The Ship that Planned to Break (Jonah 1:4)

When studying a Bible passage, it is sometimes helpful to do a deeper study on the words or expressions in the passage. However, we should be careful to use reasonable study methods. Otherwise, we might “discover” things in the Bible which were not intended by God!

For a simple example, let us consider Jonah 1:4:

But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. (ESV)

The Hebrew word for “threatened” here is ḥiššēḇ (חִשֵּׁב), which means “to calculate; to think about; to plan”. Essentially, ḥiššēḇ involves the use of the mind. Here are some other Bible passages where ḥiššēḇ is used:

• Leviticus 25:50, “He shall calculate [ḥiššēḇ] with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee.” (ESV)
• Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart plans [ḥiššēḇ] his way, but YHWH directs his steps.”
• Proverbs 24:8, “He who plans [ḥiššēḇ] to do evil, they will call him the master of mischief.”
• Hosea 7:15, “And I myself trained and strengthened their arms; but they plan [ḥiššēḇ] evil against me.”
• Nahum 1:9, “What do you plan [ḥiššēḇ] against YHWH? He will completely destroy it; trouble will not rise up a second time!“

Therefore, the Hebrew text of Jonah 1:4 actually says that,

the ship planned to break up.

This means that the ship had a mind! The ship thought to itself, “Hmm, I should break up now!” Wow, what an amazing insight that is found in the original text of this Bible passage!

Now, is that really the true, “deeper” meaning in the Hebrew text of this Bible passage? Of course not. It is certainly true that the word ḥiššēḇ means “to plan”. However, a native speaker of Classical (Biblical) Hebrew would naturally know that in this context, ḥiššēḇ was meant to be understood idiomatically: the ship was about to be broken up. He would not think that there was any special meaning beyond that.

This same thing happens in the following English sentence:

The ship threatened to break up.

The word “threaten” here is not supposed to be understood in its normal sense. It is not as though the ship started speaking and made a threat, “Hey, if this storm does not stop, I will break up!” Rather, a native English-speaker would naturally know that the word “threaten” here is meant to be understood idiomatically: the ship was in danger of breaking up. There is no “deeper” meaning here!

Conclusion

This simple example illustrates what often happens when someone tries to do a deeper study into a Bible passage without using reasonable study methods. Of course, we should always make effort to understand the true meaning of Bible passages. However, if we are not careful with our methods, we might learn things that are not true, or even teach falsehoods to others!