610. Calling on the Gods

From: Manners and Customs of the Bible By: James M. Freeman

Jonah 1:5 • 1 min. read • grade level: 11

Jonah 1:5⁵Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. (Jonah 1:5). Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god.

As these sailors were probably Phenicians from different places, they worshiped different gods. Every man may have had his own special deity to whom he prayed when in trouble. Roberts found illustrations of this text on more than one occasion when in a storm at sea in a vessel with a heathen crew: “No sooner does danger appear than one begins to beat his head and cry aloud, ‘Siva, Siva!’ another beats his breast and piteously shrieks forth, ‘Vishnoo!’ and a third strikes his thigh and shouts out with all his might, ‘Varuna!’” (Oriental Illustrations, p. 513).

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