Then Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God, out of the fish’s belly.
He said, “I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice.
For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me.
I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head.
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God.
“When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Yahweh. My prayer came in to you, into your holy temple.
Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to Yahweh.”
Then Yahweh spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–10 When Jonah says that he prayed from the bowels…
When Jonah says that he prayed from the bowels of the fish, he shows first with what courage of mind he was endued. He had then put on a new heart; for when he was at liberty he thought that he could in a manner escape from God, he became a fugitive from the Lord: but now while inclosed within narrow bounds, he begins to pray, and of his own accord sets himself in God’s presence.
This is a change worthy of being noticed: and hence we may learn how much it profits us to be drawn back often as it were by cords, or to be held tied up with fetters because when we are free we go astray here and there beyond all limits. Jonah, when he was at liberty, became, as we have seen, wanton; but now finding himself restrained by the mighty hand of God, he receives a new mind, and prays from the bowels of the fish . But how was it that he directed his petitions then to God, by whose hand he saw that he was so heavily pressed? For God most rigidly handled him; Jonah was in a manner doomed to eternal ruin; the bowels of the fish, as we shall hereafter see, were indeed to him as it were hell or the grave. But in this state of despair Jonah even gathered courage, and was able to retake himself directly to God. It was a wonderful and almost incredible example of faith. Let us then learn to weigh well what is here said; for when the Lord heavily afflicts us, it is then a legitimate and seasonable time for prayer. But we know that the greater part despond, and do not usually offer their prayers freely to God, except their minds be in a calm state; and yet God then especially invites us to himself when we are reduced to extremities. Let this, then, which Jonah declares of himself, come to our minds, — that he cried to God from hell itself: and, at the same time, he assures us that his prayer proceeded from true faith; for he does not simply say that he prayed to Jehovah, but he adds that he was his God; and he speaks with a serious and deeply-reflective mind. Though Jonah then was not only like one dead, but also on the confines of perdition, he yet believed that God would be merciful if he fled to him. We hence see that Jonah prayed not at random, as hypocrites are wont to take God’s name in their mouths when they are in distress, but he prayed in earnest; for he was persuaded that God would be propitious to him.
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But we must remember that his prayer was not composed in the words which are here related; but Jonah, while in the bowels of the fish, dwelt on these thoughts in his mind. Hence he relates in this song how he thought and felt; and we shall see that he was then in a state of distraction, as our minds must necessarily be tossed here and there by temptations. For the servants of God do not gain the victory without great struggle. We must fight, and indeed strenuously, that we may conquer. Jonah then in this song shows that he was agitated with great trouble and hard contests: yet this conviction was firmly fixed in his heart, — that God was to be sought, and would not be sought in vain, as he is ever ready to bring help to his people whenever they cry to him.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 8 Being now swallowed up of death, and seeing no…
Being now swallowed up of death, and seeing no remedy to escape, his faith brast out unto the Lord, knowing that out of the very hell he was able to deliver him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–10 Jon 2:1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his…
Jon 2:1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,
Ver. 1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God] i.e. Praised God with this Canticum eucharisticum, this gratulatory song, as Tremellius calleth it. That he prayed in the ship, in the sea, in the whale’s belly, we doubt not; but that he chiefly intendeth to show his thankfulness for the return of prayers and the sweet support he felt in the whale’s belly we do as little doubt, see Jon 2:2; Jon 2:6-7; yea, that this was the substance (though now better methodized) of what he prayed and praised in the bowels of the fish we have cause to believe from this very verse; and therefore also his deliverance is set down, Jon 2:10, after his doxology. The word here rendered prayed signifieth also, sometimes, to give thanks, as 1Sa 2:2; and who knows not that thanksgiving is a special part of prayer? This therefore is prayer. Jonah having prayed, and perceiving that he was heard, and by the goodness of God preserved safe in body and sound in mind, he grows "strong in faith, giving glory to God," Rom 4:20, and being fully persuaded that he should yet walk before him again in the land of the living.
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Out of the fish’s belly] Where, though he might seem buried alive, and free among the dead, yet he enjoyed God’s gracious presence, and those strong consolations that made him live in the very mouth of death, and say in effect, as blessed Bradford did, I thank God more for this prison and for this dark dungeon than for any parlour, yea, than of any pleasure that ever I had; for in it I find God my most sweet God always.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–10 Then, Heb. And, at that time when he lay…
Then, Heb. And, at that time when he lay by the heels a close prisoner in a prison, whence none before or since ever came out alive,
Jonah prayed; sent his petition in all humble and submissive manner unto God: Jonah, wonderfully preserved alive, and in full exercise of his judgment and memory, now betakes himself to prayer, and in this exerciseth his graces; his soul follows hard after God, when he was shut up in this dungeon.
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Unto the Lord, that was angry, and now was punishing of Jonah; the Lord, who had committed him to this prison; the almighty God, who can do for Jonah all that he can need or desire.
His God; though Jonah in his froward fit flees from his God, yet now, by the rod taught better, he flees to God, nay, as his God, and remembers his particular interest in God. If Jonah prays by faith grounded on God’s almightiness, now he prays with assurance and hope of faith, looking to God as his God; if the power of the Lord and his mercy keep Jonah alive in the fish’s belly, the same power and mercy can deliver him out of this danger, and the prophet believes he is kept there for an enlargement as miraculous as his confinement was.
Out of the fish’s belly; where he was a prisoner under many miracles, and all concur to awaken him to prayer and faith; he calls it
the belly of hell, or the grave, Jon 2:2. He employed his time well there.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–8 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out…
Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. Though Jonah had been a praying man, being a good man, and a prophet of the Lord, yet it seems he had not prayed for some time; being disobedient to the will of God, he restrained prayer before him; all the while he was going to Joppa he prayed not; and how indeed could he have the face to pray to him, from whose face he was fleeing? and as soon as he was in the ship he fell asleep, and there lay till he was waked by the shipmaster, who called upon him to arise, and pray to his God; but whether he did or no is not said; and though it is very probable he might, when convicted of his sin, and before he was cast into the sea, and as he was casting into it; his not recorded; but when he was in the fish's belly, "then he prayed"; where it is marvellous he should, or could; it was strange he should be able to breathe, and more strange to breathe spiritually; it was very wonderful he should have the exercise of his reason, and more that he should have the exercise of grace, as faith and hope, as it appears by the following prayer he had. Prayer may be performed any where, on a mountain, in a desert, in the caves and dens of the earth, and in a prison, as it has been; but this is the only time it ever was performed in such a place. Jonah is the only man that ever prayed in a fish's belly: and he prayed unto the Lord as "his God", not merely by creation, and as the God of nature and providence, the God of his life, and of his mercies; but as his covenant God and Father; for though he had sinned against the Lord, and had been sorely chastised by him, yet he did not take his lovingkindness from him, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail, or break his covenant with him; covenant interest and relation still continued; and Jonah had knowledge of it, and faith in it; and as this is an argument the Lord makes use of to engage backsliders to return unto him, it is a great encouragement to them so to do, Jer 3:14. In this Jonah was a type of Christ, who, amidst his agonies, sorrows, and sufferings, prayed to his Father, and claimed his interest in him as his God, Heb 5:7. What follows contains the sam and substance of the prophet's thoughts, and the ejaculations of his mind, when in the fish's belly; but were not put up in this form, but were reduced by him into it after he was delivered; as many of David's psalms were put into the form and order they are after his deliverance from troubles, suitable to his thoughts of things when he was in them; and indeed the following account is an historical narration of facts, which were before and after his prayer, as well as of that itself.
. What follows contains the sam and substance of the prophet's thoughts, and the ejaculations of his mind, when in the fish's belly; but were not put up in this form, but were reduced by him into it after he was delivered; as many of David's psalms were put into the form and order they are after his deliverance from troubles, suitable to his thoughts of things when he was in them; and indeed the following account is an historical narration of facts, which were before and after his prayer, as well as of that itself.
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Jonah 2:2
jon 2:2
jon 2:2
jon 2:2And said,.... Not unto the Lord in prayer, but to others, to whom he communicated what passed between God and him in this time of distress; how he prayed to him, and was heard by him; what a condition he had been in, and how he was delivered out of it; what was his frame of mind while in it, sometimes despairing, and sometimes hoping; and how thankful he was for this salvation, and was determined to praise the Lord for it:
I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; or, "out of my strait" (a); being straitened in his body, and as it were in a prison in the fish's belly; and straitened in his soul, being between hope and despair, and under the apprehensions of the divine displeasure. A time of affliction is a time for prayer; it brings those to it that have disused it; it made Jonah cry to his God, if not with a loud voice, yet inwardly; and his cry was powerful and piercing, it reached the heavens, and entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts, though out of the depths, and out of the belly of a fish, in the midst of the sea:
out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice; or, "out of the belly of the grave" (b); out of the midst of it; that is, out of the belly of the fish, which was as a grave to him, as Jarchi observes; where he lay as out of the land of the living, as one dead, and being given up for dead: and it may also respect the frame of his mind, the horror and terror lie was in, arising from a sense of his sins, and the apprehensions he had of the wrath of God, which were as a hell in his conscience; and amidst all this he cried to God, and he heard him; and not only delivered him from he fish's belly, but from those dreadful apprehensions he had of his state and condition; and spoke peace and pardon to him. This is a proof that this prayer or thanksgiving be it called which it will, was composed, as to the form and order of it, after his deliverance; and these words are an appeal to God for the truth of what he had said in the preceding clause, and not a repetition of it in prayer; or expressing the same thing in different words.
(a) "ex angustia mea", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "ex arcto mihi", Cocceius. (b) "e ventre sepulchri", Calvin, Piscator, Liveleus; "e ventre sepulchrali", Junius & Tremellius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Jonah's prayer and deliverance.
Jonah's prayer and deliverance.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–10 This chapter (except the first verse and the last,…
CHAPTER II
This chapter (except the first verse and the last, which make
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a part of the narrative) contains a beautiful prayer or hymn,
formed of those devout thoughts which Jonah had in the belly
of the great fish, with a thanksgiving for his miraculous
deliverance.
NOTES ON CHAP. II
Verse 1. Then Jonah prayed - out of the fish's belly] This verse makes the first of the second chapter in the Hebrew text.
