הוֹלֵ֥ךְ (hō·w·lêḵ) in Jonah 1:11: Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
הוֹלֵ֥ךְ (hō·w·lêḵ) in Jonah 1:11
Source Word
At Jonah 1:11, the source token הוֹלֵ֥ךְ is H1980, V-Qal-Prtcpl-ms. The BSB+ word table row therefore anchors this guide.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
Was growing worse captures the progressive force of the going participle in this storm context. The danger is not static: while Jonah's disobedience remains unresolved, the sea continues intensifying and presses the crew toward action.
How To Communicate It
Explain the Hebrew going idiom so readers hear an intensifying sea, then connect that pressure to the sailors' urgent question.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Do not translate the participle woodenly as walking or infer that the sea itself is morally angry.
- The participle emphasizes ongoing escalation, while the exact English idiom may be growing worse, increasingly stormy, or more violent.
- Read was growing worse within Jonah 1:11 as this H1980 occurrence; broader theology requires the passage.
What Does The Label Mean?
Hebrew-verb
Verb
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular
Qal
Prtcpl
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
None
Participial form keeps the worsening storm in progress as the sailors turn to Jonah for an answer.
The participle agrees with the masculine singular sea and joins an idiom in which going expresses progressive increase.
What The Form Does In This Verse
The sea as it continues intensifying around the ship
The circumstantial statement prompting the sailors' question to Jonah
The masculine singular Qal participle portrays the sea as continuing to go and storm, idiomatically growing worse.
The verb does not describe spatial walking or assign moral agency to the sea.
How Much The Form Matters Here
Moderate: The danger is not static: while Jonah's disobedience remains unresolved, the sea continues intensifying and presses the crew toward action.
The participle agrees with the masculine singular sea and joins an idiom in which going expresses progressive increase.. The masculine singular Qal participle portrays the sea as continuing to go and storm, idiomatically growing worse.. Attached to the sea as it continues intensifying around the ship. Governed by the circumstantial statement prompting the sailors' question to Jonah. The verb does not describe spatial walking or assign moral agency to the sea.
Why is a verb meaning go rendered was growing worse? With the storm description, the participle forms an idiom of continued increase: the sea keeps becoming more violent.
Direct: Was growing worse captures the progressive force of the going participle in this storm context.
The participle emphasizes ongoing escalation, while the exact English idiom may be growing worse, increasingly stormy, or more violent. The sea is grammatically the subject, but personification should not be pressed into independent will.
Lexical gloss must be walking: Context turns the go participle into an intensifying construction rather than literal movement on foot. grammatical subject is a moral agent: The sea performs the clause action under divine governance without possessing human guilt.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
At Jonah 1:11, the source token הוֹלֵ֥ךְ is H1980, V-Qal-Prtcpl-ms. The BSB+ word table row therefore anchors this guide.
הָלַךְ is the lemma behind was growing worse here. Within Jonah 1:11, H1980 retains this exact lexical identity.
The participle agrees with the masculine singular sea and joins an idiom in which going expresses progressive increase.
The danger is not static: while Jonah's disobedience remains unresolved, the sea continues intensifying and presses the crew toward action.
Creation serves the Lord's pursuit of his prophet, but the form itself describes escalation rather than explaining providence.
Explain the Hebrew going idiom so readers hear an intensifying sea, then connect that pressure to the sailors' urgent question.
Do not translate the participle woodenly as walking or infer that the sea itself is morally angry.