so, in thankfulness for their deliverance, and to make atonement for their souls. Or, perhaps, they had something yet on board which might be for a sacrifice to God immediately. Or it may be meant of the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise, with which God is better pleased than with that of an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs. See Ps. cvii. 2, &c. We must make vows, not only when we are in the pursuit of mercy, but, which is much more generous, when we have received mercy, as those that are still studying what we shall render.
VIII. Jonah's life, after all, is saved by a miracle, and we shall hear of him again for all this. In the midst of judgment God remembers mercy. Jonah shall be worse frightened than hurt, not so much punished for his sin as reduced to his duty. Though he flees from the presence of the Lord, and seems to fall into his avenging hands, yet God has more work for him to do, and therefore has prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah (v. 17), a whale our Saviour calls it (Matt. xii. 40), one of the largest sorts of whales, that have wider throats than others, in the belly of which has sometimes been found the dead body of a man in armour. Particular notice is taken, in the history of creation, of God's creating great whales (Gen. i. 21) and the leviathan in the waters made to play therein, Ps. civ. 26. But God finds work for this leviathan, has prepared him, has numbered him (so the word is), has appointed him to be Jonah's receiver and deliverer. Note, God has command of all the creatures, and can make any of them serve his designs of mercy to his people, even the fishes of the sea, that are most from under man's cognizance, even the great whales, that are altogether from under man's government. This fish was prepared, lay ready under water close by the ship, that he might keep Jonah from sinking to the bottom, and save him alive, though he deserved to die. Let us stand still and see this salvation of the Lord, and admire his power, that he could thus save a drowning man, and his pity, that he would thus save one that was running from him and had offended him. It was of the Lord's mercies that Jonah was not now consumed. The fish swallowed up Jonah, not to devour him, but to protect him. Out of the eater comes forth meat; for Jonah was alive and well in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, not consumed by the heat of the animal, nor suffocated for want of air. It is granted that to nature this was impossible, but not to the God of nature, with whom all things are possible. Jonah by this miraculous preservation was designed to be made, 1. A monument of divine mercy, for the encouragement of those that have sinned, and gone away from God, to return and repent. 2. A successful preacher to Nineveh; and this miracle wrought for his deliverance, if the tidings of it reached Nineveh, would contribute to his success. 3. An illustrious type of Christ, who was buried and rose again according to the scriptures (1 Cor. xv. 4), according to this scripture, for, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so was the Son of man three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, Matt. xii. 40. Jonah's burial was a figure of Christ's. God prepared Jonah's grave, so he did Christ's, when it was long before ordained that he should make his grave with the rich, Isa. liii. 9. Was Jonah's grave a strange one, a new one? So was Christ's, one in which never man before was laid. Was Jonah there the best part of three days and three nights? So was Christ; but both in order to their rising again for the bringing of the doctrine of repentance to the Gentile world. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:11: What shall we do unto thee - In these poor men there was an uncommon degree of humanity and tender feeling.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:11: What shall we do unto thee? - They knew him to be a prophet; they ask him the mind of his God. The lots had marked out Jonah as the cause of the storm; Jonah had himself admitted it, and that the storm was for "his" cause, and came from "his" God . "Great was he who fled, greater He who required him. They dare not give him up; they cannot conceal him. They blame the fault; they confess their fear; they ask "him" the remedy, who was the author of the sin. If it was faulty to receive thee, what can we do, that God should not be angered? It is thine to direct; ours, to obey."
The sea wrought and was tempestuous - , literally "was going and whirling." It was not only increasingly tempestuous, but, like a thing alive and obeying its Master's will, it was holding on its course, its wild waves tossing themselves, and marching on like battalions, marshalled, arrayed for the end for which they were sent, pursuing and demanding the runaway slave of God . "It was going, as it was bidden; it was going to avenge its Lord; it was going, pursuing the fugitive prophet. It was swelling every moment, and, as though the sailors were too tardy, was rising in yet greater surges, shewing that the vengeance of the Creator admitted not of delay."
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:11: What: Sa1 6:2, Sa1 6:3; Sa2 21:1-6, Sa2 24:11-13; Mic 6:6, Mic 6:7
calm unto us: Heb. silent from us. wrought, and was tempestuous. or, grew more and more tempestuous. Heb. went and was, etc.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch
1:11
Fearing as they did in the storm the wrath of God on account of Jonah's sin, they now asked what they should do, that the storm might abate, "for the sea continued to rage." שׁתק, to set itself, to come to a state of repose; or with מעל, to desist from a person. הולך, as in Gen 8:5, etc., expressive of the continuance of an action. With their fear of the Almighty God, whom Jonah worshipped, they did not dare to inflict a punishment upon the prophet, simply according to their own judgment. As a worshipper of Jehovah, he should pronounce his own sentence, or let it be pronounced by his God. Jonah replies in Jon 1:12, "Cast me into the sea; for I know that for my sake this great storm is (come) upon you." As Jerome says, "He does not refuse, or prevaricate, or deny; but, having made confession concerning his flight, he willingly endures the punishment, desiring to perish, and not let others perish on his account." Jonah confesses that he has deserved to die for his rebellion against God, and that the wrath of God which has manifested itself in the storm can only be appeased by his death. He pronounces this sentence, not by virtue of any prophetic inspiration, but as a believing Israelite who is well acquainted with the severity of the justice of the holy God, both from the law and from the history of his nation.
John Gill
1:11 Then said they unto him, what shall we do unto thee,.... Though, both by the lot and his own confession, they knew he was the guilty person; for whose sake this storm was; yet were unwilling to do anything to him without his will and consent, his counsel and advice; perceiving that he was a prophet of the God of the Hebrews, whom he had offended, and knew the mind and will of his God, and the nature of his offence against him, and what only would appease him they desire him to tell what they ought to do; fearing that, though they had found out the man, they should make a mistake in their manner of dealing with him, and so continue the distress they were in, or increase it; their great concern being to be rid of the storm:
that the sea may be calm unto us? or "silent" (h)? for the waves thereof made a hideous roaring, and lifted up themselves so high, as was terrible to behold; and dashed with such vehemence against the ship, as threatened it every moment with destruction:
(for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous); or, "it went and swelled" (i); it was agitated to and fro, and was in a great ferment, and grew more and more stormy and tempestuous. Jonah's confession of his sin, and true repentance for it, were not sufficient; more must be one to appease an angry God; and what that was the sailors desired to know. These words are inserted in a parenthesis with us, as if put by the writer of the book, pointing out the reason of the men's request; but, according to Kimchi: they are their own words, giving a reason why they were so pressing upon him to know what they should do with him, "seeing the sea was going and stormy" (k); or more and more stormy; which seems right.
(h) "ut sileat", Pagninus, Vatablus, Mercerus, Drusius; "et silebit", Montanus; "ut conticeseat", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Burkius. (i) "ibat et intumescebat", Pagninus, Vatablus, Drusius. (k) "Vadeus et turbinans", Montanus; "magis ac magis procellosum erat", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "inhorrescebat", Cocceius.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:11 What shall we do unto thee?--They ask this, as Jonah himself must best know how his God is to be appeased. "We would gladly save thee, if we can do so, and yet be saved ourselves" ().
