Jonah 1:8 - Exposition

The mariners having, as they supposed, discovered the culprit, proceed calmly to investigate his guilt; amid the roaring of the tempest and the peril that surrounded them, they give him every opportunity of clearing himself or confessing his crime. For whose cause . Some manuscripts of the Hebrew and the Greek omit this clause as unnecessary; but, as Keil remarks, it is not superfluous, the sailors thereby wishing to induce Jonah to confess his guilt with his own mouth. In their excitement they crowd question upon question, asking him about his business, his journey, his country, his parentage. Jerome notes the pregnant brevity of these inquiries, and compares Virgil, ' AE neid,' 8.112, etc.—

" Juvenes, quae causa subegit

Ignotas tentare vias? quo tenditis? inquit.

Qui genus? unde domo? pacemne huc fertis an arma? "

"Warriors, what cause constrained you thus to tempt

A path untrodden? Whither are ye bound?

What is your race? Where dwell ye?

Peace or war, Come ye to bring?"

(Comp. Hom; 'Od.,' 1:170)

What is thine occupation? His occupation, they thought, might have been one to excite the wrath of the gods; or his country and family might have been exposed to the hatred of Heaven; hence the succeeding questions.