Jonah 1:10-12

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Jonah 1:10 tn Heb “Then the men feared…” The vav-consecutive describes the consequence of Jonah’s statement. The phrase “Hearing this” does not appear in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
2. Jonah 1:10 tn Heb “The men feared a great fear.” The cognate accusative construction using the verb יָרֵא (yareʾ, “to fear”) and the noun יִרְאָה (yirʾah, “fear”) from the same root (ירא, yrʾ) emphasizes the sailors’ escalating fright: “they became very afraid” (see IBHS 167 §10.2.1g).
3. Jonah 1:10 tn Heb “fleeing.”
4. Jonah 1:10 sn The first two times that Jonah is said to be running away from the Lord (1:3), Hebrew word order puts this phrase last. Now in the third occurrence (1:10), it comes emphatically before the verb that describes Jonah’s action. The sailors were even more afraid once they had heard who it was that Jonah had offended.
5. Jonah 1:10 tn Heb “because he had told them.” The verb הִגִּיד (higgid, “he had told”) functions as a past perfect, referring to a previous event.
6. Jonah 1:11 tn Heb “the sea was going and storming.” The two participles הוֹלֵךְ וְסֹעֵר (holekh v^esoʿer, “going and storming”) form an idiom that means “the storm was growing worse and worse.” When the participle הוֹלֵךְ precedes another participle with vav, it often denotes the idea of “growing, increasing” (BDB 233 s.v. הָלַךְ 4.d; e.g., Exod 19:19; 1 Sam 2:26; 2 Sam 3:1; 15:12; 2 Chr 17:12; Esth 9:4; Prov 4:18; Eccl 1:6). For example, “the power of David grew stronger and stronger (הֹלֵךְ וְחָזֵק, holekh v^ekhazeq; “was going and becoming strong”), while the dynasty of Saul grew weaker and weaker (הֹלְכִים וְדַלִּים, hol^ekhim v^edallim; “was going and becoming weak”)” (2 Sam 3:1; see IBHS 625-26 §37.6d).
7. Jonah 1:11 tn The vav plus the imperfect conjugation verb וְיִשְׁתֹּק (v^eyishtoq, “to be quiet”) here denotes purpose/result (see IBHS 638-40 §38.3).
8. Jonah 1:12 tn Heb “quiet for you”; cf. NAB “that it may quiet down for you.”
9. Jonah 1:12 sn Heb “on my account.” Jonah and the sailors appear to show dialectical sensitivity to each other in how they say this. See the note at v. 8.