1:121:12: Եւ ասէ ցնոսա Յունան. Առէ՛ք ընկեցէ՛ք զիս ՚ի ծովդ՝ եւ դադարեսցէ ՚ի ձէնջ ծովդ. զի գիտեմ ես եթէ վասն ի՛մ է մրրիկս այս մեծ ՚ի վերայ ձեր։
12 Յովնանն ասաց նրանց. «Ինձ ծովը գցեցէ՛ք, եւ ծովը կը խաղաղուի, որովհետեւ ես գիտեմ, որ ի՛մ պատճառով է այս փոթորիկը ձեզ վրայ հասել»:
12 Անիկա ըսաւ անոնց. «Զիս վերցուցէ՛ք ու ծովը նետեցէ՛ք ու ծովը պիտի դադարի, քանզի ես գիտեմ թէ այս մեծ փոթորիկը իմ պատճառովս եղաւ»։
Եւ ասէ ցնոսա Յովնան. Առէք ընկեցէք զիս ի ծովդ, եւ դադարեսցէ ի ձէնջ ծովդ. զի գիտեմ ես եթէ վասն իմ է մրրիկս այս մեծ ի վերայ ձեր:

1:12: Եւ ասէ ցնոսա Յունան. Առէ՛ք ընկեցէ՛ք զիս ՚ի ծովդ՝ եւ դադարեսցէ ՚ի ձէնջ ծովդ. զի գիտեմ ես եթէ վասն ի՛մ է մրրիկս այս մեծ ՚ի վերայ ձեր։
12 Յովնանն ասաց նրանց. «Ինձ ծովը գցեցէ՛ք, եւ ծովը կը խաղաղուի, որովհետեւ ես գիտեմ, որ ի՛մ պատճառով է այս փոթորիկը ձեզ վրայ հասել»:
12 Անիկա ըսաւ անոնց. «Զիս վերցուցէ՛ք ու ծովը նետեցէ՛ք ու ծովը պիտի դադարի, քանզի ես գիտեմ թէ այս մեծ փոթորիկը իմ պատճառովս եղաւ»։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:121:12 Тогда он сказал им: возьмите меня и бросьте меня в море, и море утихнет для вас, ибо я знаю, что ради меня постигла вас эта великая буря.
1:12 καὶ και and; even εἶπεν επω say; speak Ιωνας ιωνας Iōnas; Ionas πρὸς προς to; toward αὐτούς αυτος he; him ἄρατέ αιρω lift; remove με με me καὶ και and; even ἐμβάλετέ εμβαλλω inject; cast in με με me εἰς εις into; for τὴν ο the θάλασσαν θαλασσα sea καὶ και and; even κοπάσει κοπαζω exhausted; abate ἡ ο the θάλασσα θαλασσα sea ἀφ᾿ απο from; away ὑμῶν υμων your διότι διοτι because; that ἔγνωκα γινωσκω know ἐγὼ εγω I ὅτι οτι since; that δι᾿ δια through; because of ἐμὲ εμε me ὁ ο the κλύδων κλυδων tempest ὁ ο the μέγας μεγας great; loud οὗτος ουτος this; he ἐφ᾿ επι in; on ὑμᾶς υμας you ἐστιν ειμι be
1:12 וַ wa וְ and יֹּ֣אמֶר yyˈōmer אמר say אֲלֵיהֶ֗ם ʔᵃlêhˈem אֶל to שָׂא֨וּנִי֙ śāʔˈûnî נשׂא lift וַ wa וְ and הֲטִילֻ֣נִי hᵃṭîlˈunî טול cast אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to הַ ha הַ the יָּ֔ם yyˈom יָם sea וְ wᵊ וְ and יִשְׁתֹּ֥ק yištˌōq שׁתק be silent הַ ha הַ the יָּ֖ם yyˌom יָם sea מֵֽ mˈē מִן from עֲלֵיכֶ֑ם ʕᵃlêḵˈem עַל upon כִּ֚י ˈkî כִּי that יֹודֵ֣עַ yôḏˈēₐʕ ידע know אָ֔נִי ʔˈānî אֲנִי i כִּ֣י kˈî כִּי that בְ vᵊ בְּ in שֶׁ še שַׁ [relative] לִּ֔י llˈî לְ to הַ ha הַ the סַּ֧עַר ssˈaʕar סַעַר storm הַ ha הַ the גָּדֹ֛ול ggāḏˈôl גָּדֹול great הַ ha הַ the זֶּ֖ה zzˌeh זֶה this עֲלֵיכֶֽם׃ ʕᵃlêḵˈem עַל upon
1:12. et dixit ad eos tollite me et mittite in mare et cessabit mare a vobis scio enim ego quoniam propter me tempestas grandis haec super vosAnd he said to them: take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be calm to you: for I know for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
12. And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
1:12. And he said to them, “Take me, and cast me into the sea, and the sea will cease for you. For I know that it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”
1:12. And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest [is] upon you.
And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest [is] upon you:

1:12 Тогда он сказал им: возьмите меня и бросьте меня в море, и море утихнет для вас, ибо я знаю, что ради меня постигла вас эта великая буря.
1:12
καὶ και and; even
εἶπεν επω say; speak
Ιωνας ιωνας Iōnas; Ionas
πρὸς προς to; toward
αὐτούς αυτος he; him
ἄρατέ αιρω lift; remove
με με me
καὶ και and; even
ἐμβάλετέ εμβαλλω inject; cast in
με με me
εἰς εις into; for
τὴν ο the
θάλασσαν θαλασσα sea
καὶ και and; even
κοπάσει κοπαζω exhausted; abate
ο the
θάλασσα θαλασσα sea
ἀφ᾿ απο from; away
ὑμῶν υμων your
διότι διοτι because; that
ἔγνωκα γινωσκω know
ἐγὼ εγω I
ὅτι οτι since; that
δι᾿ δια through; because of
ἐμὲ εμε me
ο the
κλύδων κλυδων tempest
ο the
μέγας μεγας great; loud
οὗτος ουτος this; he
ἐφ᾿ επι in; on
ὑμᾶς υμας you
ἐστιν ειμι be
1:12
וַ wa וְ and
יֹּ֣אמֶר yyˈōmer אמר say
אֲלֵיהֶ֗ם ʔᵃlêhˈem אֶל to
שָׂא֨וּנִי֙ śāʔˈûnî נשׂא lift
וַ wa וְ and
הֲטִילֻ֣נִי hᵃṭîlˈunî טול cast
אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to
הַ ha הַ the
יָּ֔ם yyˈom יָם sea
וְ wᵊ וְ and
יִשְׁתֹּ֥ק yištˌōq שׁתק be silent
הַ ha הַ the
יָּ֖ם yyˌom יָם sea
מֵֽ mˈē מִן from
עֲלֵיכֶ֑ם ʕᵃlêḵˈem עַל upon
כִּ֚י ˈkî כִּי that
יֹודֵ֣עַ yôḏˈēₐʕ ידע know
אָ֔נִי ʔˈānî אֲנִי i
כִּ֣י kˈî כִּי that
בְ vᵊ בְּ in
שֶׁ še שַׁ [relative]
לִּ֔י llˈî לְ to
הַ ha הַ the
סַּ֧עַר ssˈaʕar סַעַר storm
הַ ha הַ the
גָּדֹ֛ול ggāḏˈôl גָּדֹול great
הַ ha הַ the
זֶּ֖ה zzˌeh זֶה this
עֲלֵיכֶֽם׃ ʕᵃlêḵˈem עַל upon
1:12. et dixit ad eos tollite me et mittite in mare et cessabit mare a vobis scio enim ego quoniam propter me tempestas grandis haec super vos
And he said to them: take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be calm to you: for I know for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
1:12. And he said to them, “Take me, and cast me into the sea, and the sea will cease for you. For I know that it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”
1:12. And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest [is] upon you.
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
jfb▾ jg▾ tr▾ ab▾ ac▾ tb▾ all ▾
А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
12: «Возьмите меня и бросьте меня в море… ибо я знаю, что ради меня постигла вас эта великая буря». В этом ответе Ионы прежде всего видно глубокое сознание им своей вины перед Богом. В силу сознания своей чрезвычайной виновности он и хочет быть наказанным чрезвычайным образом, на какой указывали буря и жребий: «бросьте меня в море». Здесь нет ни малейшего бравирования своей жизнью, ни чрезвычайной гордости и самолюбия, по которым пророк будто бы хочет скорее умереть, чем идти против убеждения на проповедь к язычникам, и таким образом продолжает препираться с Иеговою «даже до смерти». Смерть в волнах моря представляется пророку Ионе единственным выходом, чтобы спасти ни в чем неповинных спутников по кораблю, за которых он, несомненно, страдал: «бросьте меня в море и море утихнет для вас». В этом случае пророком совершался подвиг высшей любви к людям (Ин XV:13) и его личность предстала пред нами во всей своей неизмеримой высоте.
