1 Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish:

Summary-introduction of the Thanksgiving Psalm from inside of the fish with acknowledgment that the Lord heard his prayer in the waters (2-4a)

2 I called to the Lord in my distress, and He answered me.

I cried out for help in the belly of Sheol;

You heard my voice.

3 You threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas, and the current overcame me.

All Your breakers and Your billows swept over me.

Partial content of Jonah’s thoughts to pray toward God in the water: he trusts the Lord to hear him in the temple (4)

4 But I said: I have been banished from Your sight, yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.

Summary inside of the fish, continued, of his account in the water as the basis for his prayer of thanksgiving, including his recounting of his remembrance of the Lord while in the water and the Lord’s answering of Jonah from the temple (5-7)

5 The waters engulfed me up to the neck; the watery depths overcame me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.

6 I sank to the foundations of the mountains; the earth with its prison bars closed behind me forever!

But You raised my life from the Pit, Lord my God!

7 As my life was fading away, I remembered Yahweh.

My prayer came to You, to Your holy temple.

Gospel decisions inside of the fish based on the thankfulness: (1) proclamation of the uniqueness of the Lord in salvation (2:8,9b), (2) promise to give thanks (2:9), and (3) promise to fulfill a vow of sacrifice with his thanksgiving as expression of thanks (2:9)

8 Those who cling to worthless idols forsake faithful love, 9 but as for me, I will sacrifice to You with a voice of thanksgiving.

I will fulfill what I have vowed.

Salvation is from the Lord!