It may be asked, "How could Jonah either pray or breathe in the stomach of the fish?" Very easily, if God so willed it. And let the reader keep this constantly in view; the whole is a miracle, from Jonah's being swallowed by the fish till he was cast ashore by the same animal. It was God that had prepared the great fish. It was the Lord that spake to the fish, and caused it to vomit Jonah upon the dry land. ALL is miracle.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 8, 10 Jon 2:1-2. Then Jonah prayed — Those devout thoughts…
Jon 2:1-2. Then Jonah prayed — Those devout thoughts and feelings which he had at that time, he afterward digested into the following prayer, and added a thanksgiving for his deliverance at the end of it. So several of David’s Psalms were probably composed after his trouble was over; but in a manner suitable to the thoughts he had at the time of his affliction; and with a grateful sense of God’s mercies for his deliverance out of it: see Psalm 54. and 120. And he heard me — He thanks God that, in consequence of his prayer, his life is wonderfully preserved. Out of the belly of hell cried I — The word שׁאולsignifies the state of the dead. So it may most properly be rendered the grave here, as the margin reads: the belly of the fish was to Jonah instead of a grave.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–10 Then - (“And”) Jonah prayed, i. e., when the…
Then - (“And”) Jonah prayed, i. e., when the three days and nights were passed, he uttered this devotion. The word “prayed” includes thanksgiving, not petition only. It is said of Hannah that she “prayed” 1Sa 2:1; but her canticle is all one thanksgiving without a single petition. In this thanksgiving Jonah says how his prayers had been heard, but prays no more. God had delivered him from the sea, and be thanks God, in the fish’s belly, as undisturbed as in a Church or an oratory, secure that God, who had done so much, would fulfill the rest. He called God, “his” God, who had in so many ways shown Himself to be His, by His revelations, by His inspirations, by His chastisements, and now by His mercy . “From these words, ‘Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly,’ we perceive that, after he felt himself safe in the fish’s belly, he despaired not of God’s mercy.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Fish. Hebrew dag: afterwards daga occurs, ver. 2; (Haydock)…
Fish. Hebrew dag: afterwards daga occurs, ver. 2; (Haydock) on which Leusden observes, the Jews infer that Jonas was first swallowed up by male and then by a female fish, which being full of young he was much straitened, and prayed from the belly of that (hadaga) female fish! He alludes to Rabbi Jarchi. (Haydock) --- Thus nar, puer, is put for a girl, to imply that Rebecca was prudent and Dina rambling. (Buxtorf, Tib. 13.) See Kennicott, Dis. 2., p. 417 and 552. --- Noble discoveries! Many suppose (Haydock) that this fish was a whale, as it does not live on flesh; (Calmet) but its throat being so narrow, as hardly to suffer a man’s arm to pass, it is more probable that it was the sea-dog, lamia or canis chariarias, (Bartolin 14.) which may easily contain a man. (Aldrovandus iii. 32.) (Menochius) --- This sea-dog, or shark, has five rows of teeth in each jaw. Human bodies have been found entire in the stomach. (Button.) --- Our Saviour calls the fish a whale, Matthew xii. 40. (Worthington) --- But that term is given to any great sea monster. Yet it is not of much importance what species of fish be meant, provided the miracle be admitted. (Calmet) --- The pagans ridiculed it. (St. Augustine, ep. 102. q. 6. 30.) --- Yet they believed many of a similar nature, alleging the omnipotence of God. (St.. Jerome) --- This reason accounts for all the miracles recorded in Scripture. But might not God have chosen some easier expedient? We must not dive into his reasons. The impression which such a fact would make on the Ninivites, and the prefiguring of Christ’s burial, might suffice. Jonas was not a type of his death, as some have imagined, Q. ad Orthodox. (Calmet) --- Nights, or as long as our Saviour was in the monument, (Menochius) which was about thirty-four hours. (Calmet, Dis.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 [Jonah’s Hymn of Thanksgiving and Praise for his Deliverance…
CHAPTER 2
[Jonah’s Hymn of Thanksgiving and Praise for his Deliverance from the Bowels of Fish.—C.E.]
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1 Now [And] the Lord [Jehovah] had prepared1 [appointed] a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
2 And Jonah prayed to Jehovah his God from the bowels of the fish and said,
3 I cried to Jehovah out of my distress:
And He answered me:
Out of the womb of Sheol2 I cried:
Thou heardest my voice.
4 Thou castedst me into the deep,3
Into the heart of the seas;
And the stream4 surrounded me;
All thy breakers and thy billows passed over me.
5 And I said: I am cast out from before thine eyes;
Yet I will look again towards thy holy temple.
6 Waters encompassed me even to the soul:5
The abyss surrounded me;
Sea-weed6 was bound to my head.
7 I went down to the foundations7 of the mountains;
The earth—her bars were behind me forever:
And thou didst raise my life from the pit, Jehovah, my God.
8 When my soul fainted8 within me,
I remembered Jehovah:
And my prayer came to Thee,
Into thy holy temple.
Those observing lying vanities
Forsake their own mercy.9
10 But as for me, I will sacrifice to thee
With the voice of thanksgiving.
What I have vowed I will perform.
Salvation10 belongs to Jehovah.
11 And Jehovah spake to the fish, and it vomited Jonah upon the dry land.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Jon_2:1-2. The Crisis. [In the English Version Jon_2:1 forms the conclusion of the preceding chapter. In the original Hebrew it is the opening verse of chap. 2.—C. E.]
The narrative says nothing of the kind of fish that swallowed Jonah; it attaches no importance to the question. Inutilis inquisitio. (Marck.) The Septuagint and the New Testament (Mat_12:40), translate it by the indefinite word Κῆτος, a sea monster; compare Bocharti Hierozoicon, 1.1, 7; 2:5,12. [Suidas following Ælian: Κῆτος θαλάσσιον θηρίον πολυειδές ἐστὶ δὲ λέων, ζύγαινα, πάρδαλις, φύσαλος, πρῆστις, ῆ λεγομένη μάλλη ὴ̓ μάλθη.] Still more general [than κῆτος] is the feminine form דָּגָה, which occurs in Jon_2:2, instead of דָּג, and which is used everywhere else (also in Deu_4:18) as a collective noun.
(The opinion of Izchakis that Jonah was first swallowed by a male fish, and that because he did not pray in it, he was vomited up and swallowed by a female one, in which his situation was more confined, and that from this circumstance he was driven to prayer, deserves mention at best as a curious and warning example of the absurdity to which adherence to the letter may lead in exegesis).
One may suppose the fish to have been the shark or sea-dog, Canis carcharias, or Squalus carcharias, L., which is very common in the Mediterranean, and has so large a throat, that it can swallow a living man whole. (Keil). It could hardly be the whale, as Luther thinks, for these two conditions [being common in the Mediterranean, and having a large throat—C. E.]. do not meet in it. The cachalot also, mentioned by Quandt, is not found in the Mediterranean.
[Dr. Pusey, in his introduction to Jonah, quotes largely from modern works on zoölogy and natural history, to prove that the Canis carcharias can easily swallow a man whole. He states on the authority of Blumenbach, that it has been “found of the size of 10,000 pounds and that “horses have been found whole in its stomach.” “In all modern works on zoölogy,” says Dr. Pusey, quoting from Lacepède, Hist, des Poissons, “we find thirty feet given as a common length for a shark’s body. Now a shark’s body is usually only about eleven times the length of the half of its lower jaw. Consequently, a shark of thirty feet would have a lower jaw of nearly six feet in its semicircular extent. Even if such a jaw as this was of hard bony consistence, instead of a yielding carti laginous nature, it would qualify its possessor for engulfing one of our species most easily. This power, which it has by virtue of its cartilaginous skeleton, of stretching, bending, and yielding, enables us to understand how the shark can swallow entire animals as large or larger than ourselves.”—C. E.]
“There is nothing in the original word, מָנה, which at all suggests the idea of creation or production. … All that can be legitimately inferred from its use in this place, is, that in the providence of God, the animal was brought to the spot at the precise time when Jonah was thrown into the sea, and its instrumentality was wanted for his deliverance.” (Henderson, On Jonah.) “The fact here stated is the great stone of stumbling and rock of offense to that class of critics who deny the existence of miracles. We need have no special sympathy with their perplexities or their stumbling; for there can be no good reason for rejecting miracles. Besides in this case, our divine Lord distinctly recognizes the presence of miracles by saying that Jonah was “a sign,” i. e., a man in whom miracles were manifested “It is not necessarily a miracle that a great fish should swallow a man. There are several varieties that are capable of swallowing a man whole, for they have done it. But that a man should live three days and three nights, or indeed one hour, in the belly of a fish, must be a miracle.” (Cowles, On Jonah.) C. E.]
Jonah lives three days and three nights in the inside, literally in the bowels of the fish. Three days and three nights is a current Hebrew expression, which does not describe, with chronological exactness, the space of seventy-two hours, but corresponds to our mode of designating time by such phrases as “the day after to-morrow,” “the day before yesterday.” (1Sa_30:1; comp. 1Sa_2:12, Est_4:16; comp. Est_5:1; Mat_12:40.)
[The three days and three nights are not to be regarded as three times twenty [four] hours, but are to be interpreted according to Hebrew usage, as signifying that Jonah was vomited up again on the third day after he had been swallowed. (Comp. Est_4:16 with Est_5:1, and Tob_3:12-13 according to the Lutheran text.) (Keil and Delitzsch, On Jonah.—C. E.]
[Jon_2:2. The prayer which follows (Jon_2:2-9) is not a petition for deliverance, but thanksgiving and praise for deliverance already received. It by no means follows from this however, that Jonah did not utter this prayer till after he had been vomited upon the land, and that Jon_2:10 ought to be inserted before Jon_2:2; but as the earlier commentators have shown, the fact is rather this: that when Jonah had been swallowed by the fish, and found that he was preserved alive in the fish’s belly, he regarded this as a pledge of his deliverance, for which he praised the Lord.
Luther also observes that he did not actually utter these very words with his mouth, and arrange them in this orderly manner, in the belly of the fish; but that he here shows what the state of his mind was, and what thoughts he had when he was engaged in this conflict with death. The expression “his God” [אֱלֹהָיו] must not be overlooked. He prayed not only to Jehovah, as the heathen sailors also did (Jon_1:14), but to Jehovah as his God, from whom he had tried to escape, and whom he now addresses again as his God, when in peril of death. “He shows his faith by adoring Him as his God.” (Burk:) The prayer consists for the most part of reminiscences of passages in the Psalms, which were so exactly suited to Jonah’s circumstances, that he could not have expressed his thoughts and feelings any better in words of his own. It is by no means so “atomically compounded from passages in the Psalms” that there is any ground for pronouncing it “a later production which has been attributed to Jonah,” as Knobel and De Wette do; but it is the simple and natural utterance of a man versed in Holy Scripture and living in the word of God, and is in perfect accordance with the prophet’s circumstances and the state of his mind.” (Keil and Delitzsch, On Jonah.)—C. E.]
[“Some of the Rabbins, Hezel and others, would argue from the use of מִן , from, out of, and not בּ, in, before מְעֵי that the prayer of Jonah was not presented while he was in the belly of the fish, but after his deliverance; but this interpretation is justly rejected, both by Aben Ezra and Kimchi. The preposition marks the place from which he directed his thoughts to the Most High.” (Henderson, On Jonah.)—C. E.]
