Jonah 1:4

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

Translation for Translators

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 instead of going to Nineveh, Jonah went in the direction opposite to where Yahweh told him to go. He went down to Joppa city. There he bought a ticket to travel on a ship that was going to Tarshish city, in order to avoid doing what Yahweh told him to do. He got on the ship, and then went down to a lower deck, lay down, and went to sleep.

5The sailors were very frightened. Because of that, 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.

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Cross References

Exodus 10:19Then Yahweh changed the wind so that it blew strongly from the west, and it blew all the locusts into the Red Sea (OR, the Gulf of Suez). There was not one locust left anywhere in the country of Egypt.

Exodus 15:10But you blew on them with your breath, and then the sea covered them. They sank like lead/rocks in the big waves.

Psalms 107:23Some of them sailed in ships; they were selling things in ports throughout the world.

Psalms 135:7He is the one who causes clouds to appear from very distant places on the earth; he sends lightning with the rain, and he brings the winds from the places where he stores them.

Amos 4:13I created the mountains, and I created winds. I reveal to humans what I am thinking. I sometimes cause the daylight to become dark like the night. I rule over everything; I even walk on the highest mountains on the earth! I am the Commander of the armies of angels!”

Acts 27:13Then a gentle wind began to blow from the south, and the crew members thought that they could travel as they had decided to do. So they lifted the anchor up out of the sea, and the ship sailed westward along the southern shore of Crete Island.

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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