Then the sailors became fearful, and every man cried to his god, and they hurled the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down below into the innermost part of the vessel, lain down, and fallen deep asleep.
Jonah 1:3 Yet Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, and paid its fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
Jonah 1:4 But Yahweh hurled a great wind on the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship gave thought to breaking apart.
Jonah 1:5 Then the sailors became fearful, and every man cried to his god, and they hurled the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down below into the innermost part of the vessel, lain down, and fallen deep asleep.
Jonah 1:6 So the captain came near to him and said to him, “How is it that you are deeply sleeping? Arise, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”
Jonah 1:7 Then each man said to the other, “Come, let us have the lots fall so we may know on whose account this calamitous evil has struck us.” So they had the lots fall, and the lot fell on Jonah.
The verse centers on "light", "sailors", "became", "fearful", "cried", "hurled", "cargo", and "ship". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "light" and "sailors", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 4's "But Yahweh hurled a great wind on..." into verse 6's "So the captain came near to him...", so "light" and "sailors" belong inside that flow. In Jonah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "light" and "sailors" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.