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John 1:1–2. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amathi, saying, Arise, and go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach therein; for his wickedness has come before Me. LXX, with the exception of the words: “the cry of his wickedness has reached Me,” the rest was translated in the same way. Jonah is sent to the Gentiles to condemn the Israelites because they persist in their evil deeds, while Nineveh brings repentance. Further, the words: “his wickedness came to Me” or “the cry of his wickedness came to Me” means the same as what is said in the book of Genesis: “the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has multiplied” (Gen. 18:20), and to Cain: “the voice of the blood of your brother cries to Me from the earth” (Gen. 4:10). In an allegorical sense, our Lord means both, either because the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove and remained on Him, or because He Himself suffered over our wounds, wept over Jerusalem and by His wound we were healed, and in truth He is the son of truth, because God is truth, is sent to beautiful Nineveh, that is, to a world more beautiful than which we see nothing more beautiful with carnal eyes. Therefore, among the Greeks, from its beauty, it received the name χόσμος, and at the end of all the works of creation it is said about it: “God saw it as good” (Gen. 1:31). He was sent to Nineveh, the great city, so that the whole world of the Gentiles would listen to Him, because Israel would not listen. And this is because his crime reached God. For when God built, as it were, a kind of beautiful house for a man who was supposed to serve Him, then the man became corrupted of his own free will, and his heart became inclined from his youth to diligently think about evil (Gen. 8), and he lifted up his mouth to heaven (Psalm 73:9), and when he built a tower of arrogance (Gen. 11), then the Son of God came down to him, so that, having fallen in repentance, he would reach heaven is the one who could not reach it through arrogant exaltation. John 1:3. And Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. LХX was translated in the same way. The Prophet, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, knows that the repentance of the pagans serves as the downfall of the Jews. Therefore, loving his fatherland, he does not so much envy the salvation of Nineveh as he does not want the destruction of his people. He also read that Moses, praying for him 1, said: “if... you forgive them their sin, forgive them, but if you do not forgive them, blot me out of your book, you wrote it in the book” (Ex. 32:32), and through his prayer Israel was saved and Moses was not blotted out of the book; even more, for the sake of this servant of His, the Lord spared his other fellow servants. For by saying: “Leave me,” he shows that he could be withheld. The apostle says something similar: “I would like to be excommunicated myself... for my brothers... according to the flesh,” that is, the Israelites (Rom. 9:3). This does not mean that the one for whom life is Christ and death is gain desires to perish (Phil. 1:21); but he becomes more worthy of life when he wants to save others. Moreover, Jonah, seeing that other prophets were sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel in order to persuade the people to repentance, and that the soothsayer Balaam also prophesied about the salvation of the people of Israel (Num. 23-24), grieves that only he was chosen to be sent to the Assyrians, the enemies of Israel, and to the largest city of the enemies, in which idolatry reigned and where they did not know God, and, what is even more important, he was afraid that after they, as a result of his preaching, turned to repentance, Israel would be completely abandoned. For through the same Spirit by whom he was entrusted with the work of preaching among the Gentiles, he knew that when the Gentiles believed, then the house of Israel would perish, and he feared that in his time what was about to happen later would not happen. Therefore, Jonah, moving away, like Cain (Gen. 4), from the presence of the Lord, wanted to flee to Tarshish, by which Joseph understands the Cilician city of Tarsus, changing, however, the first letter; but as far as can be concluded from the books of Chronicles, this is the name of a certain place in India. Jews believe that the word “Tharsis” generally means the sea, as in the following words: “with a stormy spirit you crush the ships of Tarshia” (Psalm 47:8), that is, sea ones, and in Isaiah: “wail, O ships of Tarshish” (Isaiah 23:1, 14). I remember that I said this many years ago in a letter to Marcella 2 . Thus, the prophet did not want to flee to a certain place, but, setting off by sea, he was in a hurry to retire wherever it was, and it is more common for a person running away and experiencing fear to take advantage of the first opportunity to sail on a ship rather than choose a place for safe refuge. We can also say that he believed that only in Judea is God known and in Israel His name is great (Psalm 75:2); but having experienced His action on the waters, he confesses and says: “I am a Jew, and I fear the Lord of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jon. 1:9). But if He created the sea and the dry land, then why do you think that, leaving the dry land, you can be saved at sea from the one who created the sea? At the same time, through the salvation and conversion of the shipbuilders, he is given to know that the large population of Nineveh can also be saved through this kind of confession (or conversion). Regarding our Lord and Savior, we can say that He left His house and fatherland and, having taken on flesh, as if fled from heaven and arrived at Tarshish, that is, in the sea of ​​this age, in accordance with what is said elsewhere: “This sea is great and spacious; there are reptiles, there are countless of them, small animals with great ones; there the ships sail, this serpent, whom you created, curse him "(Psalm 103:25-26). For this is why He said during His suffering: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me” (Matthew 26:36), so that as a result of the general cries of the people: “Crucify Him, crucify Him” (John 19:6) and: “not the imams of the king, only Caesar” (John 19:15), the full number of the pagans did not enter, and so that the branches of the olive tree were not broken off, instead of which branches of the wild olive tree could grow (Rom. 11). His love and devotion to the people was so great due to the election of the forefathers and the promises to Abraham that, while on the cross, He said: “Father, let them go; They don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Since “Tarshish” means “contemplation of joy,” then perhaps the prophet arriving in Joppa, which means “beautiful,” hastens to achieve joy and enjoy blissful peace, to completely surrender to contemplation, believing that it is better to enjoy the beauty and variety of knowledge than, due to the salvation of other tribes, to see the destruction of that people from which Christ was to be born according to the flesh. John 1:3. And he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish, and paid the fare for it, and went down on it to sail with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. LXX: And he went up to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish, and gave his fare, and boarded it to sail with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Joppa is a harbor in Judea and, as we read in the books of Kings and Chronicles, Hiram, the king of Tyre, also delivered timber from Lebanon in rafts there, which were then transported by land to Jerusalem 3 . There is a place here where rocks on the seashore are still indicated, to which Andromeda was once chained, saved through the help of Perseus. The educated reader knows this story. Also, according to the nature of the country, about the prophet who descended from the mountainous and elevated region into the plain to Joppa, it is quite rightly said that he went down and found a ship leaving the shore and going to sea, and paid the transportation fee for it or the payment for the ship, that is, for transportation on it according to the Hebrew text, or the transportation fee for himself (or his own), as LXX translated. And he descended upon it, as the Hebrew text itself says, for "iered" means "descended," because in fleeing he was anxious to find refuge, or he "went up," as the vulgata says, in order to arrive wherever the ship went, believing that he would be saved if he left Judea. Also, our Lord, on the extreme seaside shore of Judea, which, as being in Judea, was called beautiful, does not want to take bread from the children and give it to the dogs (Matthew 15:26), but since He came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He gives payment to the shipmen, so that, wanting first to save His people, He saves those who live by the sea, and among whirlpools and storms, that is, during His suffering and the cross reproached, plunging into hell, he saves those whom he ignored, as if he were sleeping on a ship (Matt. 8). I must ask the prudent reader not to seek the same order in an allegorical explanation as in a historical one. For the apostle also sees in Hagar and Sarah an image of two covenants (Galat. 4); however, we cannot allegorically explain everything that history tells us about them. Also in the letter to the Ephesians, speaking of Adam and Eve, he said: “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh; “This mystery is great: I speak into Christ and into the church” (Eph. 5:31-32). Can we attribute the entire beginning of the book of Genesis, and the creation of the world, and the creation of people to Christ and the church on the basis that the apostle used this testimony in this sense? Let us assume that the words: “for this reason man should leave his father” we can attribute to Christ in the sense that He will leave God the Father in heaven in order to join the pagan peoples to the church; but how can we explain the words that follow: “your mother”? Perhaps in the sense that He left the heavenly Jerusalem, which serves as the mother of the saints? There are many other, much greater difficulties. Also written by the same apostle: “Piyahu bo from the spiritual subsequent stone; the stone is Christ” (I Cor. 10:4; sn. Exod. 17) does not oblige us to attribute the entire book of Exodus to Christ. For what can we say? Only that Moses struck this stone not once, but twice, that water flowed out and filled the streams (Num. 20). Is it really on this occasion that we must explain the entire historical narrative in this place allegorically? Shouldn't each place, according to one or another character of the narrative, receive a different spiritual meaning? Thus, as these evidences have an explanation corresponding to them, and the preceding does not require the same allegorical explanation as the subsequent; Likewise, the book of the prophet Jonah cannot, without danger for the interpreter, be attributed entirely to the Lord, although the Gospel says: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so will the Son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:39-40). John 1:4. But the Lord sent a great wind upon the sea, and there arose a great storm on the sea, and the ship was in danger of being wrecked. LXX: And the Lord raised up a great wind on the sea, and there arose a great storm on the sea, and the ship was in danger of being wrecked. The flight of the prophet can also be attributed generally to a man who, despising the commandments of God, withdrew from His presence and gave himself up to the world, but subsequently, as a result of the storm of evils and the cruel collapse he experienced throughout the world, was forced to recognize the power of God and return to the One from whom he fled. From here we also see that what people consider saving themselves turns, if it is not pleasing to God (or according to the will of God), into a means of their destruction, and that not only does the help not benefit those to whom it is provided, but those who provide it are also subject to the same ruin. So we read that Egypt was defeated by the Assyrians because, contrary to the will of the Lord, it helped Israel. A ship that receives someone in danger is itself in danger; on the sea, due to the wind, excitement begins, a storm arises in the midst of silence, nothing is safe if it is contrary to the will of God. John 1:5. And the shipmen were afraid, and the people cried out to their god and threw the things that were on the ship into the sea in order to relieve it of them. LXX: And those sailing on the ship were afraid, and each one cried out to his god, and threw the things that were on the ship into the sea, so that the ship would lighten. They believe that the ship is burdened with ordinary weight, and do not understand that all its burden comes from the fleeing prophet. The shipbuilders feel fear, each one calls on his god; not knowing the truth, they know about providence, and in religious error they know that there is something that should be honored; they throw weights into the sea so that the ship can more easily sail through strong waves. But Israel, on the contrary, neither under favorable circumstances nor under disasters, wants to know about God and, while Christ weeps for the people, his eyes remain dry. John 1:5. Jonah went down into the interior of the ship and slept soundly. LXX: Jonah went down into the interior of the ship, and slept and snored. As for the historical meaning, the prophet’s carefree nature is depicted here: he is not embarrassed either in a storm or in danger, and behaves the same both in calm weather and in the event of a threatening shipwreck. When others call upon their gods, throw away things, and each one makes the best effort he can, he remains so calm, serene, and carefree that he goes down into the interior of the ship and sleeps peacefully. But one can also say this: he realized that through his flight he had sinned, despising the commandments of the Lord, and, while others did not know, he knew that a cruel storm was rising precisely against him; so he descends into the interior of the ship and hides in sorrow so as not to see the waves that rise against him like divine avengers. He sleeps not because of carelessness, but because of sadness. For we also read about the apostles that during the suffering of the Lord, as a result of great sorrow, they fell into sleep (Matthew 26). If we explain this as an image (in turo), then the sleep and deep sleep of the prophet means a person who is in a state of numbness and unconsciousness due to delusion and who is not limited to running from the face of God, but, due to some kind of insanity, his darkened mind does not notice the wrath of God and, as it were, sleeps peacefully, revealing his deep sleep through snoring. John 1:6. And the pilot came to him and said to him. what are you sleeping? arise, call upon your God; perhaps God will remember us and we will not perish. LXX: And the helmsman's assistant came to him and said to him: Why are you snoring? Arise, call upon your God; maybe God will save us and we will not perish. It is natural that each, in his own danger, places more hope in the other; therefore, the helmsman or the captain of the ship, who was supposed to encourage the fearful passengers, seeing the great danger, wakes up the sleeping man, reproaches him for his unexpected carelessness and exhorts him to pray in turn to his God, so that those for whom the danger was common would also have a common prayer. Then, in accordance with the allegorical meaning, there are very many who, sailing with Jonah and having their own gods, hasten to achieve the contemplation of joy. But when the lot falls on Jonah and, as a result of his death, the storm of this age subsides, and silence reigns on the sea again; then they will worship the one God and offer Him spiritual sacrifices, which, of course, they literally did not have when they were among the waves. John 1:7. And they said to each other: Come, let’s cast lots, and we’ll find out why this trouble is upon us. And they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. LXX: And each one said to his neighbor: Come, let’s cast lots and find out for whom this evil is against us. And they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. They