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They cried unto the Lord - Under a conviction that he was the self-existing Being, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, and the author of the present storm, they put up their prayers to him.
Let us not perish for this man's life - They were now about to cast him overboard; but seemed to call God to witness that it was with the utmost reluctance, and only in obedience to his command. There is a parallel passage in the Argonautics, which has been quoted to illustrate this: -
Πολλα δε μερμηριζον ενι φρεσι πευκαλιμησι,<-144 Η μεν αποφθισωσι, και ιχθυσι κυρμα βαλωσινΑινολεχη Μμηδειαν, αποτρεψωσι δ ' Εριννυνπ .
Ver. 1171.
"And much they doubted, in their prudent minds,
Whether to kill and cast a prey to fishes
Wretched Medea, and avert their fate."
See Newcome.
Wherefore (And) they cried unto the Lord - “They cried” no more “each man to his god,” but to the one God, whom Jonah had made known to them; and to Him they cried with an earnest submissive, cry, repeating the words of beseeching, as men, do in great earnestness; “we beseech Thee, O Lord, let us not, we beseech Thee, perish for the life of this man” (i. e., as a penalty for taking it, as it is said, 2 Samuel 14:7. “we will slay him for the life of his brother,” and, Deuteronomy 19:21. “life for life.”) They seem to have known what is said, Genesis 9:5-6. “your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man‘s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man‘s blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made He man”, “Do not these words of the sailors seem to us to be the confession of Pilate, who washed his hands, and said, ‹I am clean from the blood of this Man?‘ The Gentiles would not that Christ should perish; they protest that His Blood is innocent.”
And lay not upon us innocent blood - innocent as to them, although, as to this thing, guilty before God, and yet, as to God also, more innocent, they would think, than they. For, strange as this was, one disobedience, their whole life, they now knew, was disobedience to God; His life was but one act in a life of obedience. If God so punishes one sin of the holy 1 Peter 4:18, “where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?” Terrible to the awakened conscience are God‘s chastenings on some (as it seems) single offence of those whom He loves.
For Thou, Lord, (Who knowest the hearts of all men,) hast done, as it pleased Thee - Wonderful, concise, confession of faith in these new converts! Psalmists said it, Psalm 135:6; Psalm 115:3. “Whatsoever God willeth, that doeth He in heaven and in earth, in the sea and in all deep places.” But these had but just known God, and they resolve the whole mystery of man‘s agency and God‘s Providence into the three simple words, as (Thou) “willedst” (Thou) “didst.” “That we took him aboard, that the storm ariseth, that the winds rage, that the billows lift themselves, that the fugitive is betrayed by the lot, that he points out what is to be done, it is of Thy will, O Lord”. “The tempest itself speaketh, that ‹Thou, Lord, hast done as Thou willedst.‘ Thy will is fulfilled by our hands.” “Observe the counsel of God, that, of his own will, not by violence or by necessity, should he be cast into the sea. For the casting of Jonah into the sea signified the entrance of Christ into the bitterness of the Passion, which He took upon Himself of His own will, not of necessity. Isaiah 53:7. “He was offered up, and He willingly submitted Himself.” And as those who sailed with Jonah were delivered, so the faithful in the Passion of Christ. John 18:8-9. “If ye seek Me, let these go their way, that the saying might be fulfilled which” Jesus spake, ‹Of them which Thou gavest Me, I have lost none. ‹“