The second part of the prayer
contains the petition: “and do not impose innocent blood on us.” The phrase
“innocent blood” can refer both to the blood of an innocent person and to
“unjustly shed blood” (Wolff, 120). The first meaning is evident in Jeremiah’s
use of the phrase to refer to punishment that Jerusalem will incur if the
leaders shed (his!) innocent blood.
In light of the second meaning,
“unjustly shed blood,” the sailors articulate the concern that if they do what
is necessary to survive, they will be guilty of murder. The wording in 1:14 (wěʾal-tittēn ʿālênû dām nāqîʾ) most
precisely recalls Deut 21:8 (wěʾal-tittēn
dām nāqî), the literary context of which clarifies what is at stake if the
sailors consent to toss Jonah into the sea. Deuteronomy 21:1–9 presents a
situation in which a body has been discovered and the identity of the murderer
is unknown. The inability to identify the murderer means the crime goes
unpunished and the bloodguilt threatens to persist within the community. To
purge (kpr) the residual guilt from
all the people of Israel (Deut 21:1–9), the elders perform a ritual in which
they declare that they did not shed the blood; then they pray that innocent
blood will not be imposed in the midst of the people and that they will be absolved
(nikkappēr, Deut 21:8) of the blood (haddām). The parallel suggests that if
the sailors consent to murder Jonah, his blood will adhere to them and stain
their own lives. The sailors’ prayer gives voice to the idea that the murder of
a human being will have consequences for them, not just legally, but ritually
because spilled human blood that goes unpunished has the power to contaminate
all who encounter it, even innocent bystanders (see also Jer 26:14–15). (Amy
Erickson, Jonah: Introduction and
Commentary [Illuminations Commentary Series; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans,
2021], 259)