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:12: I know that for my sake - I am not worthy to live; throw me overboard. God will not quiet the storm till I am cast out of the ship. Here was deep compunction; and honest avowal of sin; and a justification of the displeasure which God had now manifested.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:12: Take me up, and cast me into the sea - Neither might Jonah have said this, nor might the sailors have obeyed it, without the command of God. Jonah might will alone to perish, who had alone offended; but, without the command of God, the Giver of life, neither Jonah nor the sailors might dispose of the life of Jonah. But God willed that Jonah should be cast into the sea - where he had gone for refuge - that (Wisdom 11:16) wherewithal he had "sinned, by the same also he might be punished" as a man; and, as a prophet, that he might, in his three days' burial, prefigure Him who, after His Resurrection, should convert, not Nineveh, but the world, the cry of whose wickedness went up to God.
For I know that for my sake - o "In that he says, "I know," he marks that he had a Rev_elation; in that he says, "this great storm," he marks the need which lay on those who cast him into the sea."
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:12: Take: Sa2 24:17; Joh 11:50
for: Jos 7:12, Jos 7:20, Jos 7:21; Ch1 21:17; Ecc 9:18; Act 27:24
John Gill
1:12 And he said unto them, take me up, and cast me forth into the sea,.... This he said not as choosing rather to die than to go to Nineveh; or as having overheard the men say that they would cast him into the sea, as Aben Ezra suggests, greatly to the prejudice of the prophet's character; but as being truly sensible of his sin, and that he righteously deserved to die such a death; and in love to the lives of innocent men, that they might be saved, and not perish, through his default; and as a prophet, knowing this to be the mind and will of God, he cheerfully and in faith submits to it, with a presence of mind and courage suitable to his character. It was not fit he should leap into the sea and destroy himself; but that he should die by the hand of justice, of which the shipmaster and the ship's crew were the proper executioners:
so shall the sea be calm unto you; or "silent", as before; it will cease from its roaring, and do no further hurt and damage:
for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you; for the sin he had committed in fleeing from God, this storm was raised and continued; nor could it go off till they had done what he had directed them to; there was no other way of being clear of it. In this Jonah was a type of Christ, who willingly gave himself to suffer and die, that he might appease divine wrath, satisfy justice, and save men; only with this difference, Jonah suffered for his own sins, Christ for the sins of others; Jonah to endured a storm he himself had raised by his sins, Christ to endure a storm others had raised by their sins.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:12 cast me . . . into the sea--Herein Jonah is a type of Messiah, the one man who offered Himself to die, in order to allay the stormy flood of God's wrath (compare , as to Messiah), which otherwise must have engulfed all other men. So Caiaphas by the Spirit declared it expedient that one man should die, and that the whole nation should not perish (). Jonah also herein is a specimen of true repentance, which leads the penitent to "accept the punishment of his iniquity" (, ), and to be more indignant at his sin than at his suffering.
1:131:13: Եւ ջանային արքն դարձուցանել զնաւն ՚ի ցամաք՝ եւ ո՛չ կարէին. զի ծովն եւ՛ս քան զեւ՛ս խռովէր եւ սաստկանա՛յր ՚ի վերայ նոցա։
13 Մարդիկ ջանում էին նաւը ցամաք վերադարձնել եւ չէին կարողանում, քանի որ ծովն աւելի ու աւելի էր ալեկոծւում ու սաստկանում նրանց դէմ:
13 Այն մարդիկը թի քաշելով կը ջանային նաւը ցամաքը դարձնել, բայց չէին կրնար, քանզի ծովը երթալով աւելի կը սաստկանար։
Եւ ջանային արքն դարձուցանել զնաւն ի ցամաք, եւ ոչ կարէին, զի ծովն եւս քան զեւս խռովէր եւ սաստկանայր ի վերայ նոցա:

1:13: Եւ ջանային արքն դարձուցանել զնաւն ՚ի ցամաք՝ եւ ո՛չ կարէին. զի ծովն եւ՛ս քան զեւ՛ս խռովէր եւ սաստկանա՛յր ՚ի վերայ նոցա։
13 Մարդիկ ջանում էին նաւը ցամաք վերադարձնել եւ չէին կարողանում, քանի որ ծովն աւելի ու աւելի էր ալեկոծւում ու սաստկանում նրանց դէմ:
13 Այն մարդիկը թի քաշելով կը ջանային նաւը ցամաքը դարձնել, բայց չէին կրնար, քանզի ծովը երթալով աւելի կը սաստկանար։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:131:13 Но эти люди начали усиленно грести, чтобы пристать к земле, но не могли, потому что море все продолжало бушевать против них.
1:13 καὶ και and; even παρεβιάζοντο παραβιαζομαι press οἱ ο the ἄνδρες ανηρ man; husband τοῦ ο the ἐπιστρέψαι επιστρεφω turn around; return πρὸς προς to; toward τὴν ο the γῆν γη earth; land καὶ και and; even οὐκ ου not ἠδύναντο δυναμαι able; can ὅτι οτι since; that ἡ ο the θάλασσα θαλασσα sea ἐπορεύετο πορευομαι travel; go καὶ και and; even ἐξηγείρετο εξεγειρω raise up; awakened μᾶλλον μαλλον rather; more ἐπ᾿ επι in; on αὐτούς αυτος he; him
1:13 וַ wa וְ and יַּחְתְּר֣וּ yyaḥtᵊrˈû חתר dig הָ hā הַ the אֲנָשִׁ֗ים ʔᵃnāšˈîm אִישׁ man לְ lᵊ לְ to הָשִׁ֛יב hāšˈîv שׁוב return אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to הַ ha הַ the יַּבָּשָׁ֖ה yyabbāšˌā יַבָּשָׁה dry land וְ wᵊ וְ and לֹ֣א lˈō לֹא not יָכֹ֑לוּ yāḵˈōlû יכל be able כִּ֣י kˈî כִּי that הַ ha הַ the יָּ֔ם yyˈom יָם sea הֹולֵ֥ךְ hôlˌēḵ הלך walk וְ wᵊ וְ and סֹעֵ֖ר sōʕˌēr סער be stormy עֲלֵיהֶֽם׃ ʕᵃlêhˈem עַל upon
1:13. et remigabant viri ut reverterentur ad aridam et non valebant quia mare ibat et intumescebat super eosAnd the men rowed hard to return the land, but they were not able: because the sea tossed and swelled upon them.
13. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not: for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.
1:13. And the men were rowing, so as to return to dry land, but they did not succeed. For the sea flowed and swelled against them.
1:13. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring [it] to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring [it] to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them:

1:13 Но эти люди начали усиленно грести, чтобы пристать к земле, но не могли, потому что море все продолжало бушевать против них.
1:13
καὶ και and; even
παρεβιάζοντο παραβιαζομαι press
οἱ ο the
ἄνδρες ανηρ man; husband
τοῦ ο the
ἐπιστρέψαι επιστρεφω turn around; return
πρὸς προς to; toward
τὴν ο the
γῆν γη earth; land
καὶ και and; even
οὐκ ου not
ἠδύναντο δυναμαι able; can
ὅτι οτι since; that
ο the
θάλασσα θαλασσα sea
ἐπορεύετο πορευομαι travel; go
καὶ και and; even
ἐξηγείρετο εξεγειρω raise up; awakened
μᾶλλον μαλλον rather; more
ἐπ᾿ επι in; on
αὐτούς αυτος he; him
1:13
וַ wa וְ and
יַּחְתְּר֣וּ yyaḥtᵊrˈû חתר dig
הָ הַ the
אֲנָשִׁ֗ים ʔᵃnāšˈîm אִישׁ man
לְ lᵊ לְ to
הָשִׁ֛יב hāšˈîv שׁוב return
אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to
הַ ha הַ the
יַּבָּשָׁ֖ה yyabbāšˌā יַבָּשָׁה dry land
וְ wᵊ וְ and
לֹ֣א lˈō לֹא not
יָכֹ֑לוּ yāḵˈōlû יכל be able
כִּ֣י kˈî כִּי that
הַ ha הַ the
יָּ֔ם yyˈom יָם sea
הֹולֵ֥ךְ hôlˌēḵ הלך walk
וְ wᵊ וְ and
סֹעֵ֖ר sōʕˌēr סער be stormy
עֲלֵיהֶֽם׃ ʕᵃlêhˈem עַל upon
1:13. et remigabant viri ut reverterentur ad aridam et non valebant quia mare ibat et intumescebat super eos
And the men rowed hard to return the land, but they were not able: because the sea tossed and swelled upon them.
