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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Jonah 1:5 - 1:5
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
mariners were afraid - though used to storms; the danger therefore must have been extreme.
cried every man unto his god - The idols proved unable to save them, though each, according to Phoenician custom, called on his tutelary god. But Jehovah proved able: and the heathen sailors owned it in the end by sacrificing to Him (Jon 1:16).
into the sides - that is, the interior recesses (compare 1Sa 24:3; Isa 14:13, Isa 14:15). Those conscious of guilt shrink from the presence of their fellow man into concealment.
fast asleep - Sleep is no necessary proof of innocence; it may be the fruit of carnal security and a seared conscience. How different was Jesus’ sleep on the Sea of Galilee! (Mar 4:37-39). Guilty Jonah’s indifference to fear contrasts with the unoffending mariners’ alarm. The original therefore is in the nominative absolute: “But as for Jonah, he,” etc. Compare spiritually, Eph 5:14.