Jon_2:3-10. The prayer of Jonah, which is not a supplicatory, but a thanksgiving prayer, is in this place to be understood only from the design of the book (compare the Introduction, 3, pp. 6, 7). Also what Keil, following the early interpreters, observes, has its truth only from the point of view, that when Jonah had been swallowed by the fish and had found that he was preserved in its belly, he regarded this as a pledge of his future complete deliverance, and for this thanked the Lord. Considered in a purely historical light [Bei rein historischem Verständniss], it might be said that the prolongation of life in this manner [in the fish’s belly] would rather awaken the idea of a much more loathsome death than drowning, and hence the accompanying feeling must have been, not that of thanksgiving, but of painful uncertainty. Moreover, something at least would have been said in the prayer, of that intermediate idea of a pledge; but no trace of it is to be found.
The structure of this hymn, composed after the manner of the Psalms and filled with reminiscences of passages from them, falls into three strophes, namely Jon_2:4 f. Jon_2:6 f. Jon_2:8; which are set in the frame of a brief exordium and of a conclusion summing up the whole in an aphorism and a vow, Jon_2:9 f. Each of these strophes represents a degree in the ascent from distress to deliverance; so that strophe 1 advances to hope; strophe 2 to deliverance; and strophe 3 stops on this eminence Compare, concerning the form and kind of prayer, the Introduction, p. 8.
Jon_2:3. The brief preamble: I cried out of the distress which was upon me, to Jehovah, and He answered me. Comp. Psa_116:1 f. With trifling variations, “which very naturally occur in quotations from memory” (Goldhorn), it resembles Psa_120:1, which has בַּצָּרָתָה לִי, whereas this verse with the same periphrastic suffix reads, מִצָּרַה לִי. The parallel: Out of the womb of Sheol I cried: Thou heardest my voice. That the expression womb of Sheol is figurative, is proved by its parallelism to צָּתָה. Sheol in the language of the Psalms, is often used for the inevitable peril of death: compare the way to perdition, Pro_7:27. To ascribe to it a belly or a womb, as at other times a mouth (Psa_61:7), or jaws (Isa_5:14), was certainly hot indicated by the situation as the act of Jonah, who describes something past and not present, but was done by the narrator, who produces the prayer. (Compare Luther’s observation, in the Introd., p. 8).
The alleged mechanical compilation of this prayer from passages in the Psalms reduces itself also here to involuntary reminiscences of isolated expressions found in them. (Comp. Psa_130:2; Psa_28:1 ff.) [Comp. Psa_120:1 with Jon_2:3; Psa_42:8 with Jon_2:4; Psa_31:23 with Jon_2:5; Psa_142:4 with Jon_2:8; Psa_31:7 with Jon_2:9; Ps. 3:9 with Jon_2:10.11 Henderson On Jonah.—C. E.]
Strophe I., Jon_2:4-5.
Jon_2:4 is an enlarged picture of the painful situation that he experienced. The connection indicated by ו conjunctive, is not so close as to prevent the verb from being rendered in the pluperfect. Yea, thou hadst cast me into the abyss, into the midst of the seas (comp. Psa_46:3): and thy streams surrounded me; all thy billows and waves went over me (Psa_88:7 f.; Psa_69:2 ff). These are frequent images of the deepest misery, which, in this instance, receive, from the situation, a particularly impressive character, and give the key to the understanding of the symbolism of the whole narrative. In Jonah overwhelmed by the waves, Israel, whose frame of mind is exhibited in Psalms 88, is again represented. The state of heart required by God for deliverance, a state produced by faith, which, in the deepest distress, rests upon the word and promise of God, and which, contrary to all external experience, does not relinquish its confidence in invisible things, which are the objects of hope in our present condition, is exquisitely described by the brief antithetic contrast in Jon_2:5 : And I said (comp. Psa_30:7) I am cast out from before thine eyes—the gracious experience of thy favor—(Isa_34:16; Psa_31:23), yet surely [אךְ, a particle of strong opposition, of decided contrast (Isa_14:15)] I will look again toward Thy holy temple, for which Israel, in his forlorn condition, ardently longs (Psa_42:5). Compare a similar flash of hope in the night of suffering, in Job_19:22 ff. [“Green would supply the negative לֹא before אוֹסִיף, and Hitzig would point אֵךְ ,אַךְ for אַיךְ, how; but both without any authority. Such sudden transitions from fear to hope are frequently expressed in Scripture.” (Henderson On Jonah.)—C. E.]
[“The thought that it is all over with him is met by the confidence of faith that he will still look to the holy temple of the Lord, that is to say, will once more approach the presence of the Lord, to worship before Him in his temple,—an assurance which recalls Psa_5:8 (7).”
“The figure of bolts of the earth that were shut behind Jonah, which we only meet with here (בְּעַד, from the phrase סָגַר הַדֶּלֶת בְעַד, to shut the door behind a person: Gen_7:16; 2Ki_4:4-5; 2Ki_4:33; Isa_26:20), has an analogy in the idea which occurs in Job_38:10, of bolts and doors of the ocean. The bolts of the sea are the walls of the sea-basin, which set bounds to the sea, that it cannot pass over. Consequently the bolts of the earth can only be such barriers as restrain the land from spreading over the sea. These barriers are the weight and force of the waves, which prevent the land from encroaching on the sea. This weight of the waves, or of the great masses of water, which pressed upon Jonah when he had sunk to the bottom of the sea, shut or bolted against him the way back to the earth (the land) just as the bolts that are drawn before the door of a house, fasten up the entrance into it; so that the reference is neither to “the rocks jutting out above the water, which prevented any one from ascending from the sea to the land, nor “densissima terrœ compages, qua abyssus tecta Jonam in hoc constitutum occludebat.” (Marck), Keil and Delitzsch.—C. E.]
Strophe II., Jon_2:6-7.
The picture receives again a deeper shade, in view of the misery which he experienced.
Jon_2:6. Waters encompassed me (Psa_18:5) even to the soul (Psa_69:2): the abyss surrounded me; seaweed was wound around my breast,—all individual and independent statements descriptive of his situation.
[“עַד־נֶפֶש, even to, or to the very soul, i. e. the animal life; meaning to the extinction of life. סוּף is the alga, or weed, which abounds at the bottom of the sea, and from which the Arabian gulf takes the name of יַם־סוּף, the sea of weeds. Kimchi explains it by גוֹמֶא, the papyrus, or bulrush. Gesenius refines too much when he attaches to חָבוּש in this place the idea of binding round the head like a turban. Assuredly Jonah had no such idea in his mind. He rather describes how he felt, as if entangled by the sedge or weeds through which he was dragged.” (Henderson, On Jonah.)—C. E.]
Jon_2:7. To the extremities, i. e., to the foundations of the mountains, which lie deep under the sea (Psa_104:4 (3); Psa_18:16 (15)), I dived down; the earth —her bars—the beams with which her foundation structure is fastened (Psa_104:5)—were around me [Hitzig: behind me; then I seemed, thrust out from the land of the living, (Jer_11:19)] for ever; so thought the sinking prophet; for present sufferings and the perils of death made, upon his mind the impression of the everlasting and the inevitable (Psa_13:2 (1)). Thou didst raise my life from the pit (שַׁחַת, as in Job_17:14), Jehovah my God (Psa_30:4 (3)).
Strophe III.
Jon_2:8. Casts once more a glance upon his affliction: When my soul (Psa_142:4) fainted to dying (Psa_42:5) within me; in order to include with it directly the deliverance: Jehovah (a beautiful inversion) I remembered (Psa_42:7 (6)), and my prayer came to Thee into Thy holy temple, from which prayers are heard (Psa_18:7 (6)).
The conclusion (Jon_2:9-10) places in an antithetic manner, which is of frequent occurrence in the Psalms, the vow of the pious man, who, through divine grace, has resolved to lead a new life, in contrast with the destruction of the ungodly, whom God does not deliver.
Jon_2:9. Those who observe lying vanities—the Piel of שׁמר like the Hithpael (Mic_6:16), for the intensive degree of the Kal signification—forsake their own mercy. The reference to the heathen sailors, which the earlier interpreters, almost without exception, give to this verse, is, according to the description of them in the first chapter, certainly altogether unauthorized. The thought is entirely general, but (from the scope of the whole) with parenetical, secondary application to the Israelites, who in calamity did not seek their help in God, but in idols (הבלים, comp. Deu_32:21). These apostates come by the short and energetic expression, in harmony with Gen_24:27, into direct opposition to God, who never abandons his mercy. חסד is the gracious condition of the חסידים, the pious (Isa_57:1).
[“חַסְדָּם, lit. their mercy, or goodness; by metonymy for their Benefactor, i. e. God, the author and source of all goodness; the supreme good. Comp. Psa_144:2, where David calls God חֶסֶד. The word properly signifies kindness or benignity, and most appropriately designates Him who is good to all, and whose tender mercies are over all his works.” (Henderson, On Jonah.) So also Keil and Delitzsch and Pusey.—C. E.]
Jon_2:10. But I, says Israel, conformably to Psa_50:14, will sacrifice to thee with the voice of thanksgiving. What I have vowed I will pay. With the joyful ascription, salvation belongs to Jehovah, the whole prayer closes, like Psalms 3. That is the salvation, which He will give to his people, after their affliction, at the time of the consummation, looking to which the true Israel, even in the belly of the fish, in the sorrows of banishment and exile, praises Him (Isa_26:2; Isa_25:10; Gen_49:18).
Jonah 2:11. The Deliverance. Jehovah spake to the fish and it vomited up Jonah on dry land. Προστάττεται πάλιν τὸ κῆτος θείᾳ τιςὶ καὶ ἀποῤῥήτψ δυνάμει θεοῦ πρὸς τὸ αὐτφ͂ δοκοῦν κινούμενον. Cyril. Cocceius, in order to bring the miracle nearer to the natural understanding, refers to the statements of Gregory Nazianzen and Oppian, concerning certain fish, which swallow their young when danger threatens, and vomit them out again. He refers also to the accounts in Pliny and Athenæus, that an entire man clad in armor has been found in the belly of a great sea-monster (Pliny, Canicula, Athen. Carcharias). There were found, says Keil, on the authority of Oken (Animal Kingdom, vol. 3 p. 55 ff., 1836), about a dozen of tunny-fish, undigested, in a shark caught in Sardinia; and in another even an entire horse. (This fish can erect and lay its teeth at pleasure, because they are fastened only in the cellular tissue [Hautzellen]). Rondelet says that he has seen one on the west coast of France, through whose throat a fat man could easily pass. In the year 1758, a sailor, during a storm, fell overboard from a frigate into the Mediterranean sea, and was immediately seized by a shark and disappeared. The captain of the vessel caused a cannon, which was standing on the deck, to be discharged at the shark, the ball of which struck it, so that it vomited out the sailor, who was then taken up alive and only a little injured, into a sloop that had come to his assistance, and thus saved. On the other side, Cornelius a Lapide attempts to explain the vomiting, at least, as a natural occurrence produced by the uncomfortableness of the fish. We think that no service is done either to the matter or to the interpretation [Verständniss] of the book by this rationalizing apologetic attempt (see above, p. 2), and especially in reference to the latter question we are of the opinion of Theodoret, who calls subtle inquiries concerning these things an ἀνόητος πολυπραλμοσύνη, a foolish officiousness.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL12
(See above, pp. 5, 6, 9, 10.)
