Now Yahweh’s* word came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
“Yahweh” is God’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all caps) in other translations.
Why this text says “Yahweh” where other translations may say “LORD”
The translators footnote it here: “Yahweh” is God’s proper Name, “sometimes rendered ‘LORD’ (all caps) in other translations.”
One Name, two renderings. The choice is the translators’, and they say so.
Quoted verbatim from the footnote at Jonah 1:1.
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”
The first thing God says is the last thing God says
“Nineveh, that great city” is God’s first phrase in the book and God’s last. It appears three times and every one is spoken by God — Jonah never calls the city that.
Occurrences of “that great city”: Jonah 1:2, 3:2, 4:11, all God speaking; 3:3’s “exceedingly great city” is the narrator’s. Counted at build.
But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
Sent one way, he bought passage another
From Joppa, Nineveh is 908 km northeast. The dataset’s point for Tarshish is 3,779 km west-northwest.
Two headings 126° apart, and that point four times as far. It is disputed; see the next note.
Distance and bearing computed at build time from OpenBible coordinates. Straight-line, not a sailing route.
Our two datasets disagree about where Tarshish was
Our two source files disagree. One leaves the coordinates blank; the other puts it in southwest Spain.
Tarsus and Sardinia have also been proposed. The dataset identifies Tarshish with neither, so neither is drawn.
Compare openbible-places.txt (blank) with openbible-merged.txt (36.95, −6.38).
But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
But Yahweh sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up.
Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship and he was laying down, and was fast asleep.
The word for his flight, five times, is “down”
Down to Joppa and down into the ship (Jonah 1:3); down into the innermost parts, and laid down (1:5); down to the bottoms of the mountains (2:6).
⚠️ Five, in three verses. The claim is about a word, not every movement.
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.”
or, gods
or, gods
They all said to each other, “Come! Let’s cast lots, that we may know who is responsible for this evil that is on us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
Then they asked him, “Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you?”
He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God* of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.”
The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “ אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).
The committee’s own note
The translators footnote this verse themselves: the Hebrew word rendered “God” here is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).
⚠️ What that word covers is not in the footnote, and not on this site. At 1:5 “every man cried to his god”.
Quoted verbatim from the footnote in the source file at Jonah 1:9.
Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Yahweh, because he had told them.
Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us?” For the sea grew more and more stormy.
He said to them, “Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great storm is on you.”
Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them.
Therefore they cried to Yahweh, and said, “We beg you, Yahweh, we beg you, don’t let us die for this man’s life, and don’t lay on us innocent blood; for you, Yahweh, have done as it pleased you.”
So they took up Jonah and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging.
Then the men feared Yahweh exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh and made vows.
Yahweh prepared a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Cornered by the sailors, Jonah says he fears the God “who has made the sea and the dry land” — on that sea, running away.
Where does what you believe about God not match how you live?