The heathen sailors are unwilling, however, to save their lives at the expense of Jonah without at least trying some other remedy. So the narrator ensures that the tension mounts as the sailors exert themselves to try and reach the land. Possibly their intention is pictured in terms, at first at least, of setting Jonah on shore to clear the ship of its dangerous cargo. The verb for rowing is not used elsewhere in this sense, presumably because the Old Testament does not relate stories of events at sea. Normally the verb means “dig,” as in Amos 9.2. Moffatt has “dug in their oars.” In Ezek 27.8, 26 another verb for rowing is used. New English Bible here uses the idiom “to put back to land,” in which it resembles the Hebrew by having no object after “bring back” (compare King James Version and Revised Standard Version). Luther 1984 interprets the verb differently as “return.” The ship is evidently to be understood as the object.

Using the same idiom as in verse 11, the narrator describes how the storm was becoming worse and worse. Consequently their efforts meet with no success, and they got nowhere, an idiom that is no doubt clearer for native speakers of English than for other readers. Bible in Basic English makes the meaning clear, “were not able to do so,” as does New Jerusalem Bible with “but they could not.”

The relationship between “getting the ship to shore” and “rowing” must be expressed quite differently in some languages, since the means, namely, the “rowing,” is the focal activity, and the purpose is to get the ship to shore. Therefore one may restructure the first sentence of verse 13 to read “the sailors rowed with all their strength in order to try to get the ship to shore” or “… to cause the ship to arrive at the shore” or “… to the land.” The closest equivalent of rowing may be simply “paddling.” It is possible to explain the difference in a footnote, but this is usually not necessary.

The storm was becoming worse and worse must often be expressed as “the wind was blowing faster and faster” or “the wind was all the time blowing stronger.”

They got nowhere may be expressed as “they got no closer to land” or “they were as far from land as ever.”

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. et al. A Handbook on the Book of Jonah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1982, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .