Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.
All Commentaries on Jonah 1:16 Go To Jonah 1
Jerome
AD 420
LXX: similar. Before the anger of the Lord the sailors implored their gods under the effect of their fear; after his anger they fear the Lord, that is they revere and worship Him. They do not worship Him in the usual way, as we have seen in the beginning, but with "a great fear", according to that which is said: "from all their spirit and all their heart and all their soul". And they sacrificed victims that indeed, to take this literally, they were not able to have out at sea. But this is because sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit. And it is said in another place: "offer to God a sacrifice of praise, acquit your vows to the Highest." And again: "we acquit ourselves to you of our vows that we have promised". This is how they offer a sacrifice in the middle of the sea, and they promise others vowing never to be far from Him whom they have begun to revere and worship. They were seized by a great fear for they recognised from the calm sea and the disappearing storm that the prophet had spoken true. Jonah at sea, a fugitive and shipwrecked, once dead saves the ship in the waves, saves the pagans who had been beforehand divided in different beliefs by the wickedness of the world. And Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, and Joel, who prophesied at the same time did not manage to convert the people in Judea. This shows that the shipwreck could only be saved by the death of the fugitive.
