What Does Jonah 1:14 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, 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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The sailors ask to survive without carrying the bloodguilt of an innocent man, even as they confess that the storm is the LORD’s doing.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks into a moment when danger narrows your field of sight: the other person’s life remains present as innocent, not merely as the cause of your trouble. The prayer names the LORD as doing what he desires and asks that the burden of innocent blood not be laid on the speakers.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If the LORD wills an outcome, those who carry it out bear no responsibility for what happens. The prayer holds both claims together: the LORD has done as he pleased, and the speakers still fear being charged with innocent blood.
THE ROOT
נָקִי
naqiy
GROWS FROM
נקה
N-Q-H
To be clean or clear; to be free of guilt or liability.
The Hebrew word rendered “innocent” carries the language of being clean or cleared. The sailors are asking that the blood of a life they recognize as innocent not leave them bearing its guilt.
ALSO GROWS
yenakkeh: Clear, acquit, or hold guiltless.
יְנַקֶּה
This verbal form makes the question of being cleared of guilt explicit: the sailors fear that the blood will be charged to them.
niqqayon: Cleanness or innocence.
נִקָּיוֹן
This noun preserves cleanness as the image behind innocence, echoing the sailors’ plea that the blood not rest on them.
THE PATTERN
The danger of innocent blood remains a question of responsibility even when the outcome is outside a person’s control.
Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them.But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.THE THREAD
Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them.Jonah’s phrase “innocent blood” repeats the Hebrew phrase דָּם נָקִי (dam naqi) in this verse, and “lay not upon us” echoes its plea not to lay that blood to account. The sailors are asking not only to survive, but not to be charged with an innocent man’s death.
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