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Jon_1:10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
Ver. 10. Then were the men exceedingly afraid] Heb. with great fear; when once they had heard the business, and weighed the particulars, of his message to Nineveh, of his miscarriage, and of his present misery, together with the danger that themselves were in for his sake; how much more for their own, as being conscious to themselves of far more and greater sins than Jonah had to answer for. This put the mariners into a great fright; and as all fear hath torment, they could not be at quiet till they had further questioned him, saying:
Why hast thou done this?] Lo, he that would not be subject to God’s command is now liable to the censures, conviction, and condemnation of rude barbarous men; which, being humbled in the sense of his sin, he doth patiently endure without grudging. Daneus’s note here is, that concerning themselves and their own sins against God these good fellows speak nothing, whatever they think; but demand of the prophet, why hast thou done this? as if he were the only misdoer.
Because he had told them] As willing now to give glory to God and take shame to himself: this is the property of a true penitentiary. See Psa_51:1 title (where David stands to do penance in a white sheet, as it were), and Augustin’s Confessions. Hypocrites deal with their souls as some do with their bodies; when their beauty is decayed they desire to hide it from themselves by false glasses and from others by painting: so do they their sins from themselves by false glosses and from others by excuses. But as the prisoner on the rack tells all; and as things written with the juice of lemons when held to the fire are made legible; so when God brings men into straits, when he roasteth them in the fire of his wrath, then, if ever, they will confess against themselves, and so give glory to God, Jos_7:19, by putting themselves into the hand of justice, in hope of mercy.