Jonah in the Shadows of Eden by Yitzhak Berger

Author:Yitzhak Berger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2016-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

5

Nautical and Hermeneutical Dilemmas

ON ACCOUNT OF WHOSE GOD?

We now turn our attention to several remaining salient formulations, chiefly in the book’s opening chapter. When the sailors first confront Jonah, they begin by saying, “Tell us, please, ba’ăšer lĕmî-hārā‘â hazzō’t lānû” (Jonah 1:8). Previously, we adopted the common but philologically knotty translation of this phrase: “you, on an account of whom this disaster has befallen us!” Yet more straightforwardly, the line indicates a question: “on account of whom has this disaster befallen us?”

This interrogative rendering, however, yields an obvious difficulty of its own: if the lottery already revealed that Jonah is the source of the trouble, why would the crew ask him to identify a culprit? Some commentators propose, therefore, that the sailors – consistent with the emphasis of the preceding verses – are actually seeking to determine which god caused the storm. Accordingly, after Jonah is selected, they ask him, “On account of [what deity] has this disaster befallen us?” The prophet, by naming the Israelite God in his reply, then addresses that very question.1

Still, this proposal remains seriously problematic. The sailors, after all, cast lots to determine “on account of whom” the storm hit them (Jonah 1:7). The selection of Jonah, therefore, appears to indicate that he is the one. Consequently, when the men, on confronting him, refer again to the one “on account of whom” the threat arose, here too the expression would seem to mean the prophet.2

Our story’s pervasive multivalence, however, suggests another alternative: the sailors seek to identify both a person and a corresponding deity who bear responsibility for the tempest. Thus, the relevant phrase in their interrogation of Jonah bears two meanings: you, on account of whom this disaster has befallen us, and, simultaneously, on account of what god of yours did the storm come about?

This alternative, in fact, draws support from the text’s notably long-winded description of the lottery: “One man said to the next, ‘Let us cast lots, and we shall know [or: and let us find out] (wĕnēdĕ‘â) on account of whom this disaster has befallen us.’ And they cast lots, and the lottery fell on Jonah.” Certainly, a more succinct formulation would have sufficed: “And the men cast lots in order to know (lāda‘at) on account of whom the disaster had befallen them, and the lottery fell on Jonah.” The use of direct speech, however, enables the separation of the “casting” and the “knowing” into two independent clauses: “Let us cast lots, and let us know/find out.” This divided formulation, in turn, suggests that, even after the lottery reveals the human culprit, more investigation is needed to identify the god that this individual provoked (“and let us find out . . .”).

The sailors’ quest to determine the relevant deity, moreover, accounts for their striking litany of questions. To wit, when they ask not only about Jonah’s mission but also his place of departure, homeland, and people of origin, they seek, at least in part, to identify the location or group associated with the god whose wrath he incurred.

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