The second rejected possibility was fire, although the reason does not seem to have been the inherent problem of an open fire in a flammable boat. Yahweh tells the brother of Jared that they cannot have fire because “ye shall go as a whale in the midst of the sea,” an image that means they would be underwater at least part of the time. Fire would be dangerous at such a time because it consumes precious oxygen at the very time when it was most needed.
Text: There is no chapter break at this point in the 1830 edition.