‘And they said every one to his fellow, “Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is on us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.”
Then in desperation, when things did not improve, the mariners decided to cast lots in order to find out who among them had angered the gods so much that it had resulted in this evil coming on them. The word for ‘evil' is the same one mentioned with regard to the Ninevites in Jonah 1:2. But here it signifies ‘evil events', that is, catastrophes. And when they did cast lots, the lot fell on Jonah. YHWH had ‘disposed of' the lot in order to indicate the culprit (Proverbs 16:33).