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Eternal Redemption in Time. Introduction.—Israel, a prefiguration of Christendom; Jonah, a type of Israel. Comp. Jon_2:8 with 1Ki_8:46 ff.
1. We still wander in the place of imprisonment, 2, 4, 5a, 6, 7ab. [Daily sins and the common guilt of the human race encompass us within and without; our body is an earthly house, in which our immortal part lies shut up; around us is the sighing of the creature, which longs for, the glorious manifestation of the sons of God.]
2. But we are redeemed, Jon_2:3; Jon_2:5 b, 7c–10. [The fact is absolute and eternal: the appropriation is effected in time, and that through faith, which is a certain, confident apprehension of that which is still invisible, 5b, 8. Whoever renounces it [faith] has no part in redemption (Jon_2:9). In the service of God we bring that which is eternal into time, and think as if we were perfected; because the beginning of redemption, planted in us, includes within it its completion (Jon_2:3; Jon_2:10).
Jon_2:1. In that which for the moment seems most painful and most insupportable, the gracious hand of our God is often very near to us. Everything which God sends has its fixed time and appointed end; a time not longer than we are able to bear it. Thou who complainest of affliction, hast thou ever thought what grace it is on the part of God that thou art alive?
Jon_2:2. There is no place so desolate and dark that it cannot be turned into a temple of God by the praying saint.
Jon_2:3. There is no failure in God’s answer, but the failure is in calling upon Him. Can we need human mediators, in order to be heard by Him, who hears the voice of him who cries from the bosom of hell? The invocation of saints is a relapse into a practice, that is far below the teachings of the Old Testament.
Jon_2:4. We ought never to forget, that wherever we are, we are placed there by God [wir von Gott dahin gethan sind], and that all the waves and billows that go over us are his waves and billows. In the Old Testament God sends the tempest of the waves and billows. In the New Testament He commands them to be still; in both they are obedient to Him.
Jon_2:5. With the natural man arises first defiance, then despair: with the redeemed man strength is realized out of despair by the power of the spirit. The declarations of faith are all paradoxes and contrasts. Because I suffer, I shall be glorified.
Jon_2:6 ff. If I descend to hell, behold Thou art there. Such is the anguish of the hour of death that one no longer perceives aught of love around him, but all around the head and on every side waters, which go even to the soul, so that the spirit faints within us. God’s temple is near in all places. But whoever speaks of it as Jonah does here, it is evident that he also loves the visible place, where God’s honor dwelleth. Whoever despises this place, to him that truth will not come to remembrance in the time of trouble. The want of the means of grace is not damnable to him only, whose soul does not despise them.
Jon_2:9. Where lying vanities take up their abode in the heart, there is the contempt of God, or there it grows; it is there also where man either makes earthly things God’s, or forms for himself delusive ideas concerning God. Falling from a state of grace, may happen altogether insensibly; but it certainly commences with a divided heart.
Jon_2:10. The history of Jonah is a shadow of future things; he leaves it to the heathen to bring a sacrifice (Jon_1:16), he himself offers thanksgiving.
Jonah 2:11. Turn the prison of the world into the temple of God, and it will not be able to detain thee. God does not leave his saints in hell (Psa_16:10). We are buried with Christ by baptism unto death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Rom_6:4).
Luther: Jon_2:3. Two great and necessary lessons: 1. That we should before all things run speedily to God, and cry to Him in trouble and make our complaints to Him. Canst thou call and cry, then there is no more danger. For even hell would not be hell, nor continue hell, if in it one could call upon and cry to God. Nature of course cannot do otherwise, nor be otherwise, than as it feels. But now while it feels God’s wrath and punishment, if it regards Him as an angry tyrant it cannot rise above such feelings and press through to God. Therefore, since Jonah has gone so far as to cry, he has won. 2. That we also feel in our hearts, that it is such a cry as God will answer. This is nothing else than to call with true faith of heart. For the head does not erect itself, nor do the hands raise themselves, before the heart is raised. What hell is before the last day, I am not positive. That it is a particular place, where lost souls are now constantly kept, as painters portray and as gluttons preach, I do not believe; for the devils are not yet in hell (Eph_6:12; Joh_14:30). Therefore, the Scriptures use the word Sheol with propriety, for the purpose of designating the last agonies of death. But at the last day it will certainly become a different thing.
Jon_2:5. The idea of his being cast out from God’s countenance, has in the first place a reference to his body; for he felt in his heart that he must die; in the second place, to his soul, as if he were eternally cast out from God.
Jon_2:8. The powers and energies of his soul yielded to despair. But that he thinks of the Lord and begins to believe, is not the work of his soul; the spirit and no one else can think of the Lord. When the remembrance of the Lord enters the heart, then a new light arises; then life once more sheds forth its rays; then the heart again receives courage to call; and then too he is certainly heard. In the Old Testament all prayers were required to come to the mercy-seat; so now in the New Testament all prayers must come to Jesus Christ.
Jon_2:9. Jonah reproves in this verse those devoid of understanding, who seek holiness by their own deeds, and hypocrites, who do not trust in God’s grace alone, but in their own works.
Jon_2:10. Where the saints in the Scriptures speak of paying vows and do not express any one [vow] in particular, we must understand the common vow of all, who are God’s people, namely, that we will have no God but Him alone.
Jonah 2:11. Now everything is reversed: that which before tended to death must now tend to life.
Starke: Jon_2:1. God can preserve a man miraculously against the course of nature (1Ki_17:4 ff.).
Jon_2:2. God is not only the God of all believers in general, but also of each one particularly (Psa_63:2).
Jon_2:3. Nothing can better excite a man to gratitude toward God than to consider diligently the trouble and danger from which God has delivered him.
Jon_2:4. It is great misery to lie in the water; but the greatest is to be cast out from God.
Jon_2:5. When we have bodily trouble, it ordinarily so arouses the guilty conscience, that our distress is doubled. In the hour of death Satan is most active with his temptations, and would like to cast us into despair.
Jon_2:6. God, moved by righteous judgment and wise design, often visits with many trials and afflictions of different kinds those who have already exercised true repentance.
Jon_2:7. It is a special, gracious work of the Holy Spirit, if He gives to believers, in the midst of their troubles, not only a good hope of the divine aid, but also strengthens them in the faith, so that they consider it as already actually attained (Exo_14:13; 2Ch_20:13 ff. ).
Jon_2:8. When we come into the pains of death, and our mouth can no longer speak, then should our heart sigh to God.
Jon_2:10. One should keep his vows (Ecc_5:4).
Jonah 2:11. God gives beyond our asking and our understanding. The almighty, hand of God will one day restore to life those who have perished in the waters (Rev_20:13).
Pfaff: Jon_2:4. O, how good it is for the soul to feel the anger of the Lord and to be driven into straits; for thereby it is brought right to God, and its faith is strengthened.
Jon_2:5. A child of God longs for the temple and public service of God, in order to praise the Lord becomingly in the congregation and to be quickened by the mutual prayer of the pious.
Quandt: Our Lord has interpreted to us, in the New Testament, the history contained in this chapter as a prophecy of Him; as a sign of his death, of his descent to Hades, and of his resurrection. On this account this chapter acquires a glory, which the other three have not.
Jon_2:1. If a man should be received unhurt into a fish’s body, according to the course of nature he cannot breathe and live a single hour. At all events the Lord wrought a miracle in the case of Jonah; we can in his case altogether dispense with natural history. With many repentance is a mere speculation on the act of bestowing grace,—a speculation that fails, when the Lord leads the soul still deeper into judgment or misery. Not so with Jonah.
Jon_2:2. Jonah was very well acquainted with the Psalter and had committed to memory many a prayer of the saints. This was of great advantage to him now, as his prayer shows. There is good reason why a man should come before the throne of the Merciful One, with his own words, instead of set forms. But in times of spiritual drought a manual has also its advantages.
Jon_2:4. With Thou and Thine Jonah clings to the same Divine hand, which punishes him, and therefore this hand must raise him from the deep to a high place.
Jon_2:8. ff. Jonah trusts that God, who had delivered his soul, would now also do the less and save his body. By faith he sees his deliverance as already accomplished, and for that reason promises to God offerings of thanksgiving.
Augustine: Jon_2:1. Jonah prophesied of Christ, not so much by his words as by sufferings; and evidently more clearly than if he had announced his sufferings and resurrection by words.
Marck: God often makes an end of temptation contrary to human expectation (1Co_10:13), and never denies his favor, because He cannot deny Himself (2Ti_2:13).
Lavater: That Jonah could draw breath in the belly of the fish, or receive as much air as he had heed of, was just as possible as that a child can live in its mother’s womb.
Burck: Jon_2:2. Wonderful change (Jon_1:6)—he made little haste to pray; he suffered himself to be driven to it. Now in the deepest misery he prays not only most earnestly, but most confidently.
Theodoret: Jon_2:3. I, says he, who heretofore thought that thou dwellest only in Jerusalem, and only there revealest thyself to the prophets, found thee present in the belly of the fish, etc.
Burck: We have in this prayer an example of the right use of the Psalter. Even the holy men of God, who were partakers of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, have not refused to appeal to and to cite formally the books of Scripture, which existed already in their time. A strong argument for the authority of the holy Scriptures.
Rieger: We should in this sign consider Jonah particularly as a type of the deep humiliation of the Son of God in the midst of the earth and of his reviving from the dead, that event, whose light ever afterward falls on all the paths of life, otherwise still so deep and dark.
Rieger: To attain good by means of the wrath which one experiences is no small matter. It is as if one were obliged to pass through nothing but spears and swords. Many expressions in the prayer of Jonah are taken from the Psalms. So in similar circumstances something out of the Scriptures will occur, often only after a long time, to the memory of the sufferer.
Rieger: Jon_2:5. What an eternal sting do all our humiliations carry with them, when three days and three nights can become as long to a man as if he were forever isolated.
Burck: Jon_2:7. Here first, in the end of his prayer, Jonah ventures to use the direct and confident address: Jehovah, my God, doubtless with the most heartfelt delight. Before he had humbly and anxiously abstained from it.
Hieronymus: Jon_2:9. Those who not merely practice vanity (for all is vanity, therefore all practice it), but observe it as if they loved it and found a treasure in it.
Schmieder: Jon_2:10. All help comes from the Lord, even where He helps through means; therefore we should not trust in the means, whether things or persons, but in the Lord, and thank Him first for all help.
Jonah 2:11. The instinct of beasts can be controlled by the will of God. (Comp. Dan_6:22.)
