Jonah 1.6-The Ship's Captain Confronts Jonah (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday December 17, 2025

Jonah Series: Jonah 1:6-The Ship’s Captain Confronts Jonah

Lesson # 9

Jonah 1:6 continues the second scene in the book of Jonah, which is contained in Jonah 1:4-16.

In this passage, each of the crew members cries out to their gods and hurls the ship’s cargo overboard in an attempt to appease these gods while Jonah is sound asleep down below the ship’s deck.

Jonah 1:1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. 4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.” (NIV84)

“The captain went to him” indicates the next sequential action that takes place on the ship carrying Jonah to Tarshish while it is in the midst of this great storm caused by the Lord.

“The captain” refers to the individual who is the supreme authority on this merchant ship to Tarshish.

Not translated is the articular masculine singular qal active participle form of the verb ḥō∙ḇēl (חֹבֵל), which means “sailor” or “linesmen” because their job was to tend to the lines attached to the mast and sail of the ship.

The word is a collective singular designating the entire crew of this merchant ship heading to Tarshish.

“Went to” is the verb qā∙rǎḇ (קָרַב), which means “to advance” referring to linear motion very near to a reference point, which in our context is Jonah and thus, the word indicates the captain of the crew “approaching” Jonah to question him as to why he was sleeping in the midst of the great storm.

“How is it that you are sleeping?” is an elliptical rhetorical question that expresses the captain’s contempt and indignation that Jonah was sound asleep during the midst of this great storm that threatened the lives of everyone on board the ship.

The question expresses the captain’s indignation and contempt toward Jonah with regards to his failure to act by praying to his god.

“Are sleeping” is the verb rā∙ḏǎm (רָדַם), which appeared in verse 4a and it appears only six times in the Old Testament always in the niphil form and means “to be in a deep sleep.”

This word reflects the third stage in Jonah’s descent in his rebellion against the Lord.

“It generally describes a trancelike state or deep sleep, such as experienced by Daniel when he had his visions of the end time interpreted to him by angelic figures.” (Dan 8:18; 10:9) (Concordia Commentary: Jonah, page 104)

“Get up” is the verb qûm (קוּם), which means “to get up, stand up” or in other words become in a standing position and so therefore the captain is commanding Jonah to get up from his bed or cot and it is used with ironic effect since the Lord gave this same command to Jonah in verse 2.

“Call” is the verb qā∙rā(ʾ) (קָרָא), which means “to cry out urgently for help” and is a reference to prayer and like the verb qûm (קוּם) this verb is used with ironic effect since the Lord used it along with the former in verse 2.

The captain is commanding Jonah to draw his god’s attention with a loud voice in order to establish contact with this god so as to save the lives of everyone on the ship.

The NET Bible has the following comment on this verb, they write, “The imperatives ‘arise!’ and ‘cry out!’ are repeated from v. 2 for ironic effect. The captain’s words would have rung in Jonah’s ears as a stinging reminder that the Lord had uttered them once before. Jonah was hearing them again because he had disobeyed them before.”

“Perhaps” is the adverb ʾû∙lǎy (אוּלַי), which is a marker of uncertainty but with an expectancy that something positive will help and expresses the captain’s hope that Jonah’s god would deliver the ship from the great storm.

“Your god” is the noun ʾělō∙hîm (אֱלֹהִים), which means “god” since the word is a plural of majesty referring to the heathen god of Jonah’s choice from the perspective of the heathen captain.

“He will take notice” is the verb ʿā∙šǎṯ (עָשַׁת), which means “to act favorably towards someone” in the sense of “delivering them from danger as a figurative extension of a person seeing and responding to a situation.” (Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Hebrew (Old Testament)

This indicates that the ship’s captain is expressing his hope that Jonah’s god will respond to their life threatening situation at sea and deliver him and the crew from death.

John Hartley writes, “The verb is used in reference to God’s considering favorably the desperate condition of people on board a ship that was about to be torn apart by a mighty storm (Jon 1:6).” (New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, volume 3, page 562)

“So that we will not perish” is a result clause indicating the hope that Jonah’s god will deliver the ship from the storm “as a result of” Jonah crying out for help to his god.

The captain’s words and actions are a rebuke to Jonah.

The ship’s captain’s conduct stands in stark contrast with Jonah’s since the former demonstrates great concern for his crew whereas Jonah has no concern at all.

The storm presented a great opportunity to witness to the heathen crew of this Phoenician vessel.

However, Jonah shows no desire to evangelize them.

He is wasting a great opportunity to tell these men about the Lord.

The captain also recognizes his need for divine intervention in this terrible storm that threatens the lives of himself and his crew whereas Jonah is dead to the world.

The heathen captain uses prayer whereas the man of God sleeps.

The captain’s demand for prayer from Jonah is a rebuke as indicated by the fact that he uses the same language that the Lord used in commanding him to go to the Ninevites and announce judgment against that great city’s inhabitants.

Julius Bewer writes, “In such fearful danger every one must do his share, no one must be idle. Since the sailors were doing all they could to save the ship, the only thing that Jonah could do was to pray. What a scene! The heathen sailor admonishes the Heb. prophet to pray!” (A Critical And Exegetical Commentary on Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi and Jonah; page 33)