So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God. The ancient pagan in dangers called on foreign gods, besides their national ones (cf. Psalms 107:28, "Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their distresses"). While they pray, he sleeps; while they are all active, he does nothing who is the guilty cause of all the danger. Maurer translates the preceding clause, 'What is the reason that thou sleepest?'
If so be that God will think upon us - for good (cf. Genesis 8:1, "God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle, that was with him in the ark;" Exodus 2:25, "God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them;" Exodus 3:7; Exodus 3:9; Psalms 40:17, "I am poor and needy ... the Lord thinketh upon me;" Jeremiah 29:11, "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end"). God - literally, 'the God.' The shipmaster, having found his own gods powerless to save, turneth to THE GOD of Jonah as the true God.