Revisiting Jonah, The Descent, 1:1-5, The Dice, 1:6-9

There are already a few posts on this blog on Jonah that I did last year, as a kind of undergraduate final exam that was set for me and which I marked myself from Christensen's work here. I thought I would update the tables in those old posts - even perhaps produce a post on each section, so I spent the morning jiggering my algorithms to accept Jonah from the data rather than Psalms - a bit tricky in an ad hoc system. I might get the whole act together at some point - but here below for starters is Jonah 1:1-9 with the question - does it divide into 2 sections?

You may remember that in the pdf, I divided Jonah into 7 sections. These are named for the keyword in the section. It turns out that I can be even more precise now that I have learned more about how to use these tables.

• Chapter 1 The Descent (1-9), The Sea The Mortals (10-16), 
• Chapter 2 The Fish, 
• Chapter 3 The Call ???? (1-5), The Turn (6-10), 
• Chapter 4 The City ???? (1-5), The Tender Plant (6-11).  

But I think that chapter 1 may further divide. And I have noted already that even single verses sometimes give a beautiful diagram. Let's see what comes of ...

The Descent.

Jonah, like the dew of Hermon, and the precious oil of Psalm 133, descends in his escape from יהוה (shades of Psalm 139 too.) Jonah's descent is not complete till chapter 2, when he descends to the roots of the hills, but all the other occurrences of descending are in chapter 1:1-5.

וַיְהִי דְּבַר יְהוָה אֶל יוֹנָה בֶן אֲמִתַּי לֵאמֹר	1.1	and the word of יְהוָה happened to Jonah1 child of Amittai saying
קוּם לֵךְ אֶל נִינְוֵה הָעִיר הַגְּדוֹלָה וּקְרָא עָלֶיהָ כִּי עָלְתָה רָעָתָם לְפָנָי	1.2	Rise - walk to Nineveh2 the great city and call out against her for their evil has ascended in my face
וַיָּקָם יוֹנָה לִבְרֹחַ תַּרְשִׁישָׁה מִלִּפְנֵי יְהוָה וַיֵּרֶד יָפוֹ וַיִּמְצָא אֳנִיָּה בָּאָה תַרְשִׁישׁ וַיִּתֵּן שְׂכָרָהּ וַיֵּרֶד בָּהּ לָבוֹא עִמָּהֶם תַּרְשִׁישָׁה מִלִּפְנֵי יְהוָה	1.3	but Jonah rose and ran away to Tarshish away from the face of יְהוָה and he descended to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish and he paid the fare and descended into her to go with them to Tarshish away from the face of יְהוָה
וַיהוָה הֵטִיל רוּחַ גְּדוֹלָה אֶל הַיָּם וַיְהִי סַעַר גָּדוֹל בַּיָּם וְהָאֳנִיָּה חִשְּׁבָה לְהִשָּׁבֵר	1.4	but יְהוָה hurled a great wind onto the sea and a great tempest happened on the sea and the ship, she was reckoning she was a wreck
וַיִּירְאוּ הַמַּלָּחִים וַיִּזְעֲקוּ אִישׁ אֶל אֱלֹהָיו וַיָּטִלוּ אֶת הַכֵּלִים אֲשֶׁר בָּאֳנִיָּה אֶל הַיָּם לְהָקֵל מֵעֲלֵיהֶם וְיוֹנָה יָרַד אֶל יַרְכְּתֵי הַסְּפִינָה וַיִּשְׁכַּב וַיֵּרָדַם	1.5	And the salt-sea-farers feared and they cried each to his God and they hurled their cargo that was in the ship onto the sea lightening themselves of trifles but Jonah had descended into the recesses below decks and he was laid out unconscious3
וַיִּקְרַב אֵלָיו רַב הַחֹבֵל וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ מַה לְּךָ נִרְדָּם קוּם קְרָא אֶל אֱלֹהֶיךָ אוּלַי יִתְעַשֵּׁת הָאֱלֹהִים לָנוּ וְלֹא נֹאבֵד	1.6	so the pilot approached him and said to him what's with you - unconscious! Rise! Call out to your God maybe this God will do something for us and we will not perish
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל רֵעֵהוּ לְכוּ וְנַפִּילָה גוֹרָלוֹת וְנֵדְעָה בְּשֶׁלְּמִי הָרָעָה הַזֹּאת לָנוּ וַיַּפִּלוּ גּוֹרָלוֹת וַיִּפֹּל הַגּוֹרָל עַל יוֹנָה	1.7	and they said, each to his companion look here, let's let the dice fall to know from whom this evil is ours and they let the dice fall and the dice fell to Jonah
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו הַגִּידָה נָּא לָנוּ בַּאֲשֶׁר לְמִי הָרָעָה הַזֹּאת לָנוּ מַה מְּלַאכְתְּךָ וּמֵאַיִן תָּבוֹא מָה אַרְצֶךָ וְאֵי מִזֶּה עַם אָתָּה	1.8	and they said to him, make it clear to us, please why is it that this evil is ours? what line of work are you in? and where have you come from? what part of earth? and from this people - who are you?
וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵיהֶם עִבְרִי אָנֹכִי וְאֶת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם אֲנִי יָרֵא אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אֶת הַיָּם וְאֶת הַיַּבָּשָׁה	1.9	and he said to them Hebrew I am and I, I fear יְהוָה the God of the heavens who made the sea and the dry land

