a man in general (singly or collectively) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
feared
וַיִּֽירְא֧וּvai.yi.re.'U
H3372
to fear · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
LORD
יְהוָ֑הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
exceedingly
גְדוֹלָ֖הge.do.Lah
H1419
great (in any sense) · adjective, feminine singular absolute
offered
וַיִּֽזְבְּחוּvai.yiz.be.chu-
H2076
to slaughter an animal (usually in sacrifice) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
sacrifice
זֶ֙בַח֙ze.vach
H2077
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
LORD
לַֽיהוָ֔הla.Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · preposition + proper noun, a title
made
וַֽיִּדְּר֖וּvai.yi.de.Ru
H5087
to promise (pos. · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
vows
נְדָרִֽיםne.da.Rim
H5088
a promise (to God) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
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
Psalms 116:14 I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.
Daniel 6:26 I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast…
Genesis 8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Psalms 50:14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
Psalms 107:22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Isaiah 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth…
Isaiah 60:5-7 Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unt…
Daniel 4:34-37 And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jonah 1:11–end
It is plain that Jonah is the man for whose sake this evil is upon them, but the discovery of him to be so was not sufficient to answer the demands of this tempest; they had found him out, but something more was to be done, for still the sea wrought and was tempestuous (Jon 1:11), and again (Jon 1:13), it grew more and more tempestuous (so the margin reads it); for if we discover sin to be the cause of our troubles, and do not forsake it, we do but make bad worse. Therefore they went on with the prosecution.
I. They enquired of Jonah himself what he thought they must do with him (Jon 1:11): What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm to us? They perceived that Jonah is a prophet of…
offered a sacrifice--They offered some sacrifice of thanksgiving at once, and vowed more when they should land. GLASSIUS thinks it means only, "They promised to offer a sacrifice."
Adam Clarke on Jonah 1:16
Offered a sacrifice - The first perhaps ever offered on board a vessel since the ark floated on the waters of the great deluge; and it is most probable that these heathens, witnessing what was done, became sincere converts to the true God.
John Gill on Jonah 1:16
Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly,.... This was not a natural fear, as before, but a religious one; and not a servile fear, or a fear of punishment, but a reverential godly fear; for they feared him, not only because they saw his power in raising and stilling the tempest, but his goodness to them in saving them:
and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord; a spiritual sacrifice; the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for a safe deliverance from the storm; for other sort of sacrifice they seemed not to have materials for; since they had thrown overboard what they had in the ship to lighten it, unless there might be anything left fit for this purpose; but rather, if it is to be understood…
And also when those who were with him in the ship saw the marvellous things which took place through God in the sea----for the sea rose up, like a being having intelligence, to demand from them the fugitive servant, and when he had been given unto it, it sank to rest and its billows were quieted----and saw through the things which took place the fear of God, it is written concerning them that "the men feared the Lord, and they offered up sacrifices unto the Lord, and vowed vows."
"Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows." LXX: similar. Before the anger of the Lord the sailors implored their gods under the effect of their fear; after his anger they fear the Lord, that is they revere and worship Him. They do not worship Him in the usual way, as we have seen in the beginning, but with "a great fear", according to that which is said: "from all their spirit and all their heart and all their soul" [Deut. 6:5; Mt. 22:37]. And they sacrificed victims that indeed, to take this literally, they were not able to have out at sea. But this is because sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit. [Ps. 50:19] And it is said in another place: "offer to God a sacrifice of praise, acquit your vows to the Highest." [Ps. 49:14] And again: "we acquit ourselves to you of our vows that we have promised". [Hos. 14:3] This is how they offer a sacrifice in the middle of the sea, and they promise others vowing never to be far from Him whom they have begun to revere and worship. They were seized by a great fear for they recognised from the calm sea and the disappearing storm that the prophet had spoken true. Jonah at sea, a fugitive and shipwrecked, once dead saves the ship in the waves, saves the pagans who had been beforehand divided in different beliefs by the wickedness of the world. And Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, and Joel, who prophesied at the same time did not manage to convert the people in Judea. This shows that the shipwreck could only be saved by the death of the fugitive.
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
Vows — Voluntary promises which, when once made, were to be kept if the thing vowed was right. They were made under a great variety of circumstances (Gen. 28: 18-22; Lev. 7:16; Num. 30:2-13; Deut. 23:18;…
Converts · .The mariners with Jonah — .The mariners with Jonah
Jonah · Di — Di
Sacrifices · When offered to God, an acknowledgement of his being the supreme God — When offered to God, an acknowledgement of his being the supreme God
Superstition · .The sailors who threw Jonah into the sea — .The sailors who threw Jonah into the sea
Vows · Recorded in scripture: Of mariners who cast out Jonah — Recorded in scripture: Of mariners who cast out Jonah
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).
John Calvin on Jonah 1:16
Jonah 1:16
16. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows.
16. Et imuerunt viri timore magno Jehovam, et sacrificarunt sacrificium Jehovae, et voverunt vota.
Jonah now declares what fruit followed; and first, he says, that the sailors feared the true God. He uses here the proper name of God, Jehovah; for, as we have already seen, they were addicted to their own superstitions, as each of them cried to his own god: but it was a false notion; for they went astray after their own superstitions. The Prophet now points out the difference, -- that they began to fear the true God. At the same time it may have been, that they afterwards relapsed…
After they had prayed thus, they cast Jonah into the sea, and "the sea stood still (ceased) from its raging." The sudden cessation of the storm showed that the bad weather had come entirely on Jonah's account, and that the sailors had not shed innocent blood by casting him into the sea. In this sudden change in the weather, the arm of the holy God was so suddenly manifested, that the sailors "feared Jehovah with great fear, and offered sacrifice to Jehovah" - not after they landed, but immediately, on board the ship - "and vowed vows," i.e., vowed that they would offer Him still further sacrifices on their safe arrival at their destination.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Jonah 1:16
awestruck: God’s display of power over the storm-tossed sea moved the sailors to worship. Although sacrifices and vows were aspects of Israelite worship (e.g., Ps 116:17-18), it is unlikely that the sailors were completely converted from the worship of false gods; they probably added Israel’s god to their list. It is ironic that pagan sailors honored the Lord while the Lord’s prophet, having dishonored him, apparently plunged to his death (cp. study note on Jon 2:8-9).