Schlier: What was likely to be the effect upon Jonah, who experienced such a miraculous interposition on the part of his God ! What was likely to be the effect upon others, who heard of it, for the report of the miracle soon spread abroad. Even the heathen fables know something of it. [In the poem, Cassandra, ascribed to Lycophron, and in a fragment of the logographer Hellenicus, cited by the Scholiasts on Homer’s Iliad, 20:145, it is related, that Hercules delivered Hesione by entering into the belly of a sea-monster, to which she was exposed, whose entrails he tore in pieces and came out again in safety; and the church fathers state that the myth ascribes to his stay in the monster’s belly three days’ continuance.]
[Calvin: 9 (10.) It must be noticed here that the worship of God especially consists in praises, as it is said in Psalms 1 : for there God shows that he regards as nothing all sacrifices, except they answer this end—to set forth the praise of his name. It was indeed his will that sacrifices should be offered to Him under the law; but it was for the end just stated; for God cares not for calves and oxen, for goats and lambs; but his will was that He should be acknowledged as the Giver of all blessings. Hence He says there “sacrifice to me the sacrifice of praise.”
Matthew Henry: Jon_2:2. No place is amiss for prayer. I will that men pray everywhere: wherever God casts us we may find a way open heavenward, if it be not our own fault.
Jon_2:10. Jonah’s experience shall encourage others, in all ages, to trust in God, as the God of their salvation: all that read this story, shall say it with assurance, say it with admiration, that salvation is of the Lord, and is sure to all that belong to Him.
Pusey: 7 (8). But when it came to the utmost, then he says, I remembered the Lord, as though, in the intense thought of God then, all his former thought of God had been forgetfulness. So it is in every strong act of faith, of love, of prayer; its former state seems unworthy of the name faith, love, prayer. It believes, loves, prays, as though all before had been forgetfulness.
Jon_2:9 (10) God seems often to wait for the full resignation of the soul, all its powers and will to Him. Then He can show mercy healthfully, when the soul is wholly surrendered to Him. So on this full confession Jonah is restored.—C. E.]
Footnotes:
[1][Jon_2:1.—מִנָּה, Piel of מָנָה, does not mean to create, but to allot, to appoint.
[2][Jon_2:3.—מִבֶּטֶן שְׁאוֹל, out of the womb of the under world. The usual derivation of שְׁאוֹל is from שָׁאַל, to ask, to demand; but Gesenius says the true etymology is שְׁעוֹל, cavity, from שָׁעַל. Compare the German Hölle, hell, originally the same with Höhle, a hollow, cavern.
[3][Jon_2:4.—מְצוּלָה, the deep is denned by “the heart of the seas”—the deepest part of the ocean.
[4][Jon_2:4.—נָחָר, stream, current, flood—the current or tide of the sea. Compare Psa_24:2.
[5][Jon_2:6.—עַד־נֶפֶשׁ, even to, or to the very soul, i. e., to the extinction of the animal life.
[6][Jon_2:6.—סוּף, alga, or weed, which abounds at the bottom of the sea, and from which the Arabian Gulf takes the name of יַם־סוּף, the sea of weeds.
[7][Jon_2:7.—קְצָבִים, sections, cuttings, clefts. Vulgate, extrema montium. Septuagint, εἰς σχισμὰς ὀρέων. The foundations and roots of the mountains, which lie in the depths of the earth, reaching even to the foundation of the sea. (Compare Psa_18:16).
[8][Jon_2:8.—הִתְעַטֵּף, to be in a state of faintness, swoon, from עָטַף, to cover, to involve in darkness. LXX. Ἐν τῶ ἐκλείπειν τὴν ψυχὴν μου ἀπ̓ ἐμοῦ.
[9][Jon_2:9.—חַסְדָּם, their mercy or goodness, by metonymy for God, the author and source of mercy and goodness. (Compare Psa_144:2.)
[10][ Jon_2:10.—Henderson says the paragogic ה in יְשׁוּעָתָה is intensive; but it is merely a poetical form. Compare Psa_3:3; Psa_80:3. It is appended to nouns for the purpose of softening the termination, without affecting the sense.—C. E.]
[11][It must be remembered that Dr. Henderson numbers the last verse of the first chapter as it stands in the English Version, as the first verse of the second chapter. This explanation is necessary in order to understand the references quoted above.—C. E.]
[12][Reichsgedanken. See note, p. 20.—C. E.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–10 His prayer is partly descriptive and precatory, partly eucharistical.…
His prayer is partly descriptive and precatory, partly eucharistical. Jonah incorporates with his own language inspired utterances familiar to the Church long before in , ; in , ; in , ; in , ; in , ; ; in , ; in , , and . Jonah, an inspired man, thus attests both the antiquity and inspiration of the Psalms. It marks the spirit of faith, that Jonah identifies himself with the saints of old, appropriating their experiences as recorded in the Word of God (). Affliction opens up the mine of Scripture, before seen only on the surface.
out of the belly of hell--Sheol, the unseen world, which the belly of the fish resembled.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 8 THE PRAYER OF JONAH, Jon_2:1-9.
THE PRAYER OF JONAH, Jon_2:1-9.
Jon_2:1 is the introduction, indicating the circumstances under which the prayer was offered. The prayer itself opens with an acknowledgment that Jehovah heard the petition offered in distress and wrought the petitioner’s deliverance (2). After repeated figurative descriptions of the danger and distress into which he had been plunged, he glorifies Jehovah for the salvation wrought (3-6). The supplicant closes with the assurance that he will not forget the divine mercy but will forever praise Jehovah, the author of all deliverance (7-9). The prayer consists for the most part of reminiscences from the Psalms (see Introduction, p. 335).
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1. Prayed — The verb is used here in the wider sense of any turning of the heart toward God, whether in supplication or praise (1Sa_2:1). At what period of his imprisonment Jonah is thought to have offered the prayer is not stated; Jon_2:10, would seem to imply, however, that it was toward the close.
His God — Before (Jon_1:3), he tried to escape from Jehovah’s presence; now, in danger of his life, he is driven to appeal to him as his God.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–9 1. Then Jonah prayed] What follows, Jon_2:2-9, is rather…
1. Then Jonah prayed] What follows, Jon_2:2-9, is rather a thanksgiving than a prayer. The same, however, may be said of Hannah’s utterance (1Sa_2:1-10), which is introduced by the same word (“Hannah prayed”). Comp. Act_16:25, where Alford renders “praying, sung praises,” or “in their prayers were singing praises,” and remarks that “the distinction of modern times between prayer and praise arising from our attention being directed to the shape rather than to the essence of devotion, was unknown in these days: see Col_4:2.” It has, indeed, been held (Maurer) that Jonah does pray here, and that the past tenses (Jon_2:2, &c.) are in reality present and only in form past, because they are literal quotations from some of the Psalms. It is simpler, however, to suppose, with the great majority of commentators, that Jonah had prayed to God in the prospect and the act of being cast into the sea, while he was being buffeted by the waves and sinking into the depths, and in the agony of being swallowed by the fish. During all this time, whether his lips spoke or not, his mind was fixed in that intent Godward attitude and posture which is the truest prayer. Now, however, when he finds himself alive and unharmed in that strange abode, he prays no longer, but offers thanksgivings for the measure of deliverance already granted him in answer to those former prayers, mingled with joyful anticipations of the yet further deliverance which the last verse of the chapter records. It seems probable that Jonah’s prayer was offered at the end of the three days and nights, and was followed immediately by his release. How the three days and nights were spent by him, whether in unconsciousness, as some have thought, or in godly sorrow and repentance, like Saul at Damascus, as others have held, we have no means of knowing.
his God] When Jonah flees in disobedience it is “from the presence of Jehovah;” when he prays in penitence, it is to “Jehovah his God.” Comp. “O Lord my God,” Jon_2:6, and “my God,” Psa_22:1.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–9 (1) Then Jonah prayed.—This introduction, to what is in…
II.
JONAH’S PRAYER AND DELIVERANCE.
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(1) Then Jonah prayed.—This introduction, to what is in reality a psalm of thanksgiving, has its parallel in Hannah’s song (1Sa_2:1-10), which is introduced in the same way. Comp. also the Note appended by the psalm collector at the end of Psalms 72, “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–10 Vers. 1-10. Part I JONAH"S PRAYER AND DELIVERANCE.
Vers. 1-10. Part I JONAH"S PRAYER AND DELIVERANCE.
Vers. 1-9. Jonah, in the belly of the fish, offers a prayer of thanksgiving for his rescue from death by drowning, in which he sees a pledge of further deliverance.
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Then Jonah prayed. These were his feelings when he sank in the waters and while he lay in his mysterious prison; he may have put them into their metrical form after his deliverance. The grammatical arrangement, and especially the language of ver. 7, seem to speak of a deliverance already experienced rather than of one expected. As this "prayer" does not suit an allegory, and as no cue but Jonah could have known its substance, we have here an argument for his authorship. It is rather a thanksgiving than a prayer like that of Hennas. (1Sa_2:1) When he realizes that he was saved from drowning, he uttered his gratitude, and saw that he might hope for further rescue. How he passed the three days we cannot tell; some have thought he was unconscious; but thin is, perhaps, hardly consistent with the notice of his praying, and with the action of his great Antitype, who, during his sojourn in the unseen world, "preached to the spirits in prison". (1Pe_3:19) His God. He acknowledges Jehovah as his God. He had proved himself his by inspiration, by chastisement, and now by mercy (Pusey). The following prayer contains ample reminiscences of the Psalms, which would be familiar to a devout Israelite. Those quoted are mostly what have been considered to belong to David"s time. if their date is really ascertained. But it is a matter of controversy, incapable of settlement, whether Jonah or the psalmist is the original.
Ver. 1. "Out of the depths.
Never surely was prayer offered in so strange a place as this! Men have often prayed upon the sea, but Jonah is represented as praying from the ocean depths.
I NO PLACE IS UNSUITABLE FOR PRAYER. It is well to pray in stately cathedrals and in consecrated chapels, in the humble meeting house and at the "domestic altar." But the persecuted have prayed upon the remote hillside, and in "dens and caves of the earth." And let it be remembered, that God"s will is that "men should pray everywhere, lifting holy hands" to heaven. In the thronged street, the busy market, the legislative hall, the court of justice, in the field of battle, and upon the island where the shipwrecked mariner finds a refuge, in every place God may be sought and found. If Jonah cried "out of the fish"s body," and was heard, is there reason for silence, for refraining from prayer, in any spot where we may find ourselves?
II ACCEPTABLE PRAYER PROCEEDS FROM NECESSITY. There are those who have never prayed before, who have been driven to supplication by their needs. And many, whose prayers have often been formal, have learned to pray in earnest when they have been plunged into the overwhelming ocean of affliction. None ask so urgently as those who are in want; and one purpose of Providence in permitting men to suffer need may well be this to call forth entreaties and supplications which shall be sincere, profound, and urgent.
