The sailors are represented as foreigners of various nationalities (compare Ezek 27.8, 9), each with its own god, or gods, to whom the sailors pray or cry out (compare Psa 107.23-28). The English language is able to distinguish false objects of worship from the one true God by using lower case letters for the former and capitals for the latter, but this distinction is not evident when a passage is read aloud. The use of his own helps to make it clear that various gods are being referred to. Although this means of distinguishing them may not be possible in all languages, it is advisable to use the same word for both (see next verse and 2.1). As an Israelite, Jonah is represented as escaping from the LORD, the personal name of Israel’s God.
The sailors were terrified should be rendered in such a way as to indicate extreme fear. Such expressions of fear are often expressed as idioms; for example, “their stomachs were in their mouths” or “their hearts had dropped within them.”
Rather than use an elliptical expression, each one to his own god, following the phrase cried out for help, it may be preferable to combine the two into a single expression; for example, “each of the sailors cried out to his own god for help.” In some instances “to cry out for help” must be expressed as direct discourse; for example, “each one of the sailors said to his own god, ‘Help me’ ” or “… ‘Help us.’ ” In order to express the urgency of the prayer, especially in view of the tumult of the storm, it may be appropriate to translate “each of the sailors shouted to his own god in prayer, ‘Help us.’ ”
The objects thrown overboard are simply “things” in New English Bible or “goods” in the Bible in Basic English, but cargo in Bible de Jérusalem, Jerusalem Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible. The word used is a very general one, so a general expression is suitable in translation (compare Acts 27.19).
The Hebrew does not actually speak of lightening the ship (King James Version, Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible), but literally of “making (something) light from upon them,” that is, those on board the ship. Hence Good News Translation in order to lessen the danger, or perhaps “to relieve their anxiety”; so Goldman: “make matters easier for them.”
To lessen the danger may be rendered as “so that they would not be in so much danger,” but in certain instances this must be expressed positively, “so that they would be safer.”
They threw the cargo overboard may be expressed as “they threw the cargo into the sea” or “what was in the boat they threw into the water.”
Another circumstantial clause brings Jonah back on the scene once more: Meanwhile, Jonah had gone below…. Some translators may prefer introducing this statement earlier, and so follow the chronological order of events. It would be possible to put the last sentence of this paragraph after verse 4, as for example, “So Jonah went below and was lying in the ship’s hold, sound asleep.” But where it now stands, the sentence serves as a link with the next verse. Stylistically, too, the present position has the advantage of raising the question in the mind of the reader, “But where was Jonah all this time?” Knox brings this out by “and what of Jonah?”
A literal rendering of Jonah had gone below can be misleading, since the term below may require the designation of what remains above. It may be necessary, therefore, to say “had gone below the deck.” In other languages it may be more appropriate to say “had gone down into the boat” or “had gone down near the bottom of the boat.”
Although there is no formal difference in Hebrew between the type of sentence in verse 4, “But the Lord sent…,” and Meanwhile, Jonah had gone below in this verse, the structure of the total context indicates that here we are dealing with a pluperfect (King James Version “was gone down”), one of several instances in Jonah of a “flashback.”
The word for “ship” in the last sentence occurs only here in the Old Testament and appears to imply a vessel that had a top deck. To speak of the hold (Chinese Union Version: “cabin”) may suggest a more elaborate vessel than this one would be; the word is used of any recess or corner, as of a cave (1 Sam 24.4) or a house (Amos 6.10; Ezek 32.23). Jonah was simply finding the most remote and comfortable place for going quietly to sleep, where he would not be disturbed (contrast the action of Jesus in Mark 4.38). The word for “sleep” used here is not the usual word, but signifies deep sleep, often brought on supernaturally (see Gen 15.12; 1 Sam 26.12). The Septuagint translates the verb as “snore” here and in verse 6—the only two occurrences of the word in the Bible.
Sound asleep may be rendered as “slept hard,” but it also may be expressed in terms of the difficulty involved in waking such a person; for example, “he slept so that no one could easily wake him” or “he slept so it was difficult to cause him to awaken.” The same concept may also be expressed somewhat idiomatically: “he was so much asleep his mind had left him” or “even his spirit was sleeping.”
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 .