knew the nature of the sea and, having sailed for so long, they knew the causes of storms and winds, and if they had seen ordinary waves and those that were known to them from their previous experiences, then, of course, they would never have looked for the culprit of the threatening shipwreck and would not have tried to avoid a known danger through something unknown. But on the basis of this example we should not hastily come to believe in the lot or connect with this testimony what is said in the Acts of the Apostles, where Matthias is chosen by lot to be an apostle (Acts 1), because the advantages of some cannot be a general law. For, as the donkey spoke for the condemnation of Balaam (Num. 22), as Pharaoh (Gen. 41) and Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 2) through dreams learned, for their condemnation, the future and yet did not recognize God, who sends revelations, and also Caiaphas predicted, without knowing the meaning of his prediction, that it is better for one to die for all (John 18:14); so the lot falls on this fugitive, not by the force of the lots, and especially the pagan lots, but by the will of the One who directed the unfaithful lots. As for the words: “and we will know for whose sake this evil is upon us,” here we must understand “evil” (malitia) in the sense of sorrow and calamity, just as in the following words: “his wickedness is sufficient for the day” (Matthew 6:34), also in the prophet Amos: “or there will be evil in the city which the Lord has not made” (Amos 3:6), and in Isaiah: “I am the Lord... make peace and the builder of evil (Isa. 45:7). But elsewhere evil is understood as the opposite of virtue, as we read above from this same prophet: “the cry of his malice has gone up to Me” (Jon. 1:2). John 1:8. And they said to him: Reveal to us: for whom is this trouble upon us, what is your occupation, what is your country and where are you going or what people are you from? LXX: And they said to him: declare to us: for whom is this evil against us, what is your occupation, and where are you coming from, and where are you going, and from what country and from what people are you? To whomever the lot indicated, they force him to declare himself why such a storm arose or why the strong wrath of God broke out against them. “Tell us,” they say, “for whom is this trouble upon us?” what are you doing, what country, what people do you come from, and where are you in a hurry to go? What also deserves remark here is the brevity with which we were usually surprised in the words of Virgil 4: He says to them: what prompted you, Young men, embarking on an unknown journey? Where are you heading? Who are you? Where? Did you come to us in war or in peace? They ask about his personality, about his country, about the purpose of the journey and his city, in order to learn from here about the cause of the disaster. John 1:9. And he said to them: I am a Jew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven, who created the sea and the dry land. LXX: And he said to them: I am the servant of the Lord, and I honor the God of heaven, who created the sea and the dry land. He did not say: “I am a Jew,” because the separation of ten tribes from two gave this name to the people, but “I am a Jew,” that is, περα’της passing over like Abraham, who could say: “I am a stranger... and a stranger, like all my fathers” (Psalm 38:13), about which in another psalm it is written: “I have gone from tongue to tongue and from kingdoms to other people” (Psalm 104:13), and Moses says: “As I pass by I will see this great vision” (Exodus 3:3). “And I fear the Lord God of heaven”: not the gods whom you call upon and who cannot save, but the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land: the sea on which I flee, and the dry land with which I run. And rightly, in contrast to the sea, it is not land that is called land, but dry land. It also briefly refers to the Creator of the universe, who is the Lord of heaven, earth, and sea. But the question arises: what confirms the truth of the words: “I fear the Lord God of heaven,” when he does not fulfill His commandments? We can answer that sinners fear God, and slaves tend not to love, but to fear. However, in this place fear can be understood in the sense of reverence in relation to the understanding of those who have heard about God, but do not yet know Him. John 1:10. And the people were afraid with great fear, and said to him: Why did you do this? For these people knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord, as he himself had declared to them. LXX: And the people were afraid with great fear, and said to him: Why did you do this? For these people knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord, as he himself had declared to them. Here the chronological order is reversed: since it could be said that there was no cause for fear on the basis of what he declared to them, saying: “I am a Jew, and I fear the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land”; then he immediately adds that they were afraid because he announced to them that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord and had not fulfilled His commandments. Therefore they reproach him and say: “Why did you do this?” that is, if you fear God, then why are you running away? If He whom you worship is as powerful as you say, then how can you escape from Him? They experience great fear because they understand that this is a holy man and from a holy family (for, like those who weighed anchor at Joppa, they knew about the advantage of the Jewish people), and yet they cannot hide the fleeing one. Great is he who flees, but greater is He who seeks him; they dare not reveal it, but they cannot hide it either. They reproach him for his guilt, express fear, and ask him to serve as a means of salvation for those who have committed sin. It may also be that with the words: “why did you do this?” they do not reproach him, but ask, wanting to know the reason for the flight of a servant from the Lord, a son from the Father, a man from God. What kind of secret is this, they say, that they leave the land, strive for the seas, leave the fatherland, seek foreign countries? John 1:11. And they said to him: What should we do with you so that the sea will calm down for us? for the sea waxed and swelled. LXX: And they said to him: what should we do with you so that the sea will calm down for us? For the sea rose and raised the waves more. Are you saying that because of you, the winds, the waves, the sea, the abysses rose? You indicated the cause of the disease, and indicate the remedy. Since the sea rises against us, we understand that we are subject to wrath for accepting you. If the fault is that we accepted you, then what can we do to prevent the Lord from being angry? “What should we do with you?” , that is, kill you? But you are a honorer of the Lord. Save you? But you are running away from God. It is our duty to place ourselves at your disposal; you should order what we must do in order for the sea to calm down, which now, through its excitement, testifies to the wrath of the Creator. And the historian immediately adds the reason for this kind of question, saying: “the sea was rising and rising.” It arrived as it was commanded, it arrived to avenge its Lord, it arrived in pursuit of the fleeing prophet. It rose more and more every minute and, as if due to the slowdown of the shipmen, became more and more agitated to show that the punishment could not be delayed by the Creator. John 1:12. And he said to them: Take me and throw me into the sea, and the sea will be calm for you; for I know that for my sake this great storm has befallen you. LXX: And Jonah said to them: Take me and throw me into the sea, and the sea will calm down for you; for I know that for my sake great trouble has befallen you. A storm is raging against me, it is looking for me and threatening you with shipwreck in order to strike me: it will strike me so that through my death you will remain alive. “I know,” he says, “that for my sake... this great storm.” I am not unaware that to punish me the elements are thrown into turmoil, the order of the world is disturbed, anger haunts me, shipwreck threatens you; the waves themselves inspire you to throw me into the sea. If I bear the full weight of the storm, you will again receive peace of mind. The generosity of our fugitive is also noteworthy: he does not shy away, does not hide anything, does not deny; fleeing and voluntarily accepts punishment, wanting to die himself, so that others would not die for his sake and so that guilt in the death of others would not be added to the sin of flight. This is said by us in relation to the historical meaning. But we are not unaware that the blowing winds, which, according to the Gospel, the Lord commanded to subside, and the ship in danger on which Jonah slept, and the troubled sea, to which the prohibition is pronounced: “be silent and cease.” Mk. 4:39), refer to the person of the Lord Savior supporting the church in danger or the apostles, who, leaving Him in His suffering, seemed to throw Him into the waves. This Jonah says: “I know that for my sake a great storm has come upon you”; because the winds see that I am going with you to Tarshish, that is, I am sailing to the contemplation of joy, in order to bring you with Me to joy and so that you also may be where I and the Father are (John 14:3). That's why they rage; therefore the world, which lies in evil (1 John 5:19), makes a noise; Therefore, the elements come into confusion, death wants to devour Me in order to kill you too, and does not notice that it seems to be grabbing food on the oud in order to die itself through My death. "Take me and throw me into the sea." It is not our place to take our own life, but we should willingly accept death from others. Therefore, even during persecution, one cannot take one’s own life with one’s own hand, except in cases where chastity is endangered, but one must bow one’s neck to the one who strikes. So, he says, tame the winds, so make, as it were, a propitiatory libation for the sea: the storm that rages against you for my sake will subside due to my death. John 1:13. And the people began to row to return to dry land, but they could not; because the sea was rising and rising against them. LXX: And the people tried to return to the land, but they could not, because the sea was rising and rising against them. The Prophet pronounced judgment against himself; but they, having learned that he worshiped God, did not dare lay hands on him; Therefore, they strived to return to land and avoid danger, so as not to shed blood, preferring to perish rather than be destroyed. What a change! The people who served God say: “Crucify, crucify Him” (John 19:6). And these are commanded to kill, the sea is furious, the storm demands, and yet they, neglecting their own danger, care about the salvation of another. Therefore, LXX are expressed παρεβιάζοντο, that