Jonah 1:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jonah 1:10
Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him. Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
a man in general (singly or collectively) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
exceedingly
גְדוֹלָ֔הge.do.Lah
H1419
great (in any sense) · adjective, feminine singular absolute
afraid
וַיִּֽירְא֤וּvai.yi.re.'U
H3372
to fear · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
said
וַיֹּאמְר֥וּvai.yo.me.Ru
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
done
עָשִׂ֑יתָ'a.Si.ta
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
men
הָאֲנָשִׁ֗יםha.'a.na.Shim
H582
a man in general (singly or collectively) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
knew
יָדְע֣וּya.de.'U
H3045
to know (properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
fled
בֹרֵ֔חַvo.Re.ach
H1272
to bolt · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
presence
מִלִּפְנֵ֤יmi.lif.Nei
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
LORD
יְהוָה֙Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
told
הִגִּ֖ידhi.Gid
H5046
properly · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jonah 1:3 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…
Job 27:22 For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand.
Joshua 7:25 And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them wit…
2 Samuel 24:3 And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord…
Daniel 5:6-9 Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one…
John 19:8 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jonah 1:4-10
When Jonah was set on ship-board, and under sail for Tarshish, he thought himself safe enough; but here we find him pursued and overtaken, discovered and convicted as a deserter from God, as one that had run his colours.
I. God sends a pursuer after him, a mighty tempest in the sea, Jon 1:4. God has the winds in his treasure (Psa 135:7), and out of these treasures God sent forth, he cast forth (so the word is), with force and violence, a great wind into the sea; even stormy winds fulfil his word, and are often the messengers of his wrath; he gathers the winds in his fist (Pro 30:4), where he holds them, and whence he squeezes them when he pleases; for though, as to us, the wind blows where i…
"The men were exceedingly afraid," when made aware of the wrath of so powerful a God at the flight of Jonah.
Why hast thou done this?--If professors of religion do wrong, they will hear of it from those who make no such profession.
Adam Clarke on Jonah 1:9
I fear the Lord - In this Jonah was faithful. He gave an honest testimony concerning the God he served, which placed him before the eyes of the sailors as infinitely higher than the objects of their adoration; for the God of Jonah was the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land, and governed both. He also honestly told them that he was fleeing from the presence of this God, whose honorable call he had refused to obey. See Jon 1:10.
John Gill on Jonah 1:10
Then were the men exceedingly afraid,.... When they found he was a Hebrew, and that it was the God of the Hebrews that was angry; of whom they had heard much, and what great and wonderful things had been done by him, and now had an experience of his power and providence, and that it was for fleeing from his presence that all this was; and therefore, since they had been guilty of greater sins than this, as they might imagine, what would be done to them? and particularly it might fill them with dread and terror, when they heard of the destruction of Nineveh, the prophet was sent to denounce; of which no doubt he had told them, and they might from hence conclude it would certainly be:
and said…
The Church Fathers
"Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why have you done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them." LXX: 'Then the men were very afraid and said to him, "why have you done this?" for the men knew that he had fled from the face of the Lord, since he had told them.' The chronological order is reversed here, for you could have said there was no reason to fear because of his declaration: "I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land". Immediately we are told why they were afraid: because he had told them that he was fleeing the presence of the Lord without having carried out his commands. Then they make excuses and say, "why did you do this?", and this means, "if you fear God, why did you do this? If this God that you revere is so powerful according to you, then how can you believe that you will be able to escape him?". They are seized by a great fear, for they realise that he is holy, and from a holy nation (having set out from Joppa they must have known the privilege of the Hebrew people), yet nonetheless they are not able to hide the fugitive. For he who flees may be powerful, but he who seeks is all the more powerful. They do not dare to hand him over to the Lord, yet they cannot hide him. They reprehend blame, and avow their fear. They pray to Jonah to give himself up for the sin he has committed. Or indeed, when they say, "why have you done this?", they are not inciting him, but questioning, wanting to know the cause of his flight, the flight of a servant from his master, of a son from his father, of a man from his God. They ask, therefore, what is this great mystery that makes you flee from the land and seek the seas, leave your country and set out for foreign lands?
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Jonah · Di — Di
Superstition · .The sailors who threw Jonah into the sea — .The sailors who threw Jonah into the sea
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Jonah 1:8-10
8. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
8. Et dixerunt ei, Narra nunc nobis quare malum hoc nobis contingerit, quodnam opus tuum et unde venias, quae sit patria tua, et ex quo populosis?
9. And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land
9. Et dixit ad eos Hebraeus ego sum, et Jehovam Deum coelorum ego timeo, qui fecit mare et aridam.
10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the…
Jonah begins by answering the last question, saying that he was "a Hebrew," - the name by which the Israelites designated themselves in contradistinction to other nations, and by which other nations designated them (see at Gen 14:13, and my Lehrbuch der Einleitung, 9, Anm. 2) - and that he worshipped "the God of heaven, who created the sea and the dry" (i.e., the land). ירא has been rendered correctly by the lxx σέβομαι, colo, revereor; and does not mean, "I am afraid of Jehovah, against whom I have sinned" (Abarbanel). By the statement, "I fear," etc., he had no intention of describing himself as a righteous or innocent man (Hitzig), but simply meant to indicate his relation to God - namel…
a Hebrew: See also Gen 41:12; Exod 1:15; 2:11. • Jonah worshiped the Lord, who in contrast to the sailors’ false gods made the sea and the land, and thus controlled them. Many gods were believed to have jurisdiction over specific realms and functions. The designation God of heaven likely conveyed the superiority of that deity over all others, as heaven is the highest realm. The Old Testament consistently proclaims that the Lord alone is the one true God (see, e.g., Deut 6:4), while at times adopting language that reflects his superiority to the false gods that occupied the imaginations of pagan peoples (see Ps 95:3-5).
Rashi on Jonah 1:10
“What is this that you have done?”—Why have you done this, to flee from before such a Ruler?
