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Jonah 1:4–6, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Jonah 1:4–6
The Great Storm Exposes the Sleeping Prophet
The sea Jonah chose becomes the LORD's storm
The LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest, so that the ship was like to be broken. The mariners are afraid. They cry every man unto his god, and they cast forth the wares that are in the ship into the sea, to lighten it. Prayer and cargo work happen at once because the vessel is failing.
This storm answers this flight. It is not a rule that every disaster identifies one sinner, and it is not a method for reading weather, illness, or accident as targeted punishment.
The prophet sleeps while outsiders work
Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. The shipmaster comes to him: What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. The rejected Arise now comes from a pagan captain. The sailors' first prayers do not make them fools, and Jonah's sleep is not a medical report.
How this should shape us
When your withdrawal is loading danger onto other people, wake up and join the work. Do not scan a crisis for a single guilty party as if this storm were a template.
Teach it back
Explain Jonah 1:4–6 in your own words. Include the scene's movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, and one misuse the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters variously understand Jonah's sleep as exhaustion, despair, avoidance, irony, or narrative economy. The text stresses the contrast with the active crew but does not name Jonah's internal state.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Jonah 1:4–6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew forms, morphology, repeated roots, clause relationships, names, and the base wording behind translation discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Jonah.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 1:4–6
Supports: Material lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, seafaring, city, repentance, and divine-relenting notes within the unit.
NET Bible Jonah PDF, printed pp. 1728–1732, translation and translator notes on 1:4–6
Supports: A responsible conservative historical reading, early-date proposal, Assyrian setting, structure, and opening verse-level interpretation, used only within the inspected preview.
Patterson, Jonah, printed pp. 251–255: opening commentary on the storm scene in 1:4–16
Supports: Current critical literary framing, section scope, and exposed summary claims; no unexposed paywalled detail is attributed.
Niditch, Jonah: A Commentary, JSTOR record and exposed section summary for pp. 38–52, section Jonah 1:4–16
Supports: Whole-book structure, genre and historicity survey, insider-outsider dynamics, social-value analysis, and stated cautions about Nineveh size and population claims.
Schader, doctoral thesis, pp. 246–251 (Jonah 1 structure) and 335–336 (sailors and Ninevites in the social analysis)
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Jonah 1:4–6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Jonah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew forms, morphology, repeated roots, clause relationships, names, and the base wording behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Jonah.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 1:4–6
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Jonah with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Material lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, seafaring, city, repentance, and divine-relenting notes within the unit.
Exact location: NET Bible Jonah PDF, printed pp. 1728–1732, translation and translator notes on 1:4–6
Open source ↗commentary preview
Jonah
Richard D. Patterson
Tyndale House Publishers, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, volume 10, 2008
Supports: A responsible conservative historical reading, early-date proposal, Assyrian setting, structure, and opening verse-level interpretation, used only within the inspected preview.
Exact location: Patterson, Jonah, printed pp. 251–255: opening commentary on the storm scene in 1:4–16
Open source ↗modern critical commentary record
Jonah: A Commentary
Susan Niditch
Fortress Press, Hermeneia, 2023
Supports: Current critical literary framing, section scope, and exposed summary claims; no unexposed paywalled detail is attributed.
Exact location: Niditch, Jonah: A Commentary, JSTOR record and exposed section summary for pp. 38–52, section Jonah 1:4–16
Open source ↗open access doctoral thesis
A literary-exegetical and social-scientific analysis of the book of Jonah: an exposition of its ancient social values
Jo-Mari Schader
University of Pretoria, 2016
Supports: Whole-book structure, genre and historicity survey, insider-outsider dynamics, social-value analysis, and stated cautions about Nineveh size and population claims.
Exact location: Schader, doctoral thesis, pp. 246–251 (Jonah 1 structure) and 335–336 (sailors and Ninevites in the social analysis)
Open source ↗