1:9a

“I am a Hebrew,”: Jonah only answered the final question. By this statement, he made it clear he was a foreigner to the sailors.

Hebrew: This was the term other people used when they referred to the Israelites. The Israelites themselves often used it when they spoke about themselves to foreigners. You should probably transliterate the word Hebrew here to distinguish it from your translation of the term “Israelite.”

1:9b

I worship the LORD: The Hebrew verb which the Berean Standard Bible translates as worship is literally “fear” (same verb as in 1:5a). The OT often uses the verb “to fear” when referring to people’s relationship to God. In such a context, this verb is sometimes translated “stand in awe of” but worship makes better sense here.

LORD: See the statement on Yahweh in the Introduction. By using God’s special name, Jonah was distinguishing the true God whom he worshiped from the various “gods” whom the sailors worshiped.

the God of the heavens: Jonah described God as the God of the heavens. Here of refers to where God was thought to live. It can be translated “the God in the heavens.”

In the Hebrew text, the expression “the LORD, the God of heaven” occurs at the beginning of the sentence (not its normal place) for emphasis. We could translate this emphasis in English as

“It is the LORD, the God of heaven, whom I worship.”

1:9c

who made the sea and the dry land: By saying that the LORD was the creator of the sea and the dry land, Jonah implied that the LORD controlled these areas and therefore the terrible storm as well.

the sea and the dry land: This means “the whole world.”

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