Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring [it] to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
Ver. 13. Nevertheless the men rowed] Heb. digged: for so they that row seem to do with their oars as with spades. Hence also the Latin poets say, that boatmen cut, plough, furrow the waters (Virg. Aeneid.), Vastum sulcavimus aequor. Infindunt pariter sulcos. The Seventy render it παρεβιαζοντο, they did their utmost endeavour, with violence, to bring the ship to shore, and to save Jonah: and not as those bloody emperors, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, who took delight in the punishment of offenders, and used to come early in the morning into the marketplace to behold their executions. Non nisi coactus, said that better emperor, when he was to subscribe a sentence of death; and, Oh, that I could not write mine own name (Utinam literas nescirem), said another upon the like occasion.
But they could not] They did but strive against the stream, for the Lord had otherwise determined it; and Voluntas Dei necessitas rei, who hath resisted his will?
For the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them.] As John 1:11. Praesentemque viris intentant omnia mortem.