1:13. And the men were rowing, so as to return to dry land, but they did not succeed. For the sea flowed and swelled against them.
1:13. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring [it] to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
ru▾ LXX-gloss▾ bhs-gloss▾ vulgate▾ erva_1895▾ catholic_pdv▾ kjv_1900▾
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А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
13-15: Корабельщики не сразу исполнили приговор Ионы над собой. Сначала они старались использовать все средства, чтобы спасти пророка, высадив его на берег. Когда это не удалось, они, прежде чем бросить его в море, обратились с горячей молитвой к Иегове, чтобы Он не вменил им «невинной крови». Здесь обращает на себя внимание сочувствие бывших на корабле Ионе и их глубокая религиозность. Говорят, что в данном месте, как и далее в речи о ниневитянах (III:5–9), язычники в книге Ионы идеализированы. Что рассказывается о них и само по себе невероятно, и невероятно, чтобы это написал Иона или кто-нибудь из близких к нему по времени людей, ибо отрицательное отношение их к язычникам хорошо известно. Так на малом фундаменте строится большой вывод о неподлинности книги, её позднейшем происхождении и не историческом, а легендарном характере ее содержания. Правда, что невероятного в том, что язычники на корабле оказались не худыми людьми, способными выразить сочувствие человеку, который для спасения их решил пострадать один. Что невероятного и в том, что плавание по морю среди опасностей научило их молиться? Но вот указывают, что молились то они не только своим богам, а и Иегове, Богу еврейскому (14: ст.). Действительно, в употреблении имен Божьих писатель книги Ионы весьма точен: когда речь идет о Боге вообще, как Всемогущем Творце и Владыки всего, он употребляет имя Божие Элогим (I:5–6; III:5, 8, 10; IV:7–9), а когда говорится о Боге в Его отношении к пророку Ионе, как Бога еврейского народа, Он именуется Иеговою (I:1, 3–4, 9; II:1, 3; III:1, 3; IV:4, 6, 10). Поэтому в 14: ст., где стоит Иегова, нужно так и понимать, что корабельные люди молились Богу еврейскому, Богу Иониному, потому что просили не вменить им смерти Ионы, пророка Иеговы, и странно если бы они об этом просили своих богов. Если же в рассматриваемом месте нет невероятной идеализации, а только правда о язычниках, то такую правду Иона вполне мог написать, ибо он не боялся говорить ее даже ввиду смерти (12: ст.)
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:13: The men rowed hard - Were very unwilling to proceed to this extremity, and thought they would risk every thing rather than cast this disobedient prophet into the great deep.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:13: The men rowed hard - , literally "dug." The word, like our "plowed the main," describes the great efforts which they made. Amid the violence of the storm, they had furled their sails. These were worse than useless. The wind was off shore, since by rowing alpine they hoped to get back to it. They put their oars well and firmly in the sea, and turned up the water, as men turn up earth by digging. But in vain! God willed it not. The sea went on its way, as before. In the description of the deluge, it is repeated Gen 7:17-18, "the waters increased and bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth; the waters increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters." The waters raged and swelled, drowned the whole world, yet only bore up the ark, as a steed bears its rider: man was still, the waters obeyed. In this tempest, on the contrary, man strove, but, instead of the peace of the ark, the burden is, the violence of the tempest; "the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them" . "The prophet had pronounced sentence against himself, but they would not lay hands upon him, striving hard to get back to land, and escape the risk of bloodshed, willing to lose life rather than cause its loss. O what a change was there. The people who had served God, said, Crucify Him, Crucify Him! These are bidden to put to death; the sea rageth; the tempest commandeth; and they are careless its to their own safety, while anxious about another's."
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:13: Nevertheless the: There was great humanity and tender feeling in these men. They were probably affected deeply with the candid confession, the disinterested, submissive conduct of the disobedient prophet, and were unwilling to cast him into the deep, until they found that every effort to save themselves was in vain.
rowed: Heb. digged
but: Job 34:29; Pro 21:30
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch
1:13
But the men (the seamen) do not venture to carry out this sentence at once. They try once more to reach the land and escape from the storm, which is threatening them with destruction, without so serious a sacrifice. יחתּרוּ, lit., they broke through, sc. through the waves, to bring (the ship) back to the land, i.e., they tried to reach the land by rowing and steering. Châthar does not mean to row, still less to twist or turn round (Hitzig), but to break through; here to break through the waves, to try to overcome them, to which the παρεβιάζοντο of the lxx points. As they could not accomplish this, however, because the sea continued to rage against them (סער עליהם, was raging against them), they prayed thus to Jehovah: "We beseech Thee, let us not (אנּא = אל־נא) perish for the sake of the soul of this man (בּנפשׁ, lit., for the soul, as in 2Kings 14:7 after Deut 19:21), and lay not upon us innocent blood," - that is to say, not "do not let us destroy an innocent man in the person of this man" (Hitzig), but, according to Deut 21:8, "do not impute his death to us, if we cast him into the sea, as bloodguiltiness deserving death;" "for Thou, O Jehovah, hast done as it pleased Thee," - namely, inasmuch as, by sending the storm and determining the lot, Thou hast so ordained that we must cast him into the sea as guilty, in order to expiate Thy wrath. They offer this prayer, not because they have no true conception of the guilt of Jonah, who is not a murderer or blasphemer, inasmuch as according to their notions, he is not a sinner deserving death (Hitzig), but because they regard Jonah as a prophet or servant of the Almighty God, upon whom, from fear of his God, they do not venture to lay their hand. "We see, therefore, that although they had never enjoyed the teaching of the law, they had been so taught by nature, that they knew very well that the blood of man was dear to God, and precious in His sight" (Calvin).
John Gill
1:13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to bring it to the land,
but they could not,.... Or, "they digged" (l); that is, the waters of the sea with their oars; not by casting anchor, as Abendana; they used all their skill and exerted all their strength; they laboured with all their might and main, as a man digs in a pit; they ploughed the ocean, and furrowed the sea, as the Latins speak, but all in vain; they rowed against wind and tide; God, his purposes and providence, were against them; and it was not possible for them to make land, and get the ship ashore, which they were desirous of, to save the life of Jonah, as well as their own; for, seeing him penitent, they had compassion on him; his character and profession as a prophet, the gravity of the man, the sedateness of his countenance, his openness of mind, and his willingness to die, wrought greatly upon the men, that they would fain have saved him if they could; and perhaps being Heathens, and not knowing thoroughly the nature of his offence, might think he did not deserve to die; but all their endeavours to save him were to no purpose:
for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them; it grew more and more so; the storm beat right against them, and drove them back faster than they came; so that it was impossible to stand against it.
(l) "et fodiebant", Montanus, Calvin, Piscator, Tarnovius; "foderunt", Vatablus, Liveleus.
John Wesley
1:13 Rowed hard - They were willing to be at any labour to save him.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:13 they could not-- (). Wind and tide--God's displeasure and God's counsel were against them.