1Jonah = Dove

2Nineveh = נִינְוֵה (N is a symbol for fish) + the letters of Jonah יוֹנָה with one reversal.

3shares two letters with descend and three in some forms of the conjugation (stem is רדם).

Here are the tables of recurring roots. Do they support a division of this section into 2 parts? (You can tell immediately from the colour coding, itself calculated from the summed numeric values of the root letters.)

Jonah 1:1-5 The Descent

Selected recurring words in relative order (1 to 5)

Word and gloss * first usage

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1

2

Vs

Root

ויהי and happened

░

1

היה

יהוה יהוה

░

1

יהוה

יונה Jonah

░

1

יונה

קום rise

░

2

קום

הגדולה that great

░

2

גדל

לפני in my face

░

2

פנה

ויקם but rose

░

3

קום

יונה Jonah

░

3

יונה

תרשׁישׁה to Tarshish

░

3

תרשׁשׁ

מלפני away from the face of

░

3

פנה

יהוה יהוה

░

3

יהוה

וירד and he descended

░

3

ירד

אניה a ship

░

3

אניה

באה going to

░

3

בוא

תרשׁישׁ Tarshish

░

3

תרשׁשׁ

וירד and descended

░

3

ירד

לבוא to go

░

3

בוא

תרשׁישׁה to Tarshish

░

3

תרשׁשׁ

מלפני away from the face of

░

3

פנה

יהוה יהוה

░

3

יהוה

ויהוה but יהוה

░

4

יהוה

הטיל hurled

░

4

טול

גדולה great

░

4

גדל

ויהי and happened

░

4

היה

גדול great

░

4

גדל

בים on the sea

░

4

ים

והאניה and the ship

░

4

אניה

ויטלו and they hurled

░

5

טול

באניה was in the ship

░

5

אניה

הים the sea

░

5

ים

ויונה but Jonah

░

5

יונה

ירד had descended

░

5

ירד

These first few verses introduce the characters, Jonah,יהוה, the ship. (yes she's a character in the story), and the salt-sea-farers (a word used only once in the story, carefully separating these 'characters' from the mortals of verses 10-16). They are the same group of people but their designation has changed. They are known as mortal rather than by their line of work. Is it because they have become aware of יהוה? The section is named from the recurrence of 'descend' but this word does not occur in the remaining 4 verses. The story-teller's memory will have a different hook for the following verses.
Jonah 1:6-9 The Dice

Selected recurring words in relative order (6 to 9)

Word and gloss * first usage	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Vs	Root
ויאמר and said	░									6	אמר
מה what's		░								6	מה
אלהיך your God			░							6	אלוה
לנו for us				░						6	לנו
ויאמרו and they said	░									7	אמר
ונפילה let's throw					░					7	נפל
גורלות the dice						░				7	גורל
הרעה evil							░			7	רע
הזאת this								░		7	זאת
לנו is ours				░						7	לנו
ויפלו and they threw					░					7	נפל
גורלות the dice						░				7	גורל
ויפל and pointed					░					7	נפל
הגורל the dice						░				7	גורל
ויאמרו and they said	░									8	אמר
לנו to us				░						8	לנו
באשׁר that									░	8	אשׁר
הרעה evil							░			8	רע
הזאת this								░		8	זאת
לנו is ours				░						8	לנו
מה what		░								8	מה
מה what		░								8	מה
ויאמר and he said	░									9	אמר
אלהי the God of			░							9	אלוה
אשׁר who									░	9	אשׁר

Verses 6 to 9 are a conversation between the seafarers and the prophet. It is a conversation about evil using dice as a decision making tool. The seafarers are introduced to יהוה, recalling Psalm 107 and after the manner of the psalms of Book 5 that name יהוה as the maker of heaven and earth, in this case, specifically the sea, the source of their distress and dry land, the desirable refuge from the tempest. Jonah can scarcely be justified by this unintended side effect of his disobedience, but it does give others of us a little encouragement that in spite of the awful behaviour of the religious, some benefit might yet accrue, as it were, by chance.