So they cried out to the LORD: “Please, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life! Do not charge us with innocent blood! For You, O LORD, have done as You pleased.”
I come now to the second verse. They cried, he says, to Jehovah and said, We beseech אנה and נא are particles of entreaty or exclamation, and may be rendered, “I, or, we pray,” according to the context. Here they should be, “We pray.” They are sometimes rendered, Oh! Alas! Now. — Ed.
It is plain that Jonah is the man for whose sake this evil is upon them, but the discovery of him to be so was not sufficient to answer the demands of this tempest; they had found him out, but something more was to be done, for still the sea wrought and was tempestuous (Jon 1:11), and again (Jon 1:13), it grew more and more...
Commenting on Jonah 1:11-17
Wherefore they cried unto the Lord,.... Not unto their gods, but unto the true Jehovah, the God of Jonah, and of the Hebrews; whom they now, by this providence, and Jonah's discourse, had some convictions and knowledge of as the true God; and therefore direct their prayer to him, before they cast the prophet into the sea: and said, we beseech thee, O Lord, we...