He said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land."
"Who hath made the sea and the dry land ..." Such a confession on Jonah's part was calculated, whether by design or not, to arouse the most anxious fear on the part of the sailors.  It was precisely "the sea" which was the source of all their troubles at the moment; and the knowledge that Jonah had offended the God who created the sea would have been the cause of the most urgent alarm.