Jonas 1:5
And the mariners were afraid, and the men cried to their god: and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship, into the sea, to lighten it of them: and Jonas went down into the inner part of the ship, and fell into a deep sleep.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et timuerunt nautæ, et clamaverunt viri ad deum suum, et miserunt vasa quæ erant in navi, in mare, ut alleviaretur ab eis ; et Jonas descendit ad interiora navis, et dormiebat sopore gravi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐφοβήθησαν οἱ ναυτικοὶ καὶ ἀνεβόησαν ἕκαστος πρὸς τὸν θεὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκβολὴν ἐποιήσαντο τῶν σκευῶν τῶν ἐν τῷ πλοίῳ εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν, τοῦ κουφισθῆναι ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν· Ἰωνᾶς δὲ κατέβη εἰς τὴν κοίλην τοῦ πλοίου, καὶ ἐκάθευδεν καὶ ἔρεγχεν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיִּֽירְא֣וּ הַמַּלָּחִ֗ים וַֽיִּזְעֲקוּ֮ אִ֣ישׁ אֶל אֱלֹהָיו֒ וַיָּטִ֨לוּ אֶת הַכֵּלִ֜ים אֲשֶׁ֤ר בָּֽאֳנִיָּה֙ אֶל הַיָּ֔ם לְהָקֵ֖ל מֵֽעֲלֵיהֶ֑ם וְיוֹנָ֗ה יָרַד֙ אֶל יַרְכְּתֵ֣י הַסְּפִינָ֔ה וַיִּשְׁכַּ֖ב וַיֵּרָדַֽם
Haydock's commentary
God. They were idolaters, ver. 6.
Wares, which is commonly done in storms. (Calmet)
This loss was in punishment of their sins; though they seem not devoid of some fear of God and man. (Haydock)
Sleep. This is a lively image of the insensibility of sinners, fleeing from God, and threatened on every side with his judgments; and yet sleeping as if they were secure. (Challoner)
Yet Jonas was sleeping through grief. (St. Jerome) (Matthew xxvi. 40.) (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch, Homily XX
21. And that these words are not a vain boast, shall be made manifest to you from things that have already happened. What could be more stupid than the Ninevites? What more devoid of understanding? Yet, nevertheless, these barbarian, foolish people, who had never yet heard any one teaching them wisdom, who had never received such precepts from others, when they heard the prophet saying, “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” laid aside, within three days, the whole of their evil customs. The fornicator became chaste; the bold man meek; the grasping and extortionate moderate and kind; the slothful industrious. They did not, indeed, reform one, or two, or three, or four vices by way of remedy, but the whole of their iniquity. …