Jonah 1:6

“So the shipmaster came to him, etc.] The master of the vessel, who had the command of it; or the governor of it, as Jarchi; though Josephusf28 distinguishes between the governor and the shipmaster: “the master of the ropers”f29, as it may be rendered; of the sailors, whose business it was to draw the ropes, to loose or gather the sails, at his command: missing him, very probably, he sought after him, and found him in the hold, in the bottom of the ship, on one side of it, fast asleep: and said unto him, what meanest thou, O sleeper? this is not a time to sleep, when the ship is like to be broke to pieces, all lives lost, and thine own too: thus the prophet, who was sent to rebuke the…”

“call upon thy God--The ancient heathen in dangers called on foreign gods, besides their national ones (compare ). MAURER translates the preceding clause, "What is the reason that thou sleepest?" think upon us--for good (compare ; ; , ; ).”

“What meanest thou? - or rather, “what aileth thee?” (literally “what is to thee?”) The shipmaster speaks of it (as it was) as a sort of disease, that he should be thus asleep in the common peril. “The shipmaster,” charged, as he by office was, with the common weal of those on board, would, in the common peril, have one common prayer. It was the prophet’s office to call the pagan to prayers and to calling upon God. God reproved the Scribes and Pharisees by the mouth of the children who “cried Hosanna” Matthew 21:15; Jonah by the shipmaster; David by Abigail; 1 Samuel 25:32-34; Naaman by his servants. Now too he reproves worldly priests by the devotion of laymen, sceptic intellect by the…”

“Will think upon us - With pity and favour. Jonah 1:7”

“What: Isa 3:15; Eze 18:2; Act 21:13; Rom 13:11; Eph 5:14 arise: Psa 78:34, Psa 107:6, Psa 107:12, Psa 107:13, Psa 107:18-20, Psa 107:28, Psa 107:29; Jer 2:27, Jer 2:28; Mar 4:37-41 if: Jon 3:9; Sa2 12:22; Est 4:16; Joe 2:11; Amo 5:15 Jonah 1:7”

“When the danger was at its height, the upper-steersman, or ship's captain (rabh hachōbhēl, the chief of the ship's governors; chōbhēl with the article is a collective noun, and a denom. from chebhel, a ship's cable, hence the one who manages, steers, or guides the ship), wakes him with the words, "How canst thou sleep soundly? Arise, and call upon thy God; perhaps God (hâ'ĕlōhı̄m with the article, 'the true God') will think of us, that we may not perish." The meaning of יתעשּׁת is disputed. As עשׁת is used in Jer 5:28 in the sense of shining (viz., of fat), Calvin and others (last of all, Hitzig) have maintained that the hithpael has the meaning, shown himself shining, i.e., bright…”