Jonah 1:7-8

1:7 The sailors said to one another, ¹  “Come on, let’s cast lots ²  to find out ³  whose fault it is that this disaster has overtaken us. ⁴ ” So they cast lots, and Jonah was singled out. ⁵  1:8 They said to him, “Tell us, whose fault is it that this disaster has overtaken us? ⁶  What’s your occupation? Where do you come from? What’s your country? And who are your people?” ⁷ 

Jonah 1:10

1:10 Hearing this, ⁸  the men became even more afraid ⁹  and said to him, “What have you done?” (The men said this because they knew that he was trying to escape ¹⁰  from the Lord, ¹¹  because he had previously told them. ¹² )

Jonah 3:8

3:8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly ¹³  to God, and everyone ¹⁴  must turn from their ¹⁵  evil way of living ¹⁶  and from the violence that they do. ¹⁷ 

Jonah 3:10

3:10 When God saw their actions – they turned ¹⁸  from their evil way of living! ¹⁹  – God relented concerning the judgment ²⁰  he had threatened them with ²¹  and he did not destroy them. ²² 

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¹ tn Heb “And they said, a man to his companion.” The plural verb is individualized by “a man.”

² sn The English word lots is a generic term. In some cultures the procedure for “casting lots” is to “draw straws” so that the person who receives the short straw is chosen. In other situations a colored stone or a designated playing card might be picked at random. In Jonah’s case, small stones were probably used.

³ sn In the ancient Near East, casting lots was a custom used to try to receive a revelation from the gods about a particular situation. The Phoenician sailors here cried out to their gods and cast lots in the hope that one of their gods might reveal the identity of the person with whom he was angry. CEV has well captured the sentiment of v.7b: “‘Let’s ask our gods to show us who caused all this trouble.’ It turned out to be Jonah.”

⁴ tn Heb “On whose account this calamity is upon us.”

⁵ tn Heb “the lot fell on Jonah.” From their questions posed to Jonah, it does not appear that the sailors immediately realize that Jonah was the one responsible for the storm. Instead, they seem to think that he is the one chosen by their gods to reveal to them the one responsible for their plight. It is only after he admits in vv. 9-10 that he was fleeing from the God whom he served that they realize that Jonah was in fact the cause of their trouble.

⁶ tn Heb “On whose account is this calamity upon us?”

⁷ tn Heb “And from what people are you?”

sn Whose fault…What’s…Where…What’s… The questions delivered in rapid succession in this verse indicate the sailors’ urgency to learn quickly the reason for the unusual storm.

⁸ tn Heb “Then the men feared…” The vav-consecutive describes the consequence of Jonah’s statement. The phrase “Hearing this” does not appear in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

⁹ tn Heb “The men feared a great fear.” The cognate accusative construction using the verb יָרֵא (yare’, “to fear”) and the noun יִרְאָה (yir’ah, “fear”) from the same root (ירא, yr’) emphasizes the sailors’ escalating fright: “they became very afraid” (see IBHS 167 §10.2.1g).

¹⁰ tn Heb “fleeing.”

¹¹ sn The first two times that Jonah is said to be running away from the Lord (1:3), Hebrew word order puts this phrase last. Now in the third occurrence (1:10), it comes emphatically before the verb that describes Jonah’s action. The sailors were even more afraid once they had heard who it was that Jonah had offended.

¹² tn Heb “because he had told them.” The verb הִגִּיד (higgid, “he had told”) functions as a past perfect, referring to a previous event.

¹³ tn Heb “with strength”; KJV, NRSV “mightily”; NAB, NCV “loudly”; NIV “urgently.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “let them turn, a man from his evil way.” The alternation between the plural verb וְיָשֻׁבוּ (vÿyashuvu, “and let them turn”) and the singular noun אִישׁ (’ish, “a man, each one”) and the singular suffix on מִדַּרְכּוֹ (middarko, “from his way”) emphasizes that each and every person in the collective unity is called to repent.

¹⁵ tn Heb “his.” See the preceding note on “one.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “evil way.” For other examples of “way” as “way of living,” see Judg 2:17; Ps 107:17-22; Prov 4:25-27; 5:21.

¹⁷ tn Heb “that is in their hands.” By speaking of the harm they did as “in their hands,” the king recognized the Ninevites’ personal awareness and immediate responsibility. The term “hands” is either a synecdoche of instrument (e.g., “Is not the hand of Joab in all this?” 2 Sam 14:19) or a synecdoche of part for the whole. The king's descriptive figure of speech reinforces their guilt.

¹⁸ tn This clause is introduced by כִּי (ki, “that”) and functions as an epexegetical, explanatory clause.

¹⁹ tn Heb “from their evil way” (so KJV, ASV, NAB); NASB “wicked way.”

²⁰ tn Heb “calamity” or “disaster.” The noun רָעָה (ra’ah, “calamity, disaster”) functions as a metonymy of result – the cause being the threatened judgment (e.g., Exod 32:12, 14; 2 Sam 24:16; Jer 18:8; 26:13, 19; 42:10; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; HALOT 1263 s.v. רָעָה 6). The root רָעָה is repeated three times in vv. 8 and 10. Twice it refers to the Ninevites’ moral “evil” (vv. 8 and 10a) and here it refers to the “calamity” or “disaster” that the Lord had threatened (v. 10b). This repetition of the root forms a polysemantic wordplay that exploits this broad range of meanings of the noun. The wordplay emphasizes that God’s response was appropriate: because the Ninevites repented from their moral “evil” God relented from the “calamity” he had threatened.

²¹ tn Heb “the disaster that he had spoken to do to them.”

²² tn Heb “and he did not do it.” See notes on 3:8-9.