III ACCEPTABLE PRAYER IS THE OFFSPRING OF A SUBMISSIVE MIND. Rebellion, and even murmuring, are incompatible with a prayerful spirit. It proves that Jonah was not wholly bad that, in his affliction, he did not resent the Lord"s treatment, he did not "kick against the goad." He rather behaved and quieted himself as "the weaned child." It is well to acknowledge that justice and mercy are in all the Lord"s dealings with his people. Many have been taught by experience to say with the psalmist, "Before I was afflicted,! went astray;" "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." Trouble is not designed to lead God"s people to cry against the Lord, but unto the Lord. To complain is both foolish and sinful; but they are happy who endure.
IV ACCEPTABLE PRAYER IS THE UTTERANCE OF FAITH AND HOPE. Even in the depths of the sea Jonah did not lose his faith in the oversight, the care, the goodness of the Lord. He believed that the Lord had overwhelmed, and that the Lord could rescue him. He who brought him into the depths could bring him out of the depths. The believing prayer which the prophet is recorded to have offered in his extremity is a model to all those who because of their iniquities and transgressions have been afflicted. Have faith in God, and hope in his mercy such is the lesson which this verse teaches.
V PRAYER FROM THE DEPTHS IS HEARD IN THE HEIGHTS AND ANSWERED. Jonah"s subterraneous, sub aqueous dungeon became a temple. God was present when his servant prayed. When submission and faith took the place of disobedience and rebellion, the Most High was willing to deliver the captive, to pardon the sinner, to employ again the unfaithful fugitive.
HOMILIES BY J.E. HENRY Vers. 1-4. A unique oratory.
"Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God," etc. The keynote of this passage is struck in the first verse. It is the fish, by God"s hand made Jonah"s preserver instead of his destroyer, that inspires the praise prayer of the whole chapter. God did not come to help till the prophet had, in imagination, raced the worst; but still he came in time. In the very moment of imminent death he stepped in a Deliverer. And he delivered in his own inimitable way. Natural laws cannot serve his purpose, and he accomplishes it against them. "The ravens furnish Elijah"s table; the lions are tame and quiet while Daniel is in the den; the violence of fire is gone when believers are in the furnace; the sea, which acts according to its nature towards Pharaoh and his host, is a wall on the right hand and on the left to Moses and to Israel; and the devouring shark preserves Jonah"s life" (Rev. Thomas Jones, in loc. ). And now the prophet realizes that God, after all, is his Friend. He is bringing life out of the jaws of death, converting the voracious sea-monster into a kind protector. And thus, by judgment and mercy in turn, the obdurate heart is broken, and the sturdy apostate brought to his knees and the praise song of the restored. We see here
I HOW AFFLICTION OPENS THE MOUTH WHICH SIN HAD SHUT. Jonah"s defection was deliberate and persistent. Not for a trifle would be cry, Peccavi! Not by an ordinary obstacle would he be arrested in his course. He seceded most determinedly. He kept his purpose in unabated strength, through a forty-mile tramp on foot. He overcame difficulty with resourceful energy. He slept calmly, going on his way, amidst the crash of an appalling hurricane. He sat sullen and made no sign when even heathen sailors called upon their gods, and wondered at his self-composure. But flesh is flesh, and at length the word came true, "In their affliction will they seek me early." God has weapons that pierce even armour of proof. The invasion of fiery serpents did it for incorrigible Israel. (Num_21:7) The cut of the Assyrian slave lash did it for graceless Manasseh. (2Ch_33:12, 2Ch_33:13) The death of Bathsheba"s child did it for David, after a great crime and a whole year of impenitent hardness. (2Sa_12:13, 2Sa_12:16) The Babylonish exile did it for Israel, as Isaiah expresses, "Lord, in trouble they have visited thee; they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them." And the experiences of a shark"s interior did it for Jonah. He would not surrender sooner, but resistance is out of the question now. The victory rests with God. The fires of his judgment have softened the apostate"s iron will. Yet not the Divine severity only, but severity and goodness together have operated here as "the medicine of the mind." It was not imminent death alone but this with miraculous life out of death that broke the hideous spell, and opened the lips so stubbornly scaled. It is a wrong way of looking at things to contrast, where both have operated, the value of severity and goodness as motive powers in the religious sphere. Neither probably would be effective by itself. The severity before the goodness did not conquer, and neither, probably, would the goodness, had not the severity gone before. The effect does not flow from the last of the series of its causes, but from the series as a whole.
II HOW A REVIVING FAITH CAN TRIUMPH OVER SENSE. To sense the prophet"s was desperate. On the platform of natural laws the circumstances forbid hope, and would logically shut the mouth of prayer. Yet their effect is directly the reverse. The prophet only begins to pray at the moment when all seems past praying for. And this is the paradoxical but characteristic way of faith. It triumphs over sense, reverses its verdict, overbears its testimony, realizes in actual possession its theoretic impossibility. "Take the case of Abraham and the character and commendation of his faith. "Against hope he believed in hope." Appearances were all against him. Sensible realities all contradicted, and in themselves alone destroyed, his expectation. Had his hope rested on sense, on reason, on nature, on time, it must have failed and sunk forever. But he did not rest on nature. He did not argue. He believed; and his faith destroyed the hope-destroying power of sense" (Rev. Hugh Martin, D.D., in loc.). It is the business of your faith and mine to do likewise. We are surrounded by influences and circumstances altogether adverse to the attainment of our soul"s salvation. Lusts are strong. Tempers are violent. Habits are tenacious. Example is corrupting. Toil is engrossing. Pleasure is ensnaring. The world, alike when it smiles and frowns, is our soul"s foe. But faith is there keen-eyed conquering faith. It sees through opacity and discovers the invisible. And it knows things very different from what they seem. Beneath the currents of sense, whose trend is away out to sea, it discerns the tidal wave of unseen influence moving in steady flow toward the celestial shores. (2Co_1:9 2Co_4:8-11) God, in his wise and stimulative dealing, "may clothe all circumstances and all his dispensations towards us with appearances of opposition and hostility, in order that we may flee to the anchor of his pure and simple Word, and lean on it without any other help, or rather against all adverse power" (Martin).
III HOW NATURALLY PRAYER CLOTHES ITSELF IN THE WORDS OF SCRIPTURE. Jonah"s prayer was original in the sense that the thoughts called forth the words. But the words themselves are largely borrowed from the Psalms. Most of these had then been written, and, as the Church"s Psalter, would be familiar to a prophet of God. And naturally his devotional feelings appropriate their inspired and so fitting words. His prayer "is the simple and natural utterance of a man versed in Holy Scripture, and living in the Word of God" (Keil). What Scripture says is best said. It contains at once the warrant and the definition of prayer, and the actual words in which it was offered by holy men of old. What more natural or fitting than that a man should use these for himself as at once unerring and appropriate! "Let the Word of God dwell in you richly." There is nothing else can support faith, or so well formulate its prayer. And then as to the Psalms, where in Scripture is there to be found such a concentrated wealth of devotional matter as there? "They appear to me a mirror of the soul of every one who sings them" (Athanasius). "The Psalter deserves to be called the praise of God, the glory of man, the voice of the Church, and the most beneficial confession of faith" (Ambrose). "Not without good grounds am I wont to call this book an anatomy of all parts of the soul, since no one can experience emotions whose portrait he could not behold reflected in its mirror" (Calvin). The artist goes to the Louvre, and the scholar or antiquarian to the British Museum, because he finds there the objects he studies in greatest variety and profusion. And so the pious, in search of devotional materials of the most precious kind, resorts inevitably to the Book of Psalms. There are found portrayed, as from the life, the hopes and fears, the moods and frames, the faith and ardour, of their own soul. There they find words that interpret their case and express the very spirit of their aspiration. And so in all time, and over all the world, the saintly praise and pray and vow "with the words of David and Asaph the seer.
IV HOW POINTEDLY GOD PUNISHES DEFECTION BY ENDORSING IT. Jonah was a spiritual deserter. He struck work, abandoned his post, and so practically vacated his office and abjured God"s service. He seemed resolved to have done with the whole thing. And he succeeded but too well, as now to his cost he feels. God has taken him at his word. Figuratively speaking, he has got the "Chiltern Hundreds." He is no longer prophet of God, or servant, or companion. His punishment rises on him in the likeness of his sin. He has fled from God, and now he complains of the separation. "I am cast out of thy sight," i.e. banished from covenant territory, the sphere of God"s protection and care. So with Peter. He says, "I know not the Man," and he is virtually and formally a stranger from that moment. Only after three times confessing the Lord whom he had three times denied is he spiritually reinstated, restored to forfeited office, and authorized to feed the sheep. This is a terrible aspect of spiritual renegadism. God accepts it as an accomplished fact. You break away, and are let go. You forsake God, and he casts you off. It is a fearful power this you have of putting a whole infinity between yourself and God, between your sin and his righteousness, between your want and his gifts, between your desolate heart and his everlasting consolations. Yet it is a power proper to a moral being, a power it is of the insignia of your manhood to have, and yet an utter renunciation of it to use.
V HOW THE REMINISCENCE OF A FORMER FELLOWSHIP HELPS TO DRAW BACK TO GOD. Jonah could look back to a gracious state and consciousness. He had walked in the light of God"s countenance. He knew the joy of his presence and the life in his favour. As part of the thought, "I am cast out frown before thine eyes," these things would come up to mind. He must remember their quality in bewailing their loss. And they were a fragrant memory, the very cream and flower of the goodness he had tasted. Would they not hulk large among the influences drawing the wanderer back? "As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word,... if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." Yes! there is the secret. If a man has come and tasted, he will be moved to come back and feast. The final apostasy from God of a true believer would be against the nature of things. "His seed remaineth in him." The life that has had God in it once can never be without him again. The void would be intolerable. And so, like the child that for a time has left its mother"s knee, the backslider has survivals of precious memories that bring him back to God.
VI HOW THE TEMPLE IS THE CENTRE OF THE RETURNING PENITENT"S REGARDS. (Ver. 4) The temple was the national meeting place with God the spot which "he had chosen to place his Name there." "There was the mercy seat, the ark of the covenant, and the Divine presence; there the tribes of Israel met to worship the Lord, and there the God of Israel came to meet and bless his people. No wonder Jonah"s eyes should be fixed on this house, which was the glory of all lands, the sun in the world of mercy, and the centre of true worship" (Jones, in loc. ). In the spiritual sphere worship underlies work. When Jonah ceased to labour, he had already ceased to pray. As in every case of suspended animation, it was failure of the heart"s action that had paralyzed his hand. And now the converse process begins, and first of all pulsation is re-established. The heart resumes its normal action and beats for God. To approach him in worship, and resume fellowship with him in his holy ordinances, is the first sacred exercise to which his hope springs. It is so always. The stay at home Christian is never a worker for God. No heart for the sanctuary, no hand for the plough. The very breath of the religious life is to say, "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?
1. Wherever you are, God has placed you. Jonah says, "Thou hast cast me into the deep... thy billows and thy waves passed over me." Privilege and calamity are both God"s. He sends them, and bounds them, and is revealed in them. Judgments viewed as accidents have no disciplinary value and no moral aspect. The rod is reforming only when we see it in our Father"s hand.