1:141:14: Աղաղակեցին առ Տէր՝ եւ ասեն. Քա՛ւ լիցի Տէր. մի՛ կորիցուք վասն անձին առնս այսորիկ. մի՛ ածեր ՚ի վերայ մեր արիւն արդար, զի դու Տէր որպէս կամեցար՝ եւ արարեր[10660]։ [10660] Բազումք. Եւ մի՛ ածեր ՚ի վերայ։
14 Աղաղակեցին Տիրոջը եւ ասացին. «Ների՛ր, Տէ՛ր, մեզ կորստի մի՛ մատնիր այս մարդու պատճառով եւ անմեղ արիւն մի՛ բեր մեզ վրայ, քանի որ դո՛ւ, Տէ՛ր, արեցիր, ինչպէս որ կամեցար»:
14 Ուստի Եհովային աղաղակեցին ու ըսին. «Ո՜հ, Եհովա՛, կ’աղաչենք, այս մարդուն հոգիին համար մեզ մի՛ կորսնցներ ու մեր վրայ անմեղ արիւն մի՛ դներ, քանզի դո՛ւն, ո՛վ Եհովա, ուզածիդ պէս ըրիր»։
Աղաղակեցին առ Տէր եւ ասեն. Քաւ լիցի, Տէր, մի՛ կորիցուք վասն անձին առնս այսորիկ, եւ մի՛ ածեր ի վերայ մեր արիւն արդար, զի դու, Տէր, որպէս կամեցար եւ արարեր:

1:14: Աղաղակեցին առ Տէր՝ եւ ասեն. Քա՛ւ լիցի Տէր. մի՛ կորիցուք վասն անձին առնս այսորիկ. մի՛ ածեր ՚ի վերայ մեր արիւն արդար, զի դու Տէր որպէս կամեցար՝ եւ արարեր[10660]։
[10660] Բազումք. Եւ մի՛ ածեր ՚ի վերայ։
14 Աղաղակեցին Տիրոջը եւ ասացին. «Ների՛ր, Տէ՛ր, մեզ կորստի մի՛ մատնիր այս մարդու պատճառով եւ անմեղ արիւն մի՛ բեր մեզ վրայ, քանի որ դո՛ւ, Տէ՛ր, արեցիր, ինչպէս որ կամեցար»:
14 Ուստի Եհովային աղաղակեցին ու ըսին. «Ո՜հ, Եհովա՛, կ’աղաչենք, այս մարդուն հոգիին համար մեզ մի՛ կորսնցներ ու մեր վրայ անմեղ արիւն մի՛ դներ, քանզի դո՛ւն, ո՛վ Եհովա, ուզածիդ պէս ըրիր»։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:141:14 Тогда воззвали они к Господу и сказали: молим Тебя, Господи, да не погибнем за душу человека сего, и да не вменишь нам кровь невинную; ибо Ты, Господи, соделал, что угодно Тебе!
1:14 καὶ και and; even ἀνεβόησαν αναβοαω scream out πρὸς προς to; toward κύριον κυριος lord; master καὶ και and; even εἶπαν επω say; speak μηδαμῶς μηδαμως no way κύριε κυριος lord; master μὴ μη not ἀπολώμεθα απολλυμι destroy; lose ἕνεκεν ενεκα for the sake of; on account of τῆς ο the ψυχῆς ψυχη soul τοῦ ο the ἀνθρώπου ανθρωπος person; human τούτου ουτος this; he καὶ και and; even μὴ μη not δῷς διδωμι give; deposit ἐφ᾿ επι in; on ἡμᾶς ημας us αἷμα αιμα blood; bloodstreams δίκαιον δικαιος right; just ὅτι οτι since; that σύ συ you κύριε κυριος lord; master ὃν ος who; what τρόπον τροπος manner; by means ἐβούλου βουλομαι want πεποίηκας ποιεω do; make
1:14 וַ wa וְ and יִּקְרְא֨וּ yyiqrᵊʔˌû קרא call אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to יְהוָ֜ה [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH וַ wa וְ and יֹּאמְר֗וּ yyōmᵊrˈû אמר say אָנָּ֤ה ʔonnˈā אָנָּא pray יְהוָה֙ [yᵊhwˌāh] יְהוָה YHWH אַל־ ʔal- אַל not נָ֣א nˈā נָא yeah נֹאבְדָ֗ה nōvᵊḏˈā אבד perish בְּ bᵊ בְּ in נֶ֨פֶשׁ֙ nˈefeš נֶפֶשׁ soul הָ hā הַ the אִ֣ישׁ ʔˈîš אִישׁ man הַ ha הַ the זֶּ֔ה zzˈeh זֶה this וְ wᵊ וְ and אַל־ ʔal- אַל not תִּתֵּ֥ן tittˌēn נתן give עָלֵ֖ינוּ ʕālˌênû עַל upon דָּ֣ם dˈām דָּם blood נָקִ֑יא nāqˈî נָקִי innocent כִּֽי־ kˈî- כִּי that אַתָּ֣ה ʔattˈā אַתָּה you יְהוָ֔ה [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH כַּ ka כְּ as אֲשֶׁ֥ר ʔᵃšˌer אֲשֶׁר [relative] חָפַ֖צְתָּ ḥāfˌaṣtā חפץ desire עָשִֽׂיתָ׃ ʕāśˈîṯā עשׂה make
1:14. et clamaverunt ad Dominum et dixerunt quaesumus Domine ne pereamus in anima viri istius et ne des super nos sanguinem innocentem quia tu Domine sicut voluisti fecistiAnd they cried to the Lord, and said: We beseech thee, O Lord let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, oh Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.
14. Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.
1:14. And they cried out to the Lord, and they said, “We beseech you, Lord, do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not attribute to us innocent blood. For you, Lord, have done just as it pleased you.”
1:14. Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.
Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man' s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee:

1:14 Тогда воззвали они к Господу и сказали: молим Тебя, Господи, да не погибнем за душу человека сего, и да не вменишь нам кровь невинную; ибо Ты, Господи, соделал, что угодно Тебе!
1:14
καὶ και and; even
ἀνεβόησαν αναβοαω scream out
πρὸς προς to; toward
κύριον κυριος lord; master
καὶ και and; even
εἶπαν επω say; speak
μηδαμῶς μηδαμως no way
κύριε κυριος lord; master
μὴ μη not
ἀπολώμεθα απολλυμι destroy; lose
ἕνεκεν ενεκα for the sake of; on account of
τῆς ο the
ψυχῆς ψυχη soul
τοῦ ο the
ἀνθρώπου ανθρωπος person; human
τούτου ουτος this; he
καὶ και and; even
μὴ μη not
δῷς διδωμι give; deposit
ἐφ᾿ επι in; on
ἡμᾶς ημας us
αἷμα αιμα blood; bloodstreams
δίκαιον δικαιος right; just
ὅτι οτι since; that
σύ συ you
κύριε κυριος lord; master
ὃν ος who; what
τρόπον τροπος manner; by means
ἐβούλου βουλομαι want
πεποίηκας ποιεω do; make
1:14
וַ wa וְ and
יִּקְרְא֨וּ yyiqrᵊʔˌû קרא call
אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to
יְהוָ֜ה [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH
וַ wa וְ and
יֹּאמְר֗וּ yyōmᵊrˈû אמר say
אָנָּ֤ה ʔonnˈā אָנָּא pray
יְהוָה֙ [yᵊhwˌāh] יְהוָה YHWH
אַל־ ʔal- אַל not
נָ֣א nˈā נָא yeah
נֹאבְדָ֗ה nōvᵊḏˈā אבד perish
בְּ bᵊ בְּ in
נֶ֨פֶשׁ֙ nˈefeš נֶפֶשׁ soul
הָ הַ the
אִ֣ישׁ ʔˈîš אִישׁ man
הַ ha הַ the
זֶּ֔ה zzˈeh זֶה this
וְ wᵊ וְ and
אַל־ ʔal- אַל not
תִּתֵּ֥ן tittˌēn נתן give
עָלֵ֖ינוּ ʕālˌênû עַל upon
דָּ֣ם dˈām דָּם blood
נָקִ֑יא nāqˈî נָקִי innocent
כִּֽי־ kˈî- כִּי that
אַתָּ֣ה ʔattˈā אַתָּה you
יְהוָ֔ה [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH
כַּ ka כְּ as
אֲשֶׁ֥ר ʔᵃšˌer אֲשֶׁר [relative]
חָפַ֖צְתָּ ḥāfˌaṣtā חפץ desire
עָשִֽׂיתָ׃ ʕāśˈîṯā עשׂה make
1:14. et clamaverunt ad Dominum et dixerunt quaesumus Domine ne pereamus in anima viri istius et ne des super nos sanguinem innocentem quia tu Domine sicut voluisti fecisti
And they cried to the Lord, and said: We beseech thee, O Lord let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, oh Lord, hast done as it pleased thee.
1:14. And they cried out to the Lord, and they said, “We beseech you, Lord, do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not attribute to us innocent blood. For you, Lord, have done just as it pleased you.”
1:14. Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.
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Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:14: They cried unto the Lord - Under a conviction that he was the self-existing Being, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, and the author of the present storm, they put up their prayers to him.
