Jonah 1:10

The sailors’ exclamation (rather than question, cf. Genesis 4:10) expressed their incredulity at Jonah’s naïveté in trying to run away from the God who created the sea by taking a sea voyage. Surely Jonah must have known, they thought, that Yahweh would make their journey perilous. Evidently Jonah had previously told them that he was fleeing from the Lord (cf. Jonah 1:3, where "from the presence of the LORD" occurs twice), but they did not then understand that the Lord was the creator of the sea. Had they known this they probably would not have sold him passage. In the polytheistic ancient Near East people conceived of a multitude of gods each with authority over a particular area of life. A god of the mountains, for example, would have little power on the plains (cf. 1 Kings 20:23).

Before, the mariners had feared the storm, but now they feared the Lord, recognizing the Creator above the creation. [Note: Gaebelein, p. 79.]

"This is the storyteller’s ironic view of the person who thinks he can escape Yahweh. And yet this irony, with all its exaggeration, is slyly absurd rather than bitter." [Note: Hans W. Wolff, Obadiah and Jonah, p. 139.]

This pericope, like the previous two, builds to a climax that stresses Jonah’s failure. He did not fear his God though, again ironically, the pagan sailors did. Jonah professed faith in a sovereign God, yet by trying to escape from the Lord he denied his belief in God’s sovereignty. One cannot flee or hide from a sovereign God.