2. You cannot be in anyplace where it is not fitting you should seek God. Jonah cried out of "the belly of hell." What pit, then, is so deep, what lull so low, what evil case so desperate, that in it and from it we may not call on God? "Is any afflicted, let him pray; Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.
3. God is again my God" in the thought of the returning penitent. (Ver. 1) With the child"s reawakened love comes back the revived filial instinct. God is "my Father" to the prodigal from the moment he comes to himself. Blessed be his gracious Name, that such things can be! If you have renounced the life for self, you may call God your own this hour. The thought is a new backbone to faith. God "waits to be gracious." He is with you the moment you wish it, and for you the moment you submit, and yours in present possession the moment the soul"s appropriating hand is stretched forth. "O Saviour, precious Saviour, Whom yet unseen we love; O Name of might end favour, All other names above: We worship thee, we bless thee, To thee alone we sing; We praise thee and confess thee, Our holy Lord and King. J.E.H.
HOMILIES BY W.G. BLAIKIE Vers. 1-7. "De profundis:" distress and prayer.
"Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish"s belly," etc. Unexampled position of Jonah no details given, and hints somewhat obscure; evidently he retained measure of consciousness, but for how long we know not seems to have been conscious of moving through the water before being swallowed by the fish miracle of his preservation corresponds to that of the three Hebrews in the furnace, (Dan_3:27) or of the burning bush (Exo_3:2, Exo_3:3) element of apparent destruction becomes supernaturally element of preservation this record of his feelings composed after his deliverance a record of the conflict of sight and faith to sight, the situation desperate faith pierces to the unseen, finds support, and finally triumphs. The prayer is a singular combination of midnight darkness and noonday light.
I THE SITUATION. Described in many expressions, some of awful intensity: "By reason of mine affliction;" "out of the belly of hell;" "in the deep, in the midst of the seas;" "The floods compassed me about, all thy billows and thy waves passed over me;" "out of thy sight;" "The depths closed me round about, the weeds were wrapt about my head;" "I went down to the bottom of the mountains, the earth with her bars were about me forever." Situation seemed absolutely hopeless physical surroundings the most frightful ever known each, too, appeared a token of Divine displeasure apparently as little hope for the soul as for the body.
II ITS SOURCE FROM GOD. For it was not a chance that had befallen Jonah; it was all God"s doing: Thou hadst cast me into the deep; all thy billows and thy waves passed over me." God had pursued him ever since he turned his back on him; raised the storm against him; caused the lot to fall on him; cast him into the deep; entombed him in the fish; shut him up, as it were, in despair. Yet he utters no word of reproach; God is justified when he speaks, and clear when he judges. (Psa_51:4)
III CONSTERNATION OF HIS SOUL. The first effect was to paralyze him. "I said, I am cast out of thy sight;" "My soul fainted within me." Horrors of his situation unexampled, escape impossible; shut up a helpless prey to the most appalling forms of destruction Omnipotence itself crushing him: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
IV THE DAWN. "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord." The darkest hour of night is that which precedes the dawn out of the very depths of helplessness and desolation faith begins to rise. Far more beautiful than the fabled sight when the goddess of beauty rose from the ocean foam is the sight of Jonah"s faith rising from the depths, both literal and spiritual. The moment of utter helplessness is often the turning point in spiritual experience at first, in justification, (Rom_3:19, Rom_3:21) afterwards in recovery from backsliding, (Hos_2:14) and in sanctification. (Rom_5:20) "Nothing in my hand I bring; Simply to thy cross I cling; Naked, come to thee for dress; Helpless, look to thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die!
1. In "remembering God," Jonah recognized him as "the Lord his God;" his by national covenant, by personal choice (the fruit of Divine grace), and by his prophetic call and consecration; his, though he had attempted to flee from his presence, for does he not say, "Turn, O backsliding Israel, and I will heal your backsliding"? (Jer_3:12, Jer_3:22) The God who first chose him in all his unworthiness must have an interest in him still. So the psalmist cried; so Jesus afterwards in the like spirit, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
2. He looked towards God"s temple. Why? Because of the promise virtually given to Solomon. (1Ki_8:38) He builds on God"s word, "Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to. (Psa_119:49) He thinks of the temple, the sacred ark, the mercy seat, the overshadowing cherubims, the promise to Moses, "There I will meet with you, and I will commune with you from above the mercy. (Exo_25:22) He takes hold of this steadies his soul upon it shaking off the impression of his horrible surroundings, and enters into peace. What a change! the belly of hell turned into the gate of heaven, the how! of despair changed into the hallelujah of delight.
See here an encouragement to spirit of faith in Jonah all lights extinguished except faith in lowest depths, "let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption." Even when we are the authors of our own troubles, when we are in the depths by reason of sin, nil desperandum! "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help. W.G.B.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9 And Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God, out…
Jon_2:1-9
And Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God, out of the fishs belly.
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The return to God
The object in setting forth the history of Jonah is to show the nature of his sin, the truth of his penitence, and the way in which he was restored to Gods favour. Turn thought to the change which was worked in Jonahs soul. Bear in mind what was the nature of his sin It was not that he was separated from God, but that he had abandoned his duty, had shrunk from his mission, had thought more of his own relief from trial than of Gods will. When some wrong has been done which we have not the courage to confess, and the truth is discovered, fixing the charge on ones self-personality, we know what a terrible shock and deep inward sense of self-reproach is felt. Illustrate by the cases of Achan and David. When the sailors asked Jonah what was to be done, he replied, Cast me forth into the sea . . . for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. What do his words prove? Not only Jonahs personal sense of guilt, but his complete surrender of himself to God, whether to live or to die. If I die, he seems to say, it is my just doom; if I live, it is the pure undeserved mercy of God. It was the most perfect reparation we can conceive. As before he would not surrender his own will and his own judgment, notwithstanding the command of God, so now he would give himself up wholly for whatever God might will as his deserved punishment. The sailors east him into the sea, but then a yet deeper sense of penitence awoke within him, and a yet stronger expression of profound sorrow and unquestioning childlike faith broke forth from him. Jonah saw, by faith, life restored; he saw Divine mercy working itself out in the midst of the deep darkness, and he acknowledged God as his Father, his Protector, his eternal Hope even then in the midst of his awful doom. Two lessons--
1. We see here an act of purest faith. There is a faith of a soft and easy kind, when everything goes smooth, and we have no anxiety, no fear or distress darkening the path of life. How glibly then do men speak of having their hope in God. There is another kind of faith, which produces resignation, patience, willingness to endure and be brave, and even willing to suffer. But yet it may not be faith that cheers the soul,--not a rejoicing in the Lord, not the triumph of a trustful soul. The real saving faith is seen when the soul finds God working in the storm and tempest, and reads the handwriting on the wall, speaking even in the midst of death and terror, and yet can calmly look on the Redeemer on the Cross, and see in the future the immortality beyond the grave, see the brightness of the glory that will one day be to the faithful the heritage of boundless joy, and so be comforted and gladdened even in sorrow and pain,--it is such faith we see realised in the repentant Jonah.
2. We may learn the reason of trials and troubles which so often disturb the currents of our life. What would it be if we were always in the sunshine, always prosperous? Would there not be, even to the most faithful, a risk of too great confidence of a false assurance? (T. T. Carter.)
Jonah in the sea
1. Objectively, the prophets experience was that of one in the belly of hell, in the midst of the seas, entangled in the weeds, and among the caverns worn by the waves beneath the mountains on the coast. Jonah was in the belly of hell--Sheol, the region of the dead. He was in the heart of the seas. He sank at once when cast into the sea. He was entangled with the sea-weeds. Entangled with the weeds which gathered about his head, the prophet drifted towards the coast, and was presently carried into some of its submarine caverns by the current, and there he must have perished but for the Divine mercy.
2. The subjective experience of Jonah beneath the waves was that of a living, conscious, suffering, and suppliant person. It was a miraculous circumstance that the prophet remained alive in such a position. Jonah was not only alive, but conscious while under the sea. The distress he experienced beneath the water appears to have been spiritual rather than physical. His soul was overwhelmed with the consciousness that he was cast out of Gods sight. Jonah was saved from despair by the suppliant mood which possessed him. We need despair of no man while he prays. His prayer was accompanied by a look toward the temple of Jehovah. It was prompted by his remembrance of the Lord. I remembered Jehovah. It was accompanied by a vow. It was answered in a remarkable manner.
Observe his reflections when in the fish.
1. Thou hast brought up my life from destruction, O Lord my God!
2. My prayer came in unto Thee, into Thine holy temple.
3. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
4. Salvation is of the Lord. (S. C. Burn.)
Jonahs prayer
Here we have a very clear and intense history of Jonahs inward life. Notice some points of it.
1. There was a great and sudden quickening of consciousness.
2. Rapidly this new consciousness became distressful. The reserved sorrow of long sinning comes all at once.
3. Then he began to look--upwards to earth, eastwards to the temple where he knew that the lost presence was richly manifested.
4. The look soon became a cry. It may have been an audible cry. But evidently the soul of the cry was this, that it was tim cry of the soul.
5. He began to be grateful.
6. The final state of his mind is a state of entire dependence. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
The imprisonment of Jonah
It is evident from the chapter that, whether a longer or a shorter period elapsed, what befell him, and how he was exercised during his confinement, were things which he distinctly recollected. In verse 1 Jonah gives a summary statement of what was his situation and exercise. The belly of a fish. Clearly his preservation and escape were things altogether miraculous. That was his situation; his exercise was prayer. Let none then neglect secret prayer to God, or think themselves excused because they have not a proper or convenient place to which they may retire. The description given of the object of his prayer is worthy of notice. The Lord his God. The God of Israel, the only living and true God, God in covenant. It was plainly the prayer of an appropriating faith. Verse 2 requires but little explanation. Here we have the success with which this exercise of prayer was crowned. His situation had been one of deep distress. He cried unto the Lord out of his affliction. He was in great straits, and very closely besieged. His body and mind were both shut up. The word cried, as used in relation with the exercise of prayer, is very significant. It is not here merely a loud voice; it implies close engagements of heart, great fervour, earnestness, and importunity. This is the more strongly indicated as the word is repeated. Our prophet did not direct his cry to one whose ear was shut or averted. Our God is the hearer of prayer. Verse 3 contains an amplified account of the dismal situation of the prophet, and of the utter hopelessness of life being preserved, or deliverance obtained, except by miraculous influence. Without attempting to describe the peculiarly distressing feelings of the prophet when in the fishs belly, a case which baffles all description, let us direct attention to the piety of the man. He traces the storm to God Himself. In verse 4 we have a short but lively description of that conflict which often takes place, in the case of Gods people, between grace and remaining corruption, particularly between faith and unbelief. This conflict, though incident to the people of God at all times, is specially felt in seasons of distress. The language is not to be understood as referring to Gods natural presence, or as intimating that the prophet was beyond the sphere of Gods omniscience; for he was better taught than to give any countenance to such an idea. But he then felt strongly tempted to say that he was cast out of the Lords gracious presence. But he had in him the principle of a true saving faith. He says, I will look again toward Thy holy temple. This language intimates that the faith of the prophet embraced God in His gracious and new-covenant character. The following truths may be inferred. That God is jealous of His glory, and frequently manifests this most signally in His dealings with His own people. That it is God who adjusts the kind, measure, and duration of the afflictions with which His righteous people are afflicted. That while God displays much of His sovereignty in the afflictions He sends upon His people, yet some sin is often the immediate precursor. That right exercise under affliction consists in a clear and impressive discernment of this connection. That when afflictions are sanctified to persons they seek unto God by prayer for pardon and restoration. That although the genuine people of God, under this or the other affliction, may be reduced to a very low state as respects their soul-exercise, yet they are always upheld, and in the mercy of God are prevented from plunging into the fatal abyss of despair! (James Clyde.)