Let us not perish for this man's life - They were now about to cast him overboard; but seemed to call God to witness that it was with the utmost reluctance, and only in obedience to his command. There is a parallel passage in the Argonautics, which has been quoted to illustrate this: -
Πολλα δε μερμηριζον ενι φρεσι πευκαλιμησι,
Η μεν αποφθισωσι, και ιχθυσι κυρμα βαλωσιν
Αινολεχη Μμηδειαν, αποτρεψωσι δ' Εριννυν.
Ver. 1171.
"And much they doubted, in their prudent minds,
Whether to kill and cast a prey to fishes
Wretched Medea, and avert their fate."
See Newcome.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:14: Wherefore (And) they cried unto the Lord - "They cried" no more "each man to his god," but to the one God, whom Jonah had made known to them; and to Him they cried with an earnest submissive, cry, repeating the words of beseeching, as men, do in great earnestness; "we beseech Thee, O Lord, let us not, we beseech Thee, perish for the life of this man" (i. e., as a penalty for taking it, as it is said, Sa2 14:7. "we will slay him for the life of his brother," and, Deu 19:21. "life for life.") They seem to have known what is said, Gen 9:5-6. "your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made He man" , "Do not these words of the sailors seem to us to be the confession of Pilate, who washed his hands, and said, 'I am clean from the blood of this Man?' The Gentiles would not that Christ should perish; they protest that His Blood is innocent."
And lay not upon us innocent blood - innocent as to them, although, as to this thing, guilty before God, and yet, as to God also, more innocent, they would think, than they. For, strange as this was, one disobedience, their whole life, they now knew, was disobedience to God; His life was but one act in a life of obedience. If God so punishes one sin of the holy Pe1 4:18, "where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" Terrible to the awakened conscience are God's chastenings on some (as it seems) single offence of those whom He loves.
For Thou, Lord, (Who knowest the hearts of all men,) hast done, as it pleased Thee - Wonderful, concise, confession of faith in these new converts! Psalmists said it, Psa 135:6; Psa 115:3. "Whatsoever God willeth, that doeth He in heaven and in earth, in the sea and in all deep places." But these had but just known God, and they resolve the whole mystery of man's agency and God's Providence into the three simple words , as (Thou) "willedst" (Thou) "didst." "That we took him aboard, that the storm ariseth, that the winds rage, that the billows lift themselves, that the fugitive is betrayed by the lot, that he points out what is to be done, it is of Thy will, O Lord" . "The tempest itself speaketh, that 'Thou, Lord, hast done as Thou willedst.' Thy will is fulfilled by our hands." "Observe the counsel of God, that, of his own will, not by violence or by necessity, should he be cast into the sea. For the casting of Jonah into the sea signified the entrance of Christ into the bitterness of the Passion, which He took upon Himself of His own will, not of necessity. Isa 53:7. "He was offered up, and He willingly submitted Himself." And as those who sailed with Jonah were delivered, so the faithful in the Passion of Christ. Joh 18:8-9. "If ye seek Me, let these go their way, that the saying might be fulfilled which" Jesus spake, 'Of them which Thou gavest Me, I have lost none. '"
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:14: they: Jon 1:5, Jon 1:16; Psa 107:28; Isa 26:16
let: Gen 9:6; Deu 21:8; Act 28:4
for: Psa 115:3, Psa 135:6; Dan 4:34, Dan 4:35; Mat 11:26; Eph 1:9, Eph 1:11
Geneva 1599
1:14 Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, (k) We beseech thee, O LORD, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O LORD, hast done as it pleased thee.
(k) This declares that the very wicked in their time of need flee to God for help, and also that they are touched with a certain fear of shedding man's blood, whereas they know no manifest sign of wickedness.
John Gill
1:14 Wherefore they cried unto the Lord,.... Not unto their gods, but unto the true Jehovah, the God of Jonah, and of the Hebrews; whom they now, by this providence, and Jonah's discourse, had some convictions and knowledge of as the true God; and therefore direct their prayer to him, before they cast the prophet into the sea:
and said, we beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee; which repetition shows the ardent, vehemence, and earnestness of their minds in prayer:
let us not perish for this man's life; they were in the utmost perplexity of mind, not knowing well what to do; they saw they must perish by the storm, if they saved his life; and they were afraid their should perish, if they took it away; and which yet they were obliged to do; and therefore had no other way left but to pray to the Lord they might not perish for it; or it be reckoned as their crime, and imputed to them, as follows:
and lay not upon us innocent blood; for so it was to them; he had done no hurt to them since he had been with them, except in being the cause of the storm, whereby they had suffered the loss of their goods; however, had not been guilty of anything worthy of death, as they could observe; and as for his offence against God, they were not sufficient judges of, and must leave it with him: the light of nature teaches men to be tender of the lives of fellow creatures, and to avoid shedding of innocent blood:
for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee; it appeared to them to be the wilt of God that he should be cast into the sea; from the storm that was raised on his account; from the determination of the lot; from the confession of Jonah, and his declaration of the will of God in this matter, as a prophet of his: they did not pretend to account for it; it was a secret to them why it should be; but it was no other than what he would have done; and therefore they hoped no blame would be laid on them.
John Wesley
1:14 Unto the Lord - Now they all cry to Jonah's God, to Jehovah. And said - Let us not perish for taking away his life. Hast done - Sending the tempest, arresting the prophet by it, detecting him by lot, sentencing him by his own mouth, and confirming the condemning sentence by the continuance of the storm.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:14 for this man's life--that is, for taking this man's life.
innocent blood--Do not punish us as Thou wouldst punish the shedders of innocent blood (compare ). In the case of the Antitype, Pontius Pilate washed his hands and confessed Christ's innocence, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person." But whereas Jonah the victim was guilty and the sailors innocent, Christ our sacrificial victim was innocent and Pontius Pilate and nil of us men were guilty. But by imputation of our guilt to Him and His righteousness to us, the spotless Antitype exactly corresponds to the guilty type.
thou . . . Lord, hast done as it pleased thee--That Jonah has embarked in this ship, that a tempest has arisen, that he has been detected by casting of lots, that he has passed sentence on himself, is all Thy doing. We reluctantly put him to death, but it is Thy pleasure it should be so.
1:151:15: Եւ առին զՅովնան եւ ընկեցին ՚ի ծովն. եւ դադարեա՛ց ծովն ՚ի խռովութենէ իւրմէ։
15 Եւ Յովնանին առան ու ծովը գցեցին: Ծովը դադարեց իր ալեկոծութիւնից:
15 Եւ Յովնանը վերցուցին ու ծովը նետեցին եւ ծովը իր կատաղութենէն դադարեցաւ։
Եւ առին զՅովնան եւ ընկեցին ի ծովն, եւ դադարեաց ծովն ի խռովութենէ իւրմէ:

1:15: Եւ առին զՅովնան եւ ընկեցին ՚ի ծովն. եւ դադարեա՛ց ծովն ՚ի խռովութենէ իւրմէ։
15 Եւ Յովնանին առան ու ծովը գցեցին: Ծովը դադարեց իր ալեկոծութիւնից:
15 Եւ Յովնանը վերցուցին ու ծովը նետեցին եւ ծովը իր կատաղութենէն դադարեցաւ։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:151:15 И взяли Иону и бросили его в море, и утихло море от ярости своей.
1:15 καὶ και and; even ἔλαβον λαμβανω take; get τὸν ο the Ιωναν ιωνας Iōnas; Ionas καὶ και and; even ἐξέβαλον εκβαλλω expel; cast out αὐτὸν αυτος he; him εἰς εις into; for τὴν ο the θάλασσαν θαλασσα sea καὶ και and; even ἔστη ιστημι stand; establish ἡ ο the θάλασσα θαλασσα sea ἐκ εκ from; out of τοῦ ο the σάλου σαλος swaying; rocking αὐτῆς αυτος he; him
1:15 וַ wa וְ and יִּשְׂאוּ֙ yyiśʔˌû נשׂא lift אֶת־ ʔeṯ- אֵת [object marker] יֹונָ֔ה yônˈā יֹונָה Jonah וַ wa וְ and יְטִלֻ֖הוּ yᵊṭilˌuhû טול cast אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to הַ ha הַ the יָּ֑ם yyˈom יָם sea וַ wa וְ and יַּעֲמֹ֥ד yyaʕᵃmˌōḏ עמד stand הַ ha הַ the יָּ֖ם yyˌom יָם sea מִ mi מִן from זַּעְפֹּֽו׃ zzaʕpˈô זַעַף rage
1:15. et tulerunt Ionam et miserunt in mare et stetit mare a fervore suoAnd they took Jonas, and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging.
15. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
1:15. And they took Jonah and cast him into the sea. And the sea was stilled from its fury.
1:15. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging:

1:15 И взяли Иону и бросили его в море, и утихло море от ярости своей.
1:15
καὶ και and; even
ἔλαβον λαμβανω take; get
τὸν ο the
Ιωναν ιωνας Iōnas; Ionas
καὶ και and; even
ἐξέβαλον εκβαλλω expel; cast out
αὐτὸν αυτος he; him
εἰς εις into; for
τὴν ο the
θάλασσαν θαλασσα sea
καὶ και and; even
ἔστη ιστημι stand; establish
ο the
θάλασσα θαλασσα sea
ἐκ εκ from; out of
τοῦ ο the
σάλου σαλος swaying; rocking
αὐτῆς αυτος he; him
1:15
וַ wa וְ and
יִּשְׂאוּ֙ yyiśʔˌû נשׂא lift
אֶת־ ʔeṯ- אֵת [object marker]
יֹונָ֔ה yônˈā יֹונָה Jonah
וַ wa וְ and
יְטִלֻ֖הוּ yᵊṭilˌuhû טול cast
אֶל־ ʔel- אֶל to
הַ ha הַ the
יָּ֑ם yyˈom יָם sea
וַ wa וְ and
יַּעֲמֹ֥ד yyaʕᵃmˌōḏ עמד stand
הַ ha הַ the
יָּ֖ם yyˌom יָם sea
מִ mi מִן from
זַּעְפֹּֽו׃ zzaʕpˈô זַעַף rage
1:15. et tulerunt Ionam et miserunt in mare et stetit mare a fervore suo
And they took Jonas, and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging.
1:15. And they took Jonah and cast him into the sea. And the sea was stilled from its fury.
1:15. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
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Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:15: They took up Jonah - o "He does not say, 'laid hold on him', nor 'came upon him' but 'lifted' him; as it were, bearing him with respect and honor, they cast him into the sea, not resisting, but yielding himself to their will."
The sea ceased (literally "stood") from his raging - Ordinarily, the waves still swell, when the wind has ceased. The sea, when it had received Jonah, was hushed at once, to show that God alone raised and quelled it. It "stood" still, like a servant, when it had accomplished its mission. God, who at all times saith to it Job 38:11, "Hitherto shalt thou come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed," now unseen, as afterward in the flesh Mat 8:26, "rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm" . "If we consider the errors of the world before the Passion of Christ, and the conflicting blasts of diverse doctrines, and the vessel, and the whole race of man, i. e., the creature of the Lord, imperiled, and, after His Passion, the tranquility of faith and the peace of the world and the security of all things and the conversion to God, we shall see how, after Jonah was cast in, the sea stood from its raging" . "Jonah, in the sea, a fugitive, shipwrecked, dead, sayeth the tempest-tossed vessel; he sayeth the pagan, aforetime tossed to and fro by the error of the world into divers opinions. And Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, Joel, who prophesied at the same time, could not amend the people in Judaea; whence it appeared that the breakers could not be calmed, save by the death of (Him typified by) the fugitive."
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:15: they: Jos 7:24-26; Sa2 21:8, Sa2 21:9
and the: Psa 89:9, Psa 93:3, Psa 93:4, Psa 107:29; Mat 8:26; Luk 8:24
ceased: Heb. stood
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch
1:15
After they had prayed thus, they cast Jonah into the sea, and "the sea stood still (ceased) from its raging." The sudden cessation of the storm showed that the bad weather had come entirely on Jonah's account, and that the sailors had not shed innocent blood by casting him into the sea. In this sudden change in the weather, the arm of the holy God was so suddenly manifested, that the sailors "feared Jehovah with great fear, and offered sacrifice to Jehovah" - not after they landed, but immediately, on board the ship - "and vowed vows," i.e., vowed that they would offer Him still further sacrifices on their safe arrival at their destination.
John Gill
1:15 So they took up, Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea,.... They took him out of the hold or cabin where he was, and brought him upon deck; they took him, not against his will, but with his full consent, and according to the direction and advice he gave them: "they", for there were more than one employed in this affair; one or more very probably took him by the legs, and others put their hands under his arm holes, and so threw him into the sea:
and the sea ceased from her raging; immediately, and became a calm; and the wind also ceased from blowing, which is supposed; the end being answered by the storm, and the person found and obtained, what was sought after by it, it was still and quiet. The story the Jews (m) tell of his being let down into the sea to his knees, upon which the sea was calm, but became raging again upon his being taken up; and so, at the second time, to his navel; and the third time to his neck; is all fabulous; but he being wholly thrown in, it raged no more.
(m) Pirke Eliezer, c. 10. fol. 10. 2.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:15 sea ceased . . . raging--so at Jesus' word (). God spares the prayerful penitent, a truth illustrated now in the case of the sailors, presently in that of Jonah, and thirdly, in that of Nineveh.
1:161:16: Եւ երկեան արքն երկեւղ մեծ ՚ի Տեառնէ. զենին զոհս Տեառն՝ եւ ուխտեցին ո՛ւխտս[10661]։[10661] Յօրինակ մի պակասի. Զենին զոհս Տեառն։
16 Եւ մարդիկ շատ վախեցան Տիրոջից, զոհ մատուցեցին Տիրոջը եւ ուխտեցին ծառայել նրան:
16 Այն մարդիկը Եհովայէն սաստիկ վախցան ու Եհովային զոհ մատուցանեցին եւ ուխտեր ըրին։[17](2:1) Եւ Տէրը մեծ ձուկի մը հրամայեց, որ Յովնանը կլլէ։ Յովնան երեք օր ու երեք գիշեր ձուկին փորը մնաց։
Եւ երկեան արքն երկեւղ մեծ ի Տեառնէ, զենին զոհս Տեառն եւ ուխտեցին ուխտս:

1:16: Եւ երկեան արքն երկեւղ մեծ ՚ի Տեառնէ. զենին զոհս Տեառն՝ եւ ուխտեցին ո՛ւխտս[10661]։
[10661] Յօրինակ մի պակասի. Զենին զոհս Տեառն։
16 Եւ մարդիկ շատ վախեցան Տիրոջից, զոհ մատուցեցին Տիրոջը եւ ուխտեցին ծառայել նրան:
16 Այն մարդիկը Եհովայէն սաստիկ վախցան ու Եհովային զոհ մատուցանեցին եւ ուխտեր ըրին։
[17](2:1) Եւ Տէրը մեծ ձուկի մը հրամայեց, որ Յովնանը կլլէ։ Յովնան երեք օր ու երեք գիշեր ձուկին փորը մնաց։
zohrab-1805▾ eastern-1994▾ western am▾
1:161:16 И устрашились эти люди Господа великим страхом, и принесли Господу жертву, и дали обеты.
1:16 καὶ και and; even ἐφοβήθησαν φοβεω afraid; fear οἱ ο the ἄνδρες ανηρ man; husband φόβῳ φοβος fear; awe μεγάλῳ μεγας great; loud τὸν ο the κύριον κυριος lord; master καὶ και and; even ἔθυσαν θυω immolate; sacrifice θυσίαν θυσια immolation; sacrifice τῷ ο the κυρίῳ κυριος lord; master καὶ και and; even εὔξαντο ευχομαι wish; make εὐχάς ευχη wish; vow
1:16 וַ wa וְ and יִּֽירְא֧וּ yyˈîrᵊʔˈû ירא fear הָ hā הַ the אֲנָשִׁ֛ים ʔᵃnāšˈîm אִישׁ man יִרְאָ֥ה yirʔˌā יִרְאָה fear גְדֹולָ֖ה ḡᵊḏôlˌā גָּדֹול great אֶת־ ʔeṯ- אֵת [object marker] יְהוָ֑ה [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH וַ wa וְ and יִּֽזְבְּחוּ־ yyˈizbᵊḥû- זבח slaughter זֶ֨בַח֙ zˈevaḥ זֶבַח sacrifice לַֽ lˈa לְ to יהוָ֔ה [yhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH וַֽ wˈa וְ and יִּדְּר֖וּ yyiddᵊrˌû נדר vow נְדָרִֽים׃ nᵊḏārˈîm נֶדֶר vow
1:16. et timuerunt viri timore magno Dominum et immolaverunt hostias Domino et voverunt votaAnd the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and sacrificed victims to the Lord, and made vows.
16. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.
1:16. And the men feared the Lord greatly, and they sacrificed victims to the Lord, and they made vows.
1:16. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.
Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows:

1:16 И устрашились эти люди Господа великим страхом, и принесли Господу жертву, и дали обеты.
1:16
καὶ και and; even
ἐφοβήθησαν φοβεω afraid; fear
οἱ ο the
ἄνδρες ανηρ man; husband
φόβῳ φοβος fear; awe
μεγάλῳ μεγας great; loud
τὸν ο the
κύριον κυριος lord; master
καὶ και and; even
ἔθυσαν θυω immolate; sacrifice
θυσίαν θυσια immolation; sacrifice
τῷ ο the
κυρίῳ κυριος lord; master
καὶ και and; even
εὔξαντο ευχομαι wish; make
εὐχάς ευχη wish; vow
1:16
וַ wa וְ and
יִּֽירְא֧וּ yyˈîrᵊʔˈû ירא fear
הָ הַ the
אֲנָשִׁ֛ים ʔᵃnāšˈîm אִישׁ man
יִרְאָ֥ה yirʔˌā יִרְאָה fear
גְדֹולָ֖ה ḡᵊḏôlˌā גָּדֹול great
אֶת־ ʔeṯ- אֵת [object marker]
יְהוָ֑ה [yᵊhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH
וַ wa וְ and
יִּֽזְבְּחוּ־ yyˈizbᵊḥû- זבח slaughter
זֶ֨בַח֙ zˈevaḥ זֶבַח sacrifice
לַֽ lˈa לְ to
יהוָ֔ה [yhwˈāh] יְהוָה YHWH
וַֽ wˈa וְ and
יִּדְּר֖וּ yyiddᵊrˌû נדר vow
נְדָרִֽים׃ nᵊḏārˈîm נֶדֶר vow
1:16. et timuerunt viri timore magno Dominum et immolaverunt hostias Domino et voverunt vota
And the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and sacrificed victims to the Lord, and made vows.
1:16. And the men feared the Lord greatly, and they sacrificed victims to the Lord, and they made vows.
1:16. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.
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А. П. Лопухин: Tолковая Библия или комментарий на все книги Св.Писания Ветхого и Нового Заветов - 1903-1914
16: «…и принесли Господу жертву и дали обеты». Предание иудейское говорит, что бывшие на корабле стали потом прозелитами иудейства. В этом нет ничего ничего невероятного. Могущество Иеговы они видели воочию и исповедали его в своей молитве: «Ты, Господи, соделал, что угодно Тебе» (14: ст.); спасенные Им (а не своими богами) от явной смерти, они чувствовали себя обязанными Ему, поэтому и «дали обеты». Впрочем, текст говорит только о том, что бывших на корабле охватило религиозное воодушевление; это после всего происшедшего не может подлежать сомнению.
Adam Clarke: Commentary on the Bible - 1831
1:16: Offered a sacrifice - The first perhaps ever offered on board a vessel since the ark floated on the waters of the great deluge; and it is most probable that these heathens, witnessing what was done, became sincere converts to the true God.
Albert Barnes: Notes on the Bible - 1834
1:16: And the men feared the Lord with a great fear - because, from the tranquility of the sea and the ceasing of the tempest, they saw that the prophet's words were true. This great miracle completed the conversion of the mariners. God had removed all human cause of fear; and yet, in the same words as before, he says, "they feared a great fear;" but he adds, "the Lord." It was the great fear, with which even the disciples of Jesus feared, when they saw the miracles which He did, which made even Peter say, Luk 5:8. "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Events full of wonder had thronged upon them; things beyond nature, and contrary to nature; tidings which betokened His presence, Who had all things in His hands. They had seen "wind and storm fulfilling His word" Psa 148:8, and, forerunners of the fishermen of Galilee, knowing full well from their own experience that this was above nature, they felt a great awe of God. So He commanded His people, "Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God Deu 6:13, for thy good always" Deu 6:24.
And offered a sacrifice - Doubtless, as it was a large decked vessel and bound on a long voyage, they had live creatures on board, which they could offer in sacrifice. But this was not enough for their thankfulness; "they vowed vows." They promised that they would do thereafter what they could not do then ; "that they would never depart from Him whom they had begun to worship." This was true love, not to be content with aught which they could do, but to stretch forward in thought to an abiding and enlarged obedience, as God should enable them. And so they were doubtless enrolled among the people of God, firstfruits from among the pagan, won to God Who overrules all things, through the disobedience and repentance of His prophet. Perhaps, they were the first preachers among the pagan, and their account of their own wonderful deliverance prepared the way for Jonah's mission to Nineveh.
R. A. Torrey - Treasury: Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge - 1880
1:16: feared: Jon 1:10; Isa 26:9; Dan 4:34-37, Dan 6:26; Mar 4:31; Act 5:11
offered: etc. Heb. sacrificed a sacrifice unto the Lord, and vowed vows, Gen 8:20; Jdg 13:16; Kg2 5:17; Psa 107:22; Isa 60:5-7
made: Gen 28:20; Psa 50:14, Psa 66:13-16, Psa 116:14; Ecc 5:4
Geneva 1599
1:16 Then the men (l) feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.
(l) They were touched with a certain repentance of their past life, and began to worship the true God by whom they saw themselves as wonderfully delivered. But this was done for fear, and not from a pure heart and affection, neither according to God's word.
John Gill
1:16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly,.... This was not a natural fear, as before, but a religious one; and not a servile fear, or a fear of punishment, but a reverential godly fear; for they feared him, not only because they saw his power in raising and stilling the tempest, but his goodness to them in saving them:
and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord; a spiritual sacrifice; the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for a safe deliverance from the storm; for other sort of sacrifice they seemed not to have materials for; since they had thrown overboard what they had in the ship to lighten it, unless there might be anything left fit for this purpose; but rather, if it is to be understood of a ceremonial sacrifice, it was offered when they went out of the ship, according to the gloss of Aben Ezra; or they solemnly declared they would, as soon as they came to land; to which sense is the Targum,
"and they said, they would offer a sacrifice:''
and agreeably to this the words may be rendered, with what follows, thus, "and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord", that is,
and made vows; they vowed that they would offer a sacrifice (n) when arrived in their own country, or should return to Judea, and come to Jerusalem. So the Hebrew "vau", is often used (o), as exegetical and explanative; though many interpreters understand the vows as distinct from the sacrifice; and that they vowed that the God of the Hebrews should be their God, and that they would for the future serve and worship him only; that they would become proselytes, as Jarchi; or give alms to the poor, as Kimchi; as an evidence of their sense of gratitude to God, the author of their mercies. If these men were truly converted, as it seems as if they were, they were great gainers by this providence; for though they lost their worldly goods, they found what was infinitely better, God to be their God and portion, and all spiritual good thing a with him; and it may be observed of the wise and wonderful providence of God, that though Jonah refused to go and preach to the Gentiles at Nineveh, for which he was corrected; yet God made this dispensation a means of converting other Gentiles.
(n) So Drusius. (o) Vid. Nold. Ebr. Part. Concord. p. 280.
John Wesley
1:16 Feared the Lord - Perhaps as Jonah's casting over - board was a type of Christ's death, so the effect it had upon the mariners might be a type of the conversion of the Heathen from idols unto God. Made vows - Probably they vowed, they would ever worship him whom Jonah preached, the Creator of heaven and earth.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown
1:16 offered a sacrifice--They offered some sacrifice of thanksgiving at once, and vowed more when they should land. GLASSIUS thinks it means only, "They promised to offer a sacrifice."