Jonah 1:7 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jonah 1:7
And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
one
אִ֣ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
fellow
רֵעֵ֗הוּre.'E.hu
H7453
an associate (more or less close) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Come
יָלַךְyâlak
H3212
to walk (literally or figuratively)
cast
וְנַפִּ֣ילָהve.na.Pi.lah
H5307
to fall · conjunction + verb, hiphil infinitive construct, 1st person common plural
lots
גֽוֹרָל֔וֹתgo.ra.Lot
H1486
properly · noun, common feminine plural absolute
know
וְנֵ֣דְעָ֔הve.Ne.de.'Ah
H3045
to know (properly · conjunction + verb, qal infinitive construct, 1st person common plural
cause
שֶׁלshel
H7945
on account of
evil
הָרָעָ֥הha.ra.'Ah
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
cast
וַיַּפִּ֙לוּ֙vai.ya.Pi.lu
H5307
to fall · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
lots
גּֽוֹרָל֔וֹתgo.ra.Lot
H1486
properly · noun, common feminine plural absolute
lot
הַגּוֹרָ֖לha.go.Ral
H1486
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
fell
וַיִּפֹּ֥לvai.yi.Pol
H5307
to fall · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Jonah
יוֹנָֽהyo.Nah
H3124
Jonah · proper noun, a man's name
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
Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.
Joshua 7:13-18 Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing i…
Numbers 32:23 But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.
Joshua 7:10 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
1 Samuel 10:20-21 And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken.
1 Samuel 14:41-42 Therefore Saul said unto the LORD God of Israel, Give a perfect lot. And Saul and Jonathan were taken: but the people escaped.
Acts 13:19 And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot.
Psalms 22:18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
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…
cast lots--God sometimes sanctioned this mode of deciding in difficult cases. Compare the similar instance of Achan, whose guilt involved Israel in suffering, until God revealed the offender, probably by the casting of lots (; ). Primitive tradition and natural conscience led even the heathen to believe that one guilty man involves all his associates, though innocent, in punishment. So CICERO [The Nature of the Gods, 3.37] mentions that the mariners sailing with Diagoras, an atheist, attributed a storm that overtook them to his presence in the ship (compare HORACE'S Odes, 3.2.26).
Adam Clarke on Jonah 1:7
Come, and let us cast lots - This was a very ancient mode of endeavoring to find out the mind of Divine Providence; and in this case it proves that they supposed the storm to have arisen on account of some hidden crime of some person aboard.
A philosopher being at sea in a violent storm. when the crew began to call earnestly to the gods for safety, he said, "Be silent, and cease your prayers; for should the gods know that you are here, we shall all be lost."
The lot fell upon Jonah - In this case God directed the lot.
John Gill on Jonah 1:7
And they said everyone to his fellow,.... That Jonah awoke and rose up, upon the shipmaster's calling to him, is certain; but whether or no he called upon his God is not; perhaps he did: and when his prayer was over, and the storm still continuing, the sailors said one to another,
come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us; for, Observing something very uncommon and extraordinary in the tempest, and all means, both natural and religious, failing to help them; and though they might know that they were each one of them sinners, yet they supposed there must be some one notorious sinner among them, that had committed some very enormous crime, which had dra…
The Church Fathers
Because they saw that the storm was greater than usual, they knew those things did not happen naturally; nor indeed could those who navigated at such a time neglect the causes of the winds and the waves, and therefore by means of the lots they sought the origin of the shipwreck.
And they drew lots between them, and so forth. Neither because of this example, nor because the prophet Jonah was found out by lot, are we to believe indiscriminately in lots, "since the prerogative of individuals," as Jerome says, can in no way "make a general law." For in that instance pagan men were compelled by a storm to seek by lot the source of their danger. Matthias was chosen by lot so that their choice of the apostle would not appear to be out of harmony with the command of the old law, where it was ordered that the high priest be sought.
"And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah." LXX: 'and they said to each other: come, let us draw lots to see who it is that has brought this wickedness upon us. And they drew lots, and the lot fell to Jonah.' They knew the ways of the sea and knew the causes of the storms and winds in such weather. Without a doubt they had seen the waves rise up as usual, and as they must have seen many times before, but they must never before have found the person to blame for the shipwreck, and through him tried to avoid certain danger. We should not be driven by this example to believe in fate, or to believe that this text should be connected to that of the Acts of the Apostles where Matthias is chosen by lot [Acts 1:26], because personal privileges do not make common law. For just as an old lady speaks up for the condemning of Balaam [Num. 22:28], as Pharaoh [Gen. 41] and Nebuchadnezzar [Dan. 2], in their own judgement, knew the future through dreams and yet do not see that there is a divine judgement in this, like Caiaphas prophesies unknowing, that it is better for one to die for all [John 11:50; 18:14]: just as this fugitive is betrayed by fate, not by the powers of the fates, above all the powers of the pagan fates, but by the will of hi who controlled uncertain fate. With regard to the meaning of the expression "to know by whom this wickedness had come upon us", we ought to take 'wickedness' as a synonym of affliction, of disaster, as in this passage: "every day his wickedness was enough" [Mt. 6:34], and in the prophet Amos: "is there wickedness in a town without God being the author?" [Amos 3:6]. And in Isaiah: "It is I the Lord, who make goodness and wickedness" [Isaiah 45:7]. But in other places too wickedness can be seen to be the opposite of virtue, as in the passage of our prophet that we have read above: "the cry of their wickedness went up to me" [Jonah 1:1].
Dictionary and topics
Lot — (Heb. goral, a “pebble”), a small stone used in casting lots (Num. 33:54; Jonah 1:7). The lot was always resorted to by the Hebrews with strictest reference to the interposition of God, and as a…
Jonah · Di — Di
Lot, The · Jonah’s — Jonah’s
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 1:7
7. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
7. Et dixit vir (hoc est, quisque) ad socium suum, Venite et jaciamus sortes, ut sciamus ob quam causam [22] malum hoc nobis: et jecerunt sortes, et cecidit sors super Jonam.
Jonah did not without reason mention this, -- that the passengers consulted together about casting lots; for we hence learn, that it was no ordinary tempest: it appeared then to be a token of God's wrath. For, if strong wind arose, it would not have been so strange, for such had been often the case; and if a tempest followed, it would no…
When the danger was at its height, the upper-steersman, or ship's captain (rabh hachōbhēl, the chief of the ship's governors; chōbhēl with the article is a collective noun, and a denom. from chebhel, a ship's cable, hence the one who manages, steers, or guides the ship), wakes him with the words, "How canst thou sleep soundly? Arise, and call upon thy God; perhaps God (hâ'ĕlōhı̄m with the article, 'the true God') will think of us, that we may not perish." The meaning of יתעשּׁת is disputed. As עשׁת is used in Jer 5:28 in the sense of shining (viz., of fat), Calvin and others (last of all, Hitzig) have maintained that the hithpael has the meaning, shown himself shining, i.e., bright (p…
Use of lots was permitted by God for certain purposes (see Lev 16:8; Josh 18:6; 1 Chr 26:12-16; Acts 1:26); however, divination in general, as practiced in the wider ancient world, was displeasing to the Lord (Deut 18:9-13). • to see which of them had offended the gods: It was fairly common in the ancient Near East to assume that bad fortune was the result of a god’s taking offense.
Rashi on Jonah 1:7
“Come, let’s cast lots”—They saw that the other ships were sailing in the sea calmly, and theirs was breaking. They said, “Because of one of us, this is taking place.” So we find in Pirké d’Rabbi Eliezer (ch. 10).
because of whom Heb. בְּשֶׁלְמִי, because of the deeds of which one of us.
