1. came to Jonah. The literal meaning of the Hebrew verb is “was to Jonah.”

2. Nineveh the great city. The entirely fabulous proportions of its vastness will become clear in chapter 3. Although there are a couple of rare instances in the Book of Kings of an Israelite prophet’s going on a mission to a foreign country, the call to go to Nineveh is anomalous and hardly historical. Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, no longer existed by the likely time of Jonah’s composition; however, it is remembered as the power that entirely destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and later seriously threatened the southern kingdom of Judah as well. To send a Hebrew prophet to Nineveh would be rather like sending a Jewish speaker to deliver moral exhortation to the Germans in Berlin in 1936. While Jonah’s words to God in 4:2 make it clear that he does not want to undertake the mission because he foresees that the Ninevites will repent and that God will forgive them, he might well also be afraid to go to Nineveh.

3. And Jonah got up to flee. For a brief moment, he might seem to be heeding God’s command to get up and go to Nineveh, but this momentary illusion is broken by the infinitive “to flee.”

Tarshish. This location, mentioned in a variety of biblical texts, has been identified with a variety of places from Asia Minor to Spain. In any event, it is far to the west, in the opposite direction from Nineveh.

Jaffa. This port city, more or less on the site of present-day Tel Aviv, was probably not under Israelite control. The rest of Jonah’s story will unfold entirely among foreigners.

went down. We are not informed about Jonah’s hometown, but it would likely be up in the hill country, perhaps even in Jerusalem, for Israelite habitation in the coastal plain was sparse. First Jonah goes down to Jaffa, then into the ship. His trajectory is a series of goings down as he is cast into the sea and then into the belly of the fish.

4. the ship threatened to break up. The term ḥishvah reflects a root that in earlier biblical Hebrew means “to plan,” “to devise,” or “to reckon.” Jack Sasson argues that it is a deliberate personification and thus he renders it as “expected,” but “threatened” is personification enough and more idiomatic in context.

5. the sailors were afraid. Their fear will mark this entire episode, taking on a new meaning at its end.

to lighten their load. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “to lighten from upon them.”

Jonah had come down. This is the third occurrence of this thematically fraught verb, marked here as a pluperfect (subject before the verb, verb in the qatal form).

the far corners of the craft. This is presumably the hold, but the phrase yarketey hasefinah plays on yarketey bor, “the far corners of the Pit” (that is, death), and perhaps also, as James Ackerman has proposed, on yarketey tsafon, “the far corners of Tsafon” (the dwelling place of the gods in Canaanite mythology).

6. will give some thought to us. The Hebrew yitʿashet is unique to this text. The translation follows the proposal of some medieval exegetes that is related to ʿeshtonot, “thoughts.”

7. Let us cast lots. The lot is a divinatory device, especially for determining guilt. See Joshua 18:6 and 1 Samuel 14:41–42.

8. you on whose account. The “you” is merely implied in the Hebrew.

what is your work. Most passengers would have been merchants, but Jonah has brought no merchandise on board. The noun has the specific connotation of a designated task, so they may be asking Jonah what he is up to.

What is your land. Jaffa, probably a polyglot city where traders embarked and disembarked, would give them no clue as to the national identity of this passenger.

9. I am a Hebrew. This is regularly the designation used by foreigners for Israelites and so it makes sense that Jonah would choose it to identify his nationality to the ship’s crew.

and the LORD God of the heavens do I fear, Who made the sea and the dry land. Although this declaration of faith serves the thematic purposes of this story, the effect is almost comic: Jonah, who has run away from God’s command, as if a geographic escape from God were possible, now announces his reverence for the universal God of sky, sea, and earth. His declaration would surely at first have baffled the polytheistic sailors, for whom there would have been a separate deity for each of these realms.

11. For the sea was storming more and more. As the story continues, there is an indication in the verbal form used, holekh wesoʿer, of a constant increase in the intensity of the storm, which was powerful to begin with.

12. Lift me up and cast me into the sea. Jonah means simply that if they get rid of his jinxing presence on board, the storm will cease to pound the ship. The crew, however, may well have construed this as casting an offering to appease the raging sea god.

13. And the men rowed to get back to the dry land. They are reluctant to follow Jonah’s instructions, which they of course understand as condemning him to almost certain death. But rowing toward the shore (the ship would have been equipped with both oars and sails) is a strategy of desperation because in a fierce storm, approaching the shore would have most likely led to a catastrophic shipwreck.

14. And they called out to the LORD. They may not have been transformed into monotheists, but Jonah’s testimony to them has clearly convinced them that in the present dire circumstances, the LORD, YHWH, is a powerful deity who controls the urgent situation.

let us not perish on account of the life of this man. This may mean that they do not want to be the target of God’s punishing wrath together with Jonah, who is on the ship with them. But the reference to the blood of the innocent in the next clause may rather suggest that they are praying not to be condemned for killing Jonah by throwing him overboard.

16. And the men feared the LORD greatly. This is exactly the phrase used for their fear of the storm in the verse 10. Now it appears in its other meaning of showing reverence through worship (the sacrifices and vows at the end of this verse) for a deity, even though the first sense of terror still lingers—they revere the LORD because they have witnessed His fearsome power in the terrible storm and in His causing it to suddenly stop. Again one needn’t assume that they have become perfect monotheists, like the Aramean general in 2 Kings miraculously cured of his skin disease, for they might simply be recognizing that Jonah’s deity is the one who has manifested fearsome control over the storm that almost destroyed them. In any case, the turning of the hearts of these pagans to the God of Israel anticipates the response of the Ninevites to Jonah’s message.

offered sacrifices to the LORD and made vows. There is some evidence that ships in the ancient world actually carried animals which could be sacrificed on board at urgent or propitious moments. The “vows” are pledges to offer further, votary sacrifices after their safe return to land.