So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.”
Parallel translations
- WEB So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will notice us, so that we won’t perish.”
- KJV So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
- BSB The captain approached him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call upon your God. Perhaps this God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”
- NKJV So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”
- NASB So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The ship's captain wakes Jonah and urges him to call on his God for rescue. It matters because a pagan must rebuke the prophet to do the very thing he was sent to do, namely pray.
Overview
The captain's plea that 'maybe' God will notice them echoes Nineveh's later hope for mercy, highlighting a theme of seeking grace. There is deep irony in a heathen sailor exhorting a Hebrew prophet to call on the Lord. Jonah's silence here underscores how sin can mute even those who know God best, and it magnifies the patience of the God who still pursues him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Jonah 3:9Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”
- Ps 107:28–29Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distress.
- 2 Sam 12:22He said, “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows whether Yahweh will not be gracious to me, that the child may live?’
- Mark 4:37–41A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled.
- Eph 5:14Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- Ps 107:12–13Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, and there was no one to help.
- Amos 5:15Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
- Acts 21:13Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
- Rom 13:11Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.
- Joel 2:11Yahweh thunders his voice before his army; for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?
- Ps 78:34When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.
- Ps 107:6Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses,
- Esth 4:16“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
- Ezek 18:2“What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
- Jer 2:27–28who tell wood, ‘You are my father;’ and a stone, ‘You have given birth to me:’ for they have turned their back to me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise, and save us.’
- Isa 3:15What do you mean that you crush my people, and grind the face of the poor?” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
- Ps 107:18–20Their soul abhors all kinds of food. They draw near to the gates of death.
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Christ at the center
Three days in the belly of the fish is the sign Jesus gave of his own death and resurrection (Matt 12:40); and God's mercy on pagan Nineveh foreshadows the gospel going to the nations.
How Jonah 1:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.