Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
It then follows, that the men feared with great fear, and said, Why hast thou done this? מה-זאת עשית, — “What this thou hast done?” “τί τουτο εποίησας — what this thou hast done?” — Sept. “Quid (i.e., cur) hoc fecisti — why hast thou done this?” — Marckius; so Jerome, and Drusius, and Dathius. “What is this thou hast done?” — Henderson.
When Jonah was set on ship-board, and under sail for Tarshish, he thought himself safe enough; but here we find him pursued and overtaken, discovered and convicted as a deserter from God, as one that had run his colours. I. God sends a pursuer after him, a mighty tempest in the sea, Jon 1:4.
Commenting on Jonah 1:4-10
Then were the men exceedingly afraid,.... When they found he was a Hebrew, and that it was the God of the Hebrews that was angry; of whom they had heard much, and what great and wonderful things had been done by him, and now had an experience of his power and providence, and that it was for fleeing from his presence that all this was...