Jonah 2:2-9

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.^[a]

3 You threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas,^[b] and the current^[c] overcame me. All Your breakers and Your billows swept over me.^[d]

4 But I said: I have been banished from Your sight,^[e] yet I will look once more^[f] toward Your holy temple.^[g]

5 The waters engulfed me up to the neck;^[h][i] 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!^[j]

7 As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord. My prayer came to You, to Your holy temple.^[k]

8 Those who cling to worthless idols forsake faithful love,^[l]

9 but as for me, I will sacrifice to You with a voice of thanksgiving.^[m] I will fulfill^[n] what I have vowed. Salvation^[o] is from the Lord!^[p]

Jonah 2:2-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JONAH 2

This chapter contains the prayer of Jonah, when in the fish's belly; the time when he prayed, the person he prayed unto, and the place where, are suggested in Jon 2:1; and the latter described as a place of great straitness and distress, and even as hell itself, Jon 2:2; The condition he was in, when cast into the sea, and when in the belly of the fish, which is observed, the more to heighten the greatness of the deliverance, Jon 2:3-6. The different frame of mind he was in, sometimes almost in despair, and ready to faint; and presently exercising faith and hope, remembering the goodness of the Lord, and resolving to look again to him, Jon 2:4,7. The gracious regards of God to him, in receiving, hearing, and answering his prayer, and bringing up his life from corruption, Jon 2:2,6,7. His resolution, let others do what they would, to praise the Lord, and give him the glory of his salvation, Jon 2:8,9; and the chapter is concluded with the order for his deliverance, and the manner of it, Jon 2:10.

Footnotes

• [a]. Ps 18:6; 34:7
• [b]. Neh 9:11
• [c]. Lit river
• [d]. Ps 42:7
• [e]. Ps 31:23
• [f]. LXX reads said: Indeed, will I look . . . ?
• [g]. Ps 5:7; 138:2
• [h]. Or me, threatening my life
• [i]. Ps 69:1
• [j]. Ps 30:3; 86:13
• [k]. Ps 88:2
• [l]. Ps 31:6
• [m]. Ps 26:7
• [n]. Ps 22:5; 116:14,18; Ec 5:4
• [o]. Or Deliverance
• [p]. Ps 3:8; Isa 12:2; Rv 7:10