Jonah 1:4

sent out Lit., as in margin, cast forth, indicating the suddenness and violence of the storm. The same word occurs and is rendered "cast forth" in A.V. in Jonah 1:5; Jonah 1:12; Jonah 1:15.

Josephus speaks of a violent wind called "the black North wind," which he says sometimes visited the sea off the coast of Joppa. And we read of "a tempestuous wind called Euraquilo" in another part of the same sea, which rushing down the highlands of Crete suddenly caught the ship in which St Paul was sailing, and brought on a tempest scarcely less severe than that to which Jonah was exposed (Acts 27:14). The modern name Levanteris a witness to the prevalence of such winds in those seas.

was like to be broken Lit., thought to be broken, as in the margin. A vivid image or personification in keeping with the graphic style of this book. The same word "broken," i. e. "broken up," or "broken in pieces," is used of a ship that is wrecked in 1 Kings 22:48. Comp. Acts 27:41.