And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.
All Commentaries on Jonah 1:9 Go To Jonah 1
Jerome
AD 420
LXX: 'and he replied: I am a worshipper of the Lord, and I revere God of the heavens who made the sea and the dry land'. He did not say, 'I am a Jew', the name given to the people after the schism between the ten and two tribes, but ' I am a Hebrew', that is to say perates , passing by as Abraham who was able to say: "I am a guest and a traveller as all my fathers", and about whom it is written in another psalm: "they passed from one nation to another, from one realm to another people". Moses says, "I will go so that I might see this great vision." I fear the Lord God of the heavens, not the gods that you have invoked and who cannot save us, but the God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. The sea that I flee to, the earth that I flee from. And appropriately the land is not just called land, but rather dry land so that it contrasts with the sea. In short here he mentions the creator of the universe who is the Lord of heaven, earth, and sea. But one question begs to be asked: how do they know that he speaks the truth? 'I fear the Lord God of heaven', since he has not done what this God has actually commanded him to do. The reply would surely be that the sinners themselves would fear God, and that it is appropriate for servants of the Lord not to love, but to fear. Here however you can see fear in the cult according to the meaning of those who were listening and until now knew not God.
