Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea raged, and was tempestuous against them.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Hard. They were unwilling to destroy the prophet, (Calmet) fearing to incur fresh guilt by thus treating one who had intrusted his life to them. (Josephus, Antiquities ix. 11.)
LXX: 'and the sailors strive to turn the ship to dry land but they cannot, for the sea swelled up against them'. The prophet has pronounced sentence against himself; but the sailors do not dare touch him because they have learned that he is a follower of God. They were striving to return to the dry land, to get out of this danger; they refused to shed blood, preferring rather to die than kill. O how changed are they now! The people that had served God saying, "crucify him, crucify him". They are ordered to kill him: the sea is raging, the storm commands this, and they forget their own danger and only think to save another. Therefore the phrase of the Septuagint is appropriate: parebiazonto, they wanted to use all their force and conquer nature so as not to offend the prophet of God. If the sailors rowed to regain the land, it was because they believed they could deliver the ship from danger without realising what Jonah, who ought to have suffered, had said. All the while Jonah was in t...
Although the ocean condemned him and the lot exposed him, when he implicated himself and confessed his flight, they still were not in a hurry to annihilate the prophet, rather, they demonstrated toleration and contraint and did everything possible to keep him from the fury of the ocean after such proof of his guilt.
However, the ocean did not permit even this, or better yet, God did not allow this to happen, because he wanted to sober him through the sailors in the same way as through the whale. (Homily on Repentance 3:8)
