Jonah 1:5

the mariners The Hebrew word is formed from the word for salt, and denotes those occupied with the salt sea. So we sometimes speak of a sailor as a "salt."

See note on next verse, and for the whole description of their terror and their prayer comp. Psalms 107:23-30; Matthew 8:23-27.

every man unto his god They were probably Phœnicians, who had the carrying trade between Joppa and Tarshish. This would account for their multiplicity of gods. The crew, however, may have been composed of men of different nations. Comp.

"All lost! to prayers, to prayers! All lost!"

Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I. Sc. v.

the wares It is doubtful whether this includes the cargo. It may only mean the furniture of the ship, moveables, spare tackling, etc. In St Paul's shipwreck a similar course was taken (Acts 27:19), but the cargo was not thrown overboard till a later period (Acts 27:38). Jonah's ship may have been, like St Paul's, a corn ship. The export of corn from Joppa was very considerable. See 1 Kings 5:9; Ezekiel 27:17; Acts 12:20.

to lighten it of them Rather, to lighten (the burden) from upon them (the mariners), i. e. to make matters easier for them. Comp. Exodus 18:22, where the same Hebrew phrase is rendered "it shall be easier for thyself." Unto them, R.V.

the sides of the ship The Hebrew word is not the same as that rendered "ship" earlier in the verse. It occurs nowhere else in the O.T., but the verb from which it is derived signifies to - cover" or - board over" (1 Kings 7:3; 1 Kings 7:7), so that it is probably used to denote that it was a deckedvessel in which Jonah sailed, and that he had, as we should say, gone down below. The "sides of the ship" are what we should call the bottom of the ship, the part in which the two sides meet. The same expression is used of the innermost recess of a cave, the point of meeting of the two sides (1 Samuel 24:3). Innermost parts, R.V.

was fast asleep Jonah had probably fallen asleep before the storm commenced, and slumbered too deeply to be roused by it, or by the commotion on board. Our Lord's sleep amidst the storm on the lake (Mark 4:38) furnishes at once a comparison and a contrast. Kalisch quotes in illustration of the heavy sleep of sorrow the case of the disciples in the Garden; "He found them sleeping for sorrow," Luke 22:45; and the words of Sallust, "primo cura, dein, uti ægrum animum solet, somnus cepit," Bell. Jug.c.71.