Jonah 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. The ancient pagan in dangers called on foreign gods, besides their national ones (cf. , "Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their distresses"). While they pray, he sleeps; while they are all active, he does nothing who is the guilty cause of all the danger. Maurer translates the preceding clause, 'What is the reason that thou sleepest?' IF SO BE THAT GOD WILL THINK UPON US - for good (cf. , "God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle,...

Jonah relates here how he was reproved by the pilot or master of the ship (18), inasmuch as he alone slept, while all the rest were in anxiety and fear. “What meanest thou, fast sleeper?” The pilot no doubt upbraids Jonah for his sleepiness, and reproves him for being almost void of all thought and reflection. _What meanest thou, fast sleeper _(19) _, _he says; when thou sees all the rest smitten with alarm, how canst thou sleep? Is not this unnatural? _Rise, _then, and _call on thy God _ We see that where there is no rule of faith a liberty is commonly taken, so that every one goes astray here and there. Whence was it, that the pilot said to Jonah, _Call on thy God, _and that he did not confine him to any certain rule? Because it had been customary in all ages for men to be satisfied with some general apprehension of God; and then every one according to his own fancy formed a god fo

4-7 God sent a pursuer after Jonah, even a mighty tempest. Sin brings storms and tempests into the soul, into the family, into churches and nations; it is a disquieting, disturbing thing. Having called upon their gods for help, the sailors did what they could to help themselves. 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! Jonah was fast asleep. Sin is stupifying, and we are to take heed lest at any time our hearts are hardened by the deceitfulness of it. What do men mean by sleeping on in sin, when the word of God and the convictions of their own consciences, warn them to arise and call on the Lord, if they would escape everlasting misery? Should not we warn each other to awake, to arise, to call upon o...

Verse 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....

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” Matthew 21:15; Jonah by the shipmaster; David by Abigail; 1 Samuel 25:32; 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 thin

EXPOSITION JONAH 1:1 Part I. THE MISSION OF JONAH. HIS DISOBEDIENCE AND PUNISHMENT. JONAH 1:1 § 1. _Jonah is sent to Nineveh to cry against it; but he tries to avoid the mission, and to this end takes ship to Tarshish._ JONAH 1:1 NOW; or, _and_. Some have argued from this commencement that the Book of Jonah is a fragment, the continuation of a larger work; but it is a common formulary, linking together revelations and histories, and is continually used in the Old Testament at the b

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 i...

Jonah 1:1. _Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. 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 the misconduct of the prophet Jonah. He had a plain command from the Lord, and he knew it to be a command; but he felt that the commission given to him would not be pleasant and honouring to himself, and therefore he declined to comply with it. We see, from his action, how some, who really know God, may act as if they knew him not. Jonah knew that God was everywhere, yet he «rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.» What strange inconsi

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS CHAPTER 1 The Commission of the Prophet ,His Disobedience, and the Consequences _ 1. The commission (John 1:1) _ 2. The disobedience (John 1:3) 3. The consequences (John 1:4) John 1:1. The record begins with the same word with which all historical books in the Bible begin, like Joshua, judges, Ruth, Samuel, etc. The commission given to Jonah was to go to Nineveh, that great city, and to cry against it on account of its wickedness. Nineveh was the great capital of the Assyrian nation; it is mentioned for the first time in...

JONAH 1:1 TO JONAH 2:1; JONAH 2:10. JONAH VAINLY SEEKS TO EVADE THE MISSION TO WHICH GOD APPOINTS HIM. Jonah is bidden by Yahweh to proclaim judgment on Nineveh for its sin, but he hurries in the opposite direction, to Tarshish (p. 381). Why he refused to proclaim such congenial tidings appears only in the sequel (Jonah 4:2). In a very striking way the author indicates the intellectual limitation of Jonah's conception of Yahweh. He rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Three times the phrase occurs, and where every word is meant to tell, the repetition is significant. It is true that Jonah believes that Yahweh can destroy or save Nineveh, and h