Jonah 2:7

7 When my endurance was weakening, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple.

Jonah 2:7 Meaning and Commentary

Jonah 2:7

When my soul fainted within me
Covered with grief; overwhelmed with sorrow; ready to faint and sink at the sight of his sins; and under a sense of the wrath and displeasure of God, and being forsaken by him: I remembered the Lord;
his covenant and promises, his former mercies and lovingkindness, the gracious experiences he had had of these in times past; he remembered he was a God gracious and merciful, and ready to forgive, healed the backslidings of his people, and still loved them freely, and tenderly received and embraced them, when they returned to him: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple;
into heaven itself, the habitation of God's holiness, the temple where he dwells, and is worshipped by holy angels and glorified saints; the prayer the prophet put up in the fish's belly, encouraged to it by remembering the mercy and goodness of God, ascended from thence, and reached the ears of the Lord of hosts in the highest heavens, and met with a kind reception, and had a gracious answer; see ( Psalms 3:4 ) ( 22:6 ) .

Jonah 2:7 In-Context

5 Waters have grasped me to the point of death; the deep surrounds me. Seaweed is wrapped around my head

6 at the base of the undersea mountains. I have sunk down to the underworld; its bars held me with no end in sight. But you brought me out of the pit.'

7 When my endurance was weakening, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple.

8 Those deceived by worthless things lose their chance for mercy.

9 But me, I will offer a sacrifice to you with a voice of thanks. That which I have promised, I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!"

Footnotes

• [a]. Endurance here renders the same Heb word as life in 1:14 and death in 2:5.