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 146:5-6 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:
Nehemiah 9:6 Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are there…
Psalms 95:5-6 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
Psalms 136:26 O give thanks unto the God of heaven: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Nehemiah 1:4 And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of…
Genesis 14:13 And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and broth…
Genesis 39:14 That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unt…
2 Kings 17:25 And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew…
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…
I am an Hebrew--He does not say "an Israelite." For this was the name used among themselves; "Hebrew," among foreigners (; ).
I fear the Lord--in profession: his practice belied his profession: his profession aggravated his guilt.
God . . . which . . . made the sea--appropriately expressed, as accounting for the tempest sent on the sea. The heathen had distinct gods for the "heaven," the "sea," and the "land." Jehovah is the one and only true God of all alike. Jonah at last is awakened by the violent remedy from his lethargy. Jonah was but the reflection of Israel's backsliding from God, and so must bear the righteous punishment. The guilt of the minister is the result of that of the peo…
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 1:9
The Church Fathers
And concerning Jonah it is also written, "He feared before the Lord and fled to Joppa." For although his fear was born of simplicity, yet like a man who feared God he fled in order that he might not draw nigh to the work which he thought was too hard for his strength. And again when he was asked by the sailors whence he came, and what God he served, he said, "I fear the Lord, the God of heaven."
It was not likely that such a prophet should be ignorant of the design of God, which was to bring about, by means of threat, the escape of the Ninevites from the threatened doom, according to his great wisdom and unsearchable judgments and according to his ways which are beyond our tracing and finding out.… To imagine that Jonah hoped to hide himself at sea and escape by his flight the great eye of God is surely utterly absurd and stupid, and unworthy of credit, not only in the case of a prophet but even in the case of any sensible person, who has only a slight perception of God, whose power is over all.
"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." LXX: 'and he replied: I am a worshipper of the Lord, and I revere God of the heavens who made the sea and the dry land'. He did not say, 'I am a Jew', the name given to the people after the schism between the ten and two tribes [3 Kings. 12:19; 14:21], but 'I am a Hebrew', that is to say perates [Grk. 'a pilgrim and traveller'] , passing by as Abraham who was able to say: "I am a guest and a traveller as all my fathers" [Ps. 38:13], and about whom it is written in another psalm: "they passed from one nation to another, from one realm to another people" [Ps. 104:13]. Moses says, "I will go so that I might see this great vision." [Ex. 3] I fear the Lord God of the heavens, not the gods that you have invoked and who cannot save us, but the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. The sea that I flee to, the earth that I flee from. And appropriately the land is not just called land, but rather dry land so that it contrasts with the sea. In short here he mentions the creator of the universe who is the Lord of heaven, earth, and sea. But one question begs to be asked: how do they know that he speaks the truth? 'I fear the Lord God of heaven', since he has not done what this God has actually commanded him to do. The reply would surely be that the sinners themselves would fear God, and that it is appropriate for servants of the Lord not to love, but to fear. Here however you can see fear in the cult according to the meaning of those who were listening and until now knew not God.
Dictionary and topics
Converts · .The mariners with Jonah — .The mariners with Jonah
Hebrew · .And his — .And his
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).
And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew,.... He does not say a Jew, as the Targum wrongly renders it; for that would have been false, since he was of the tribe of Zebulun, which was in the kingdom of Israel, and not of Judah; nor does he say an Israelite, lest he should be thought to be in the idolatry of that people; but a Hebrew, which was common to both; and, besides, it not only declared what nation he was of, but what religion he professed, and who was his God:
and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land; this answers to the other question, what was his occupation or business? he was one that feared the Lord, that served and worshipped him; a prophet…
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 1:8
“Tell us now, because of whom—Against whom have you sinned, that this evil should befall us because of it
What is your work—Perhaps you were negligent in your work.
and whence do you come? Perhaps a decree has been issued upon the people of that place even if you are not there.
and from what people are you?”—Perhaps your people have sinned.
