Jonah 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.

Ver. 4. But the Lord sent out] Heb. cast forth, sc. out of his treasuries, Psalms 135:7, wherehence he sendeth at his pleasure mighty great winds which he (the only Aeolus) holdeth in his fist, hideth in his repositories, checketh them as he seeth good, weighs them in his hand, Job 28:25; sends them out as his posts, makes them pace orderly, appoints them their motion, whether as messengers of mercy, Num 2:13 Gen 8:1 Exodus 14:21, or as executioners of justice, Exo 10:13 Job 1:19, hurting men's houses, cattle, corn, persons; yea, hurrying and hurling the wicked into hell, Job 27:21 .

A great wind into the sea] Whither they that go down in ships see God's great wonders in the deep. For "he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof," &c., Psalms 107:23,29. Did it not so in a marvellous manner here in 1588, and again in that other 1688, some few years since? Had not Jehoshaphat his ships broken at Eziongeber, 1 Kings 22:48, and Charles V at Algiers, by two terrible tempests, which destroyed almost all that goodly fleet? The very mariners acknowledged this wind to be an effect of God's justice, and therefore thought fit to implore his mercy; for

There was a mighty tempest in the sea] Which is troublesome of itself and never still, though sometimes it seems so; but by blustering and big winds is made out of measure troublesome (Inhorruit mare. Virg.), such as was that λαιλαψ, Luke 8:23, and that Euroclydon, Acts 27:14; which Pliny calleth navigantium pestem, the mariner's misery.

So that the ship was like to be broken] Heb. thought to be broken; Or. was in danger to be broken, εκινδυνευεν : the mariners made no other reckoning, they looked upon all as lost. God reserveth his holy hand for a dead lift usually, and loveth to help those that are forsaken of their hopes.