This verse contains one of the few textual difficulties in the book. New English Bible omits the words that are represented in Good News Translation by Who is to blame for this? This was the very question which the drawing of lots was meant to determine; so its repetition is pointless, and the corresponding words are not found in some Hebrew manuscripts and in the best Greek manuscripts, though they may have fallen out by accident. Ziegler suggests that the omission of the question in codices Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and Venetus of the Septuagint was due to the confusion arising from two occurrences of hēmin in the same verse (homoioteleuton). But it is much more likely that they wrongly found their way into the text as the result of a marginal note explaining the strange expression in verse 7 being accidentally inserted into verse 8. They simply repeat the question raised in the previous verse. King James Version and New Jerusalem Bible retain the words here in verse 8 but understand them as a participial clause referring to Jonah, “the-bringer-of-misfortune-upon-us,” or “the one who is to blame for all this,” so New Jerusalem Bible translates “Tell us, you who have brought this misfortune upon us.” But to do this strains the Hebrew construction and leaves one word unaccounted for.

It is possible to follow the Good News Translation rendering of the question Who is to blame for this? by assuming that the sailors at this point wished to have Jonah himself admit his blame and thus confirm what the process of divination had already indicated.

The next question, What are you doing here? may be understood in a variety of senses. The Hebrew expression normally refers to work in general; for example, Psa 107.23 “earning their living on the seas,” or even God’s work in creation (Gen 2.2, 3). So here, New English Bible has “what is your business?” which may be intended as a general question meaning “what is your occupation?” (so King James Version, Revised Standard Version, Bible in Basic English, Zürcher Bibel [Zürcher Bibel], Luther 1984), with the implication that his occupation may itself have been an unlucky one and hence displeasing to the gods. But if the meaning is, as in Good News Translation, “What is your business on this ship?” (so Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, An American Translation), the implication may have been that the sailors were suspicious of the presence among them of an Israelite, since Israelites were not a seafaring people. This is the sense taken by Knox (“What is your errand?”) and Mowinckel Mowinckel “What is the purpose of your journey?”). If the word is associated with the similar word meaning “messenger,” the meaning here may well be “errand, mission,” but that meaning is scarcely found elsewhere (but compare Dan 8.27). The last three questions in the verse are combined into two in Good News Translation: What country do you come from? What is your nationality? In some languages it may not be necessary to distinguish between Jonah’s nationality, in political terms, and his race, in ethnic terms.

What country do you come from? may be rendered as “Where do you make your home?” or “Where do you normally live?” or “Where is your home?” The question What is your nationality? may be equivalent to “What is your race?” or “What people do you belong to?” or even “What is your tribe?” In a few instances the designation of nationality is expressed in linguistic terms, that is to say, “What is your language?” or even “What is the language of your home?”

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 .