Chapter 1

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it; for the cry of its wickedness has come up to me.⁠ 3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. And he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish: and he paid his fare, and went up into it, to sail with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 4 And the Lord raised up a wind on the sea; and there was a great storm on the sea, and the ship was in danger of being broken. 5 And the sailors were alarmed, and cried every one to his god, and cast out the wares that were in the ship into the sea, that it might be lightened of them.⁠ But Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship, and was asleep, and snored.⁠ 6 And the shipmaster came to him, and said to him, Why do you snore? arise, and call upon your God, that God may save us, and we do not perish.⁠ 7 And each man said to his neighbor, Come, let us cast lots, and find out for whose sake this mischief is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. 8 And they said to him, Tell us, for whose sake is this mischief upon us? what is your occupation, and from where do you come, and of what country and what people are you? 9 And he said to them, I am a servant of the Lord;⁠ and I worship the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea, and the dry land. 10 Then the men feared exceedingly, and said to him, What is this that you have done? for the men knew that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 And they said to him, What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us? for the sea rose, and lifted its wave exceedingly. 12 And Jonah said to them, Take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be calm to you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. 13 And the men tried hard to return to the land, and were not able: for the sea rose and grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 And they cried to the Lord, and said, Forbid it, Lord: let us not perish for the sake of this man's life, and do not bring righteous blood upon us: for you, Lord, have done as you would. 15 So they took Jonah, and cast him out into the sea: and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 And the men feared the Lord very greatly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and vowed vows.

Texts in conversation

Compare Jonah 1:5 and LXX Jonah 1:5

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

Summary

In the Hebrew version of Jonah, the prophet lies down in the ship’s hold and falls asleep during the deadly storm. The Greek Septuagint adds that he snored, heightening the irony of Jonah sleeping soundly while the terrified sailors struggle to survive.

Passages

Jonah 1:5

Hebrew Bible

4 But the Lord hurled a powerful wind on the sea. Such a violent tempest arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break up! 5 The sailors were so afraid that each cried out to his own god and they flung the ship’s cargo overboard to make the ship lighter. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold below deck, had lain down, and was sound asleep. 6 The ship’s captain approached him and said, “What are you doing asleep? Get up! Cry out to your god! Perhaps your god might take notice of us so that we might not die!”

300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonah

LXX Jonah 1:5

Septuagint

4 And the Lord raised up a wind on the sea; and there was a great storm on the sea, and the ship was in danger of being broken. 5 And the sailors were alarmed, and cried every one to his god, and cast out the wares that were in the ship into the sea, that it might be lightened of them. But Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship, and was asleep, and snored. 6 And the shipmaster came to him, and said to him, Why do you snore? arise, and call upon your God, that God may save us, and we do not perish.

100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Jonah

References

... wayyiskab wayyeradam. According to the Septuagint, once he witnessed the storm Jonah went down to the ship’s bowel, lay down to sleep, and promptly began to snore (kai eregche [erregchen]; so also [Pseudo]-Philo: König 1906: 745). Harmonizing the two readings by reconstructing a plausible common text for both is unnecessary, for the Septuagint is simply introducing humor that will sharpen when the helmsman frantically turns to Jonah for help. In his oration on Jonah, Philo depends on the Septuagint but regards snoring as a plot device to bring Jonah to the helmsman’s attention (cited in König 1906: 745a). Josephus (Antiquities 9.10.2) expands by stating that “Jonah lay still and covered, without imitating anything that the others did.” The church fathers commented on this act as betraying evil conscience and deep remorse (compare Keil and Delitzsch 1900: 393–94). The Hebrew vocabulary for Jonah’s act, however, is less jocose than the Septuagint’s ...

Jack M. Sasson, Jonah: A New Translation with Introduction, Commentary, and Interpretation (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 101.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

LXX Jonah4 chapters

Compare Jonah 1:5 and LXX Jonah 1:5

Summary

Passages

Jonah 1:5

LXX Jonah 1:5

References

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