1 Samuel 10:20-21

10:20 Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen by lot. 10:21 Then he brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its families, and the family of Matri was chosen by lot. At last Saul son of Kish was chosen by lot. But when they looked for him, he was nowhere to be found.

Joshua 7:16-18

7:16 Bright and early the next morning Joshua made Israel approach in tribal order ¹  and the tribe of Judah was selected. 7:17 He then made the clans of Judah approach and the clan of the Zerahites was selected. He made the clan of the Zerahites approach and Zabdi ²  was selected. ³  7:18 He then made Zabdi’s ⁴  family approach man by man ⁵  and Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, was selected.

Jonah 1:7

1:7 The sailors said to one another, ⁶  “Come on, let’s cast lots ⁷  to find out ⁸  whose fault it is that this disaster has overtaken us. ⁹ ” So they cast lots, and Jonah was singled out. ¹⁰ 

[7:16]  ¹ tn Heb “by tribes.”

[7:17]  ² tn See the note on “Zabdi” in 1 Chr 7:1.

[7:17]  ³ tn Heb “and he selected Zabdi.” The Lord is the apparent subject. The LXX supports reading a passive (Niphal) form here, as does the immediate context.

[7:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Zabdi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “by men.”

[1:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “And they said, a man to his companion.” The plural verb is individualized by “a man.”

[1:7]  ⁷ sn The English word lots is a generic term. In some cultures the procedure for “casting lots” is to “draw straws” so that the person who receives the short straw is chosen. In other situations a colored stone or a designated playing card might be picked at random. In Jonah’s case, small stones were probably used.

[1:7]  ⁸ sn In the ancient Near East, casting lots was a custom used to try to receive a revelation from the gods about a particular situation. The Phoenician sailors here cried out to their gods and cast lots in the hope that one of their gods might reveal the identity of the person with whom he was angry. CEV has well captured the sentiment of v.7b: “‘Let’s ask our gods to show us who caused all this trouble.’ It turned out to be Jonah.”

[1:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “On whose account this calamity is upon us.”

[1:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the lot fell on Jonah.” From their questions posed to Jonah, it does not appear that the sailors immediately realize that Jonah was the one responsible for the storm. Instead, they seem to think that he is the one chosen by their gods to reveal to them the one responsible for their plight. It is only after he admits in vv. 9-10 that he was fleeing from the God whom he served that they realize that Jonah was in fact the cause of their trouble.