Jonah 2:6

6 I went down to the uttermost places of hills, the bars of earth (en)closed me (al)together, into without end; and thou, my Lord God, shalt raise up my life from corruption. (I went down to the uttermost places, or the very roots, of the hills, or of the mountains, and there the bars, or the gates, of the earth would have locked me in forever; but thou, my Lord God, raised up my life from corruption.)

Jonah 2:6 Meaning and Commentary

Jonah 2:6

I went down to the bottom of the mountains
Which are in the midst of the sea, whither the fish carried him, and where the waters are deep; or the bottom of rocks and promontories on the shore of the sea; and such vast rocks hanging over the sea, whose bottoms were in it, it seems are on the shore of Joppa, near to which Jonah was cast into the sea, as Egesippus ^F6 relates: the earth with her bars [was] about me for ever;
that is, the earth with its cliffs and rocks on the seashore, which are as bars to the sea, that it cannot overflow it; these were such bars to Jonah, that could he have got clear of the fish's belly, and attempted to swim to shore, he could never get to it, or over these bars, the rocks and cliffs, which were so steep and high: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God;
notwithstanding these difficulties, which were insuperable by human power, and these seeming impossibilities of, deliverance; yet the Lord brought him out of the fish's belly, as out of a grave, the pit of corruption, and where he must otherwise have lain and rotted, and freed his soul from those terrors which would have destroyed him; and by this also we learn, that this form of words was composed after he came to dry land: herein likewise he was a type of Christ, who, though laid in the grave, was not left there so long as to see corruption, ( Psalms 16:10 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 "De excidio", Urb. Hieros. l. 3. c. 20.

Jonah 2:6 In-Context

4 And I said, I am cast away from the sight of thine eyes; nevertheless again I shall see thine holy temple. (And I said, Though I am thrown away from thy sight; nevertheless I shall see thy holy Temple again.)

5 Waters (en)compassed me till to my soul, deepness environed me, the sea(weed) covered mine head. (The water surrounded me unto my very breath, the depths environed me, the seaweed covered my head.)

6 I went down to the uttermost places of hills, the bars of earth (en)closed me (al)together, into without end; and thou, my Lord God, shalt raise up my life from corruption. (I went down to the uttermost places, or the very roots, of the hills, or of the mountains, and there the bars, or the gates, of the earth would have locked me in forever; but thou, my Lord God, raised up my life from corruption.)

7 When my soul was anguished in me, I bethought on the Lord, that my prayer come to thee, to thine holy temple. (And when my soul was anguished within me, I thought about the Lord, and that my prayer would come to thee, in thy holy Temple.)

8 They that keep vanities, forsake their mercy idly. (Those who worship idols, idly desert thy mercy.)