73 JONAH’S SAILORS THEIR LOT CASTING AND (1) “ Pagan ” practices (1,5a-b) 23 → (2) a non-descript but typically Israelite divination practice: lot casting (1,7) → (3) acts of Yahwistic piety: prayer, sacrifice, and vows (1,14.16). This development, especially the last two steps, foreshadows and prefigures — as well as corresponds to and correlates with — the later episode in 3,5-10 where the Ninevites are fully abreast of Israelite repentance strategies 24. That later episode, in turn, casts light on the sailors’ earlier lot casting. No longer is that lot casting solely or merely something that sailors would do — especially not normally — or that makes perfect sense in the midst of a violent storm at sea, both of which may be seriously doubted. Instead, the sailors, no less than the Ninevites, are shown to be “unknowing” or “anonymous Israelites”, as it were 25. In the one instance, the foreigners are expert in Israelite divinatory practices, which leads directly to right action and prayer (chapter 1); in the other, they are expert in Israelite penitential practices, which again leads directly to right action and prayer (chapter 3). Again, a progression can be traced: only in order to contrast it with “the nondeveloping portrait of the Ninevites” (Rhetorical Criticism, 182; my emphases; cf. 190 on “stages” in the sailors’ recognition). SASSON, Jonah, 111-112 speaks of the sailors changing tactics: from wanting “to force heaven to single out the guilty” (i.e., the prayers before the lot casting) to letting the lots do it for them. See TRIBLE, Rhetorical Criticism, 136, for the possibility that the syntax 23 in 1,5b “implies that the sailors try to appease the sea (a deity?) by sacrificing their wares. This interpretation resonates with the line, ‘they-cried, each-man to his-god(s)’ ”. See BRODY, “ Each Man Cried Out to His God”, 10-11, for a trio ˇ of storm gods (Ba’al Samêm, Ba’al Malagê, and Ba’al Sapon) mentioned in the ¯ ˙ treaty of Esarhaddon and Ba’al of Tyre, who were thought to cause ill-winds or violent tides and waves against ships. Cf. BRODY, “ Each Man Cried Out to His God ”, 36 on Milqart’s vanquishing of sea-monsters, and 64-72 on divine figures housed on board ships. BRODY, “ Each Man Cried Out to His God”, 25, does not develop the connections between Yamm and Poseidon, nor does he sufficiently discuss the possible antagonism of these gods in maritime contexts, citing only Cadmus’ prayer to Poseidon during a tempest. For fasting with sackcloth, see esp. Neh 9,1; Dan 9,3; and 1 Macc 3,47; 24 cf. also Matt 11,21. Cf. K. Rahner’s notion of “anonymous Christians” — e.g. P. IMHOF – 25 H. BIALLOWONS (eds.), Karl Rahner in Dialogue. Conversations and Interviews 1965-1982 (New York 1986) 207.