Jonah 1:4
“But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The LORD hurls a great wind onto the sea, raising a storm so fierce the ship is about to break apart.
What Does Jonah 1:4 Mean?
The little word but turns the story. Jonah has set his course, and now God acts. The verb behind sent out is forceful, picturing the Lord flinging a wind upon the waters. The result is a tempest so violent that the ship itself seems to think it will be broken, as the Hebrew vividly puts it. The sea, which the ancients dreaded as chaos, is here entirely under God's command.
This storm is not random weather but a summons. God will not simply let His prophet drift away; He pursues with wind and wave. There is severity in this, yet also grace, for the storm that endangers Jonah is the same storm that turns him back toward life. God often disturbs our settled flight precisely because He loves us too much to leave us in it. The One who later stilled a storm with a word here raises one, and both the raising and the stilling come from the same caring hand.
In the Original Language
ruach (רוּחַ), 'wind' -- the same word means breath and spirit, hinting that the storm is no accident but the breath of God set against Jonah's flight.