ny; comp. Kimchi s. v.), there would be

nothing to prevent

perhaps God may אולי יִתְעַשֶׁת האלהים לנו us from rendering

show Himself friendly or gracious to us,' the metaphor being similar to that of God letting His face shine upon those He favours (Num. vi. 25; Ps. iv. 7; xxxi. 17; comp. Jer. iii. 12), and the Hithpael understood in a sense which it not unusually bears (so Targ. ', Kimchi ¬¬n'; comp. Hartmann, Linguistische Einleitung, p. 250; Hitzig, Kleine Propheten, p. 165). But it seems safer to connect nwynn with the Hebrew noun ¿ijngy or ningy (Ps. cxlvi. 4; Job. xii. 5) cogitations or thoughts, and the Chaldee verb ny (Dan. vi. 4) to meditate or intend, and to translate 'perhaps God will think or have regard for us' or remember us benignantly, in which sense the corresponding verb and the analogous

אדני .are also used (comp. Ps. xl פקד and זכר roots

the Lord takes care of me;' Gen. viii. 1; xxi. 1, etc.); thus distinctly Vulg. si forte recogitet Deus de nobis; Luther ob vielleicht Gott an uns gedenken wollte; Auth. Vers. if so be that God will think upon us (like in Ps. xl. 18);

יתרצה ויתחשב לנו .Kimchi s. v ;לשון מחשבה,Rashi, Ebn Ezra

Man 17 ; Arnheim, vielleicht besinnet sich der Gott unseretwegen, etc.; though few will be disposed to follow the precarious view of some Jewish grammarians who refer

עַשְׁתִּי עשר in עַשְׁתֵּי the difficult term עשת to the same root

eleven, as being 'the first number which, on the part of the reckoner, requires two calculations (n), those of the ten and the unit' (Ebn Ezra in loc. and ning 750 fol. 44b ed. Lippmann), or the number of which the cipherer must think, since ten is the conclusion of the first series of figures' (Kimchi Rad. s. v., and Michlol fol. 211b); which has been improved upon by a later lexicographer who suggests that eleven is the first number which must be conceived by the mind, since up to ten the numbers are counted by the fingers (Jo. Simon. Lexic. sub ny 'cogitationes ultra decem' etc.; comp. Gramm. ii. p. 156). Some ancient translations are mere guesses from the context (Sept. ɛïñws diacwon ó Seds pas; similarly Syr. and Arab. etc.).-With well-con

sidered exactness the shipmaster says, 'perhaps the god or that god (b) will be gracious to us,' viz. Jonah's god (7), whoever that may be: the heathen in his distress is indifferent as to the deity from whom help comes, and is certain that any deity chosen by a fellow-man for worship, has the power to help when he has the will (see supra pp. 14, 15).

5. THE VICTORY. I. 7—16.

7. And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know, for whose sake this evil is upon us. And they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. 8. And they said to him, Tell us, we pray thee-thou for whose sake this evil is upon us-what is thy occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? 9. And he said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land. 10. And the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. 11. And they said to him, What shall we do to thee, that the sea may be calm to us? for the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12. And he said to them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; then will the sea be calm to you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is against you. 13. And the men rowed to bring the ship back to the land, but they could not; for the sea grew more and more tempestuous

against them. 14. And they cried to the Lord, and said, Oh, we beseech Thee, O Lord, we beseech Thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee. 15. And they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea and the sea ceased from its raging. 16. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered sacrifices to the Lord, and made vows.

Did Jonah, yielding to the shipmaster's request, call upon his God? The narrative is silent on this point. If Jonah offered up a prayer, its tenor was surely very different from that of the other occupants of the vessel. How could he entreat for the cessation of the storm which, as he well knew, was sent for his own retribution? How could God, the Holy and the Unchangeable, rescind His far-reaching decrees on the mere word of the sinner? For the prophet had now again risen to the height of his noble nature. He had purified himself by repentance and contrition; he felt as before at one with his Divine Master; he relied indeed most confidently on God's longsuffering and compassion; but he did not wish to evade the punishment he had merited by his pusillanimous flight. If he prayed, he could have uttered nothing else but the declaration afterwards made by the heathen mariners: "Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee.' He at first takes a merely passive part in all proceedings. He is certain that both he and his companions are in the hands of an Omnipotence able to find means to call him, the offender, to account without destroying the innocent. He hears, therefore, with equanimity the proposal of the passengers to ascertain the guilty person by lot, in the infallibility of which he, the Hebrew, believed as firmly

as the pagans; and he is neither surprised nor alarmed when he sees himself singled out by the lot. And now we witness a true rivalry in magnanimity and pious resignation. While reading an animated narrative very strongly marking the distinction between the Hebrew and the heathen, we still breathe the refreshing atmosphere of a pure and common humanity; for the Hebrew unreservedly pronounces the highest principles of his creed in the firm conviction that they must be evident and intelligible to all men; and the Gentiles evince the utmost readiness and alacrity to respect and to adopt those principles; while in their actions, both the one and the others manifest those qualities of moral force and selfdenial, which are the ripest fruits of religion. The differences between nation and nation are effaced. We stand before the opened gates of the Temple on the porch of which is written: "The congregation of the pure-minded.'

Even in their supreme danger the mariners were anxious not only to avoid all violence but all haste. While the fury of the waves and the tempest constantly increased, and every instant was precious to those who prized their lives, they patiently instituted an investigation with almost judicial calmness. Though fully trusting to the reality of the decision by lot, they were resolved neither to execute the judgment without the offender's confession, nor to execute it in an arbitrary manner. They desired to be informed of Jonah's antecedents, from which they expected to derive a confirmation of the Divine voice for the satisfaction of their own minds. Enquiring after his ordinary pursuits, the place whence he had come before joining their ship, his country and his nationality, they hoped to find, if possible, a clue to his offence. His

a Philo (De Jona Append.) observes appositely: 'Erat autem videre in mari terribile tribunal: forum enim erat judiciale navis,

judices nautae, tortores ad necem venti, reus citatus propheta, ergastulum autem et carcer custodiae cetus et accusator infensus mare.'

answer embraced more than they had asked for, and more than was necessary for their immediate purpose. Reconciled with his God whom he had so culpably resisted, he believed he had again the right and the privilege to acknowledge himself as His worshipper, and to proclaim His power in terms the most emphatic and comprehensive-that power by which he had been elected in his country and which was then pursuing him with an avenging arm on sea. He declared to his pagan companions that he was a Hebrew adoring the God of the universe, whom he unhesitatingly designated by His holy name of Jahveh; that he was a special servant or prophet of that God; and lastly, so he confessed without concealment or reserve, that he was trying to escape by flight from His commands and charges. Far from attenuating his guilt, he made it appear as a misdeed so terrible that even strangers recoiled from it with abhorrence-'and the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, Why hast thou done this ?'a They were able to conceive the awful audacity and impiety implied in disobedience to such a god; and they were able to measure the reckless infatuation of fleeing from Him who fills heaven and earth. Yet they did not allow passion or anger to carry them away to rashness. If for a moment they entertained the belief that, by his confession and repentance, Jonah's guilt was pardoned and expiated, they were compelled to abandon that belief when they found that 'the sea grew more and more tempestuous;' but so much at least they concluded from Jonah's confession that he was then acting with honest candour towards himself and his God. Anxious, therefore, to evade the responsibility of surrendering the life of a fellow-man, they desired to leave the issue to Jonah himself, especially as they were convinced that he, as

a Comp. Gen. iii. 13; xii. 18, etc. "The words of Jonah,' observes Quandt, 'are not so much a con

fession of faith as a confession of penitence,' as which some, in fact, consider the whole Book; see on iii. 1—3.