Jonah 1:4

Then Yahweh caused a very strong wind to blow. There was such a violent storm that the sailors thought the ship would break apart.

Jonah (Easy-to-Translate)

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

3But Jonah did not go to Nineveh. Instead, he went in the direction opposite to where Yahweh told him to go. He went (down) to Joppa city. There he paid the fare to travel on a ship that was going to Tarshish city. Jonah wanted to escape from Yahweh and avoid doing what Yahweh had told him to do. He got on the ship, and then he went down to a lower deck inside the ship. He lay down, and went to sleep. went (down) OR went OR traveled went (down) Jonah had to travel from a high elevation (Jerusalem city) down to Joppa city which was a low elevation. Joppa was at sea level where a ship could be docked.The repeated “down” communicates that Jonah is going down from Yahweh’s exalted/”up” position.

5The sailors were very frightened. So, they each started to pray to their own gods to save them. Then they threw the cargo into the sea to make the ship lighter in order that it would not sink easily. they each started to pray to their own gods OR each one started to pray to his own god

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Matthew Henry on Jonah 1:2-4

Jonah This book of Jonah, though it be placed here in the midst of the prophetical books of scripture, is yet rather a history than a prophecy; one line of prediction there is in it, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown; the rest of the book is a narrative of the preface to and the consequences of that prediction. In the midst of the obscure prophecies before and after this book, wherein are many things dark and hard to be understood, which are puzzling to the learned, and are strong meat for strong… Read the whole commentary →

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