is, they “wanted to overpower” and defeat nature, so as not to cause violence to the prophet of God. These people rowed to return to land because, not knowing the secret of who was about to suffer, they thought that the ship could be saved from danger, while the overthrow of Jonah into the sea should have served to lighten the ship. John 1:14. And they cried out to the Lord and said: We pray to You, Lord, that we may not perish for the soul of this man, and that You may not impute innocent blood to us; for You, Lord, have done as You willed. LXX: And they cried to the Lord and said: Lord! May we not perish for the soul of this man, and may you not impute righteous blood to us; for You, Lord, have done as You willed. The faith of the shipbuilders is great: they themselves are in danger, and they pray for the salvation (anima) of another. For they know that the death of a sinner is worse than the loss of life. “And may you not impute to us,” they say, “innocent blood.” They call the Lord as a witness so that everything they do will not be imputed to them, and as if they say: we do not want to destroy Your prophet; but he himself declared Your wrath, and the storm testifies to this, because You, Lord, have done as You willed, Your will is being fulfilled by our hands. Don’t the words of the shipbuilders seem to us like a statement from Pilate, who washes his hands and says, “I am innocent of the blood of this Man.” (Matthew 27:24)? The pagans do not want to destroy Christ, they testify to innocent blood, and the Jews say: “His blood is on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:25). Therefore, if they raise their hands to heaven, they will not be heard, for they are full of blood. “For You, Lord, did as You willed”: that we accepted him, that a storm arose, that the winds raged, that the sea raised waves, that the fugitive was convicted by lot, that he declared what should be done - in all this Your will, Lord, for You did as You willed. Therefore, the Savior says in the Psalm: “I am willing to do Your will, O Lord” (Psalm 39:9). John 1:15. And they took Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped in its rage. LXX: And they took Jonah and threw him into the sea, and his turbulence stopped in the sea. He did not say: they grabbed him, he does not say: they rushed at him, but: “they took him” (tulerunt), as if carrying him out of respect and reverence for him, and when they threw him into the sea, he did not resist, but put himself at their disposal. And the sea “stopped” because it found the one it was looking for. Just as someone who is pursuing a runaway quickly runs after him, and when he catches up with him, he stops running, but stops and holds on to the one he caught; So the sea expressed anger while Jonah was not there, and when it concluded in its bowels the one it was looking for, it rejoices, caresses him, and as a result of joy, calm weather returns. If we pay attention before the suffering of Christ to the errors of the world, to the contrary winds of various teachings, to the ship and the entire human race, that is, to the creation of the Lord, which is in danger, and after His suffering - to the silence of faith, to peace in the world, to the safety of all and to turning to God; then we will see how, after Jonah was cast into the sea, his excitement (or rage) ceased. John 1:16. And the people of the Lord were afraid with great fear, and they brought sacrifices to the Lord and made vows. LXX [translated] in the same way. Before the Lord suffered, they cried out to their gods in fear; but after His suffering they fear the Lord, that is, they honor Him and worship Him, and not just fear, as we read at the beginning (John 1:5), but with great fear, in accordance with the following words: “with all your soul, and with all your heart, and with all your thought” (Matthew 22:37). And they brought... sacrifices,” not in the literal sense, because they did not have such when they were among the waves, but in the sense that a broken spirit serves as a sacrifice to God (Psalm 50:19). And in another place it says: “devour the sacrifice of praise to God and render your prayers to the Most High” (Psalm 49:14), and again: “we will give You the bullocks of our lips” (Hosea 14:3). Therefore, they offer sacrifices at sea and voluntarily promise other sacrifices, vowing never to depart from the One whom they began to honor. They were afraid with great fear, because from the silence of the sea and the distance of the storm they saw the truth of the prophet's words. Jonah, through his flight to the sea, wreck and death, saves a ship tossed by the waves, saves the pagans, who were previously wavering due to the errors and different views of the world. And Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, Joel, who prophesied at the same time, could not correct the people in Judea. This shows that the storm cannot subside except through the death of the one who fled. See letter 35 in Tvoren. bliss Jerome in Russian translation Part 1 countries 193–195. Sn. also Tolkov. bliss Jerome on the book of the prophet Isaiah ch. II Art. 16 (in the Russian translation, part 7, pp. 46–48). Although in 3 Kings. Ch. 5, where Hiram is spoken of, Joppa is not mentioned, but, as can be seen from a comparison with the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles. Ch. 2, the trees were delivered by sea by Hiram specifically to Joppa (i.e., to Jaffa). Virgil. Aeneid. VIII, 112–114. You might be interested in: