What Does Jonah 1:10 Mean?

Then the men feared a great fear, and said to him, What is this you have done? For the men knew that he ran from the face of the LORD, for he had told them.

Jonah 1:10 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

THE KEY

The Hebrew says the sailors “feared a great fear,” and the same root will soon name their awe of the LORD.

THE MEANING

Flight from the LORD’s presence becomes shared exposure when its consequences reach the sailors. Once Jonah tells them what he has done, the cause is no longer hidden, yet their fear remains and their question presses the cost into the open.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that escape from the LORD can remain private dissolves here: Jonah’s flight reaches the men around him as danger they share.

THE ROOT

וַיִּירְאוּ

wayyir'u

GROWS FROM

ירא

Fear, or stand in awe.

The Hebrew stacks a verb and a noun from the same root: literally, they “feared a great fear.” The same root soon names their awe of the LORD in verse 16, so what begins as terror has a path toward recognition.

ALSO GROWS

yir'ah: Fear; awe.

יִרְאָה

This noun from the same root is repeated in the verse’s phrase “a great fear.”

nora: Fearsome; awe-inspiring.

נוֹרָא

This form shows how the same fear-language can describe what inspires awe, as it does when the LORD becomes the object of fear.

מִלִּפְנֵי

millifnei

GROWS FROM

פנה

Turn, face toward; face.

The Hebrew phrase says Jonah fled “from before the face of the LORD.” “Presence” can sound like a location in English; ⁨פנים⁩ (panim) keeps the image of a face before which he runs.

ALSO GROWS

panim: Face; front; presence.

פָּנִים

The phrase behind “presence” carries the concrete image of being before the LORD’s face.

lifnei: Before; in front of.

לִפְנֵי

This is the form in the verse: Jonah flees from before the LORD’s face.

THE PATTERN

Terror at overwhelming power can become awe when the LORD is recognized as its source.

And Israel saw the great hand that the LORD did upon the Egyptians, and the people stood in awe of the LORD, and they leaned their weight on the LORD and on his servant Moses.

Exodus 14:31 · SDVAfter Israel sees the LORD’s power at the sea, fear turns toward the LORD and trust follows.

Then the men stood in great awe of the LORD, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD, and made vows.

Jonah 1:16 · SDVThe root behind the doubled fear in Jonah 1:10 is now aimed explicitly at the LORD after the storm’s cause is exposed.

And they feared a great fear, and said to one another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea hear and respond to him?

Mark 4:41 · SDVIn a storm at sea, fear and a searching question follow the wind and sea’s obedience, bringing an unseen authority into view.

THE THREAD

Then the men stood in great awe of the LORD, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD, and made vows.

Jonah 1:16 · SDV

The verb “feared” here and the phrase “great fear” in 1:10 both grow from ⁨ירא⁩ (y-r-ʾ; yare). Here the same fear reaches its named object: the men fear the LORD, revealing the turn within their terror.

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