The conflict between despair and faith
Doctrine--
1. It is the usual lot of the Lords children to have not only outward afflictions to wrestle with, but spiritual temptations and sad conclusions, gathered from their troubles, which are sorer to endure than many simple afflictions. For so was it with Jonah when he was in the sea.
2. The children of the Lord in their troubles may be so tossed and divided betwixt hope and despair that faith and unbelief will be talking word about, for so doth Jonahs experience teach. I said, I am cast out; yet will I look again.
3. In a time of temptation, unbeliefs word is generally first out, till faith come and correct it; ordinarily what is said in haste is unbeliefs language, and to be unsaid again, for this comes first out, I am cast out of Thy sight.
4. A child of God may not only be assaulted with fits of despair, but for a time be overcome with it, and yield to it; and yet, for all that, recover his feet again.
5. As it is ordinary under temptation to judge of all Gods respect, care, and love by our sense of His present dealing, so to be cast off by God, as one that He will not favour nor care for nor take notice of, is the sorest of trials, especially to the child of God, who lives by Gods favour, and is made up in all his afflictions when he finds that God thinks on him, and that his troubles endear him to Gods care.
6. It is no new thing to see a child of God, and vessel of mercy, apprehending reprobation and rejection from God, in his sad and dark hour, for this also is Jonahs temptation.
7. Nor is it strange to see the children of God exercised and sadly afflicted with that which hath never been, nor will be, save in their own fearful apprehensions; for so is Jonah with casting off. When we reckon by our own deservings, and by probabilities in a strait, and not by Gods love and all-sufficiency, we cannot but draw sad conclusions, and our own spirits will make us work enough.
8. Temptations, even when they have overcome for a season, are not to be lien with, and given way to, by the children of God, but ought to be resisted and set against, though they should (if it were possible) perish in the attempt, this being the way to honour God and get deliverance,--for vanquished Jonah will not quit it so; Yet will I look again.
9. That whereby the children of the Lord must oppose all troubles inward and outward, and resist temptations, is naked faith closely adhering to the covenant of grace made in Christ, and gathering hope of better dealing This is imported in his looking again toward the holy Temple, or eyeing God in His covenant, whereof that was a sign. To cast away confidence as useless in a strait, or not to essay faith until we are hired by sense, or to lie by in wilful unbelief, think that is the way to get sense to loose our doubts; or to seek any footing for faith but in Gods covenant and free grace in Christ, is the height of folly.
10. The weakest act of faith may do much good in a day of greatest need; for in all this extremity Jonah had no more but a looking again as a poor banished man.
11. Faith in a time of need will find a way through many a dark impediment to find God.
12. It speaks much to Gods praise that when His people are laid by with their temptations yet He will not lose them, but recover them out of their deepest swoons, and make vanquished faith yet again to triumph over difficulties which they had judged insuperable. For this is also recorded to His praise: that not only Jonah persevered crying when his trouble was great, but that he was strengthened, after he had once yielded to the temptation, to believe and look again. (George Hutcheson.)
The prayer of Jonah
This prayer, as it now stands, was obviously composed after his restoration. It may be regarded as a compendium of what he uttered in his distress. Notice--
1. The depth of the prophets misery. The prophet was in the utmost jeopardy. He knew not but that death might speedily be his portion. His misery arose chiefly from the agony of his soul--the conviction that he had been arrested in an act of wilful disobedience,--in the attempt, vain as that of the first fallen pair, to escape from the presence of the Lord. Many of his expressions are similar to those of the psalmist. David felt the bitterness which is the invariable result of a departure from the living God,--the intolerable anguish which arises from a consciousness of guilt when the conscience, by habitual transgression, has not been seared, and reverential fear of God not rooted out from the heart. When we contemplate the prophet in his dark hours of terror and agony, and behold the inevitable wretchedness which is the natural consequence of disobedience, we cannot but admire the wisdom, while we should seek to follow the example, of that apostle who declared, in the presence of Felix, that he exercised himself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men. Though depressed and desponding, Jonah did not give way to despair. He called to mind former mercies. His prayer ascended with the incense to heaven. And to whom should we betake ourselves in the hour of affliction, but to that God who dwelleth not in temples made with hands? We should not look to other sources for that comfort which Jehovah alone can bestow. As Jonah looked to the temple, and thought upon the legal sacrifices there offered, so must we, in all our addresses to the throne of grace, have respect to the meritorious efficacy of that great sacrifice by which the Lord Jesus hath averted the Fathers displeasure, and opened a way of access through His blood. The prayer of Jonah was not in vain. He was speedily delivered from his prison-house. No doubt can be entertained of the sincerity of the prophets repentance--of the deep humiliation of his soul, of his heartfelt contrition for having disobeyed the Divine command. No sooner was the prophet restored than, like the mariners, he offered praise and thanksgiving, and paid his vows unto the Lord. How overwhelming must have been his feelings on this miraculous deliverance from his strange and fearful prison-house. His soul must have been transported with gratitude and amazement, and his vows were doubtless poured forth with a fervour proportioned to a sense of deliverance. But how often are pious resolutions forgotten when the time of danger is past. Salvation is of the Lord. What truth more important to be habitually realised than this,--that all our temporal, spiritual, and eternal blessings proceed from God. What have we that we have not received? Our worldly success we are tempted to ascribe to our prudence and skilful management. We refer to second causes that which should be referred to the great First Cause of all. And we are apt to forget that it is by grace we are saved. The great practical lesson for us to learn is--the value and importance of prayer. (Thomas Bissland, M. A.)
The prophets prayer
The bottom of the sea was Jonahs holy ground, and the belly of the fish his consecrated oratory. His gloomy prison was turned into a house of prayer. Jonah evidently retained his consciousness during the term of his imprisonment. We have only the substance of the captives prayer preserved for us.
1. The spiritual exercises with which the prophets prayer is identified. It is impossible to conceive of a more critical or distressing condition than that to which the servant of God was reduced.
2. The conclusion of unbelief. Then I said, I am cast out of Thy sight. An outcast from Divine favour.
3. The victory of faith. Yet will I look again towards Thy holy temple. See faiths realised triumph, Yet hast Thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.
4. The ardour of Jonahs gratitude.
5. His emphatic ascription. Salvation is of the Lord. Notice also the evidence of spiritual reclamation which the prophets prayer supplies. This is seen in his altered feeling towards God. In the rekindling of the spirit of devotion. In the vigorous action of faith. In the expression of this faith Jonah embodied the sentiments of former saints. The prophets mind was evidently richly stored with the Word of God. (John Broad.)
The conflict of faith and sense
The prayer of Jonah is an illustrious instance of the conflict between sense and faith. Sense prompting to despair,--faith pleading for hope and procuring victory. This prayer of faith, though in unparalleled circumstances, and spiritually noble in a marvellous degree, contains in it nothing but the ordinary principles of all believing prayer. It is the very trial of faith to have circumstances to contend with which appear to extinguish hope, which even seem to shut out hope altogether. This is the true place and action of faith. Surrounded by incidents, events, circumstances, influence, powers, all adverse to your deliverance and salvation; and with your hope, as far as this region of the things seen and temporal is concerned, utterly cut off; your faith discovers another region, a realm and kingdom unseen. Your faith draws upon them.
I. View Jonahs position from the side of sense. Was ever a case so fitted to call forth utter despair? Mark--
1. The case in which Jonah finds himself.
2. The hand to which he traces it.
3. The immediate effects produced on his mind by it.
He felt to be cast out of Gods sight. His soul fainted in him. Outwardly he was begirt with terrors unspeakable. These to him were tokens of an angry God. His soul was brought to the very verge of despair.
II. Jonahs faith rose in its strength and triumph. What can stand us in any stead in such an hour but the prayer of faith?
1. We see the truth and power of Jonahs faith in that he betook himself to prayer at all.
2. He set before himself the certainty of Jehovahs reconcilableness, His promised forgiveness, His sure accessibility.
3. He did not do this in vain. He was answered in the progressive strengthening of his faith, even while his trial lasts.
4. Jonah offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving. He cometh unto God--unto God his exceeding joy. (Hugh Martin, M. A.)
Jonah the penitent suppliant
This has been called a Song of deliverance. It suggests--
1. The moral significance of adverse circumstances. Circumstances make or unmake, mould or mar us for future usefulness and distinction, according to the spirit in which they are received and utilised. Adverse circumstances are morally advantageous when rightly understood, patiently borne, and rightly used. Adversity ever has a spiritual significance. Whether it be guidance judicial or disciplinary, we cannot do better than acknowledge with reverence the hand that strikes, and supplicate His mercy.
2. The important part prayer plays in the adversities of life. It is indispensable in the trying and troublous experiences of our moral and physical being. Jonahs prayer was a necessity. He was borne on the wings of strong moral impulses.
3. That the hearer or receiver of prayer is always within reach and approachable. Time, circumstances, con dition, place are no hindrances in themselves to drawing near to God. From every point in the compass of life He is accessible.
(1) Jonahs prayer was a personal recognition of God.
(2) He was earnest in supplication. Importunity is never unsuccessful.
4. That our prayers to a great extent are moulded by our experience. As the countenance indexes the mind, the eye, the health, so prayer is a pretty sure indicator of the souls attitude Godward, its condition in grace, its experience in the faith-life. This chapter teaches the prevalency of prayer. It was answered in complete salvation. Note here, amazing Divine condescension. Great deviation from the Divine habitude. Prompt and perfect deliverance. Prayer is omnipotent, for it prevails with, it conquers God. There is no dilemma in Christian experience that prayer cannot deliver from. (J. O. Keen, D. D.)
In the deep and mighty waters
Some few years ago a terrible calamity occurred in a colliery at Tynewydd, South Wales. The mine was flooded with water, and for several days the miners were entombed, despite heroic efforts to save them. As one of the rescuing parties was exploring the mine they thought they heard singing, and creeping in the direction of the sound, heard the entombed men singing the words of a Welsh hymn, In the deep and mighty waters there is One to rescue me. (S. S. Chronicle.)
More of thanksgiving beneath the waters
There is an old legend concerning a golden organ which, when a monastery was being sacked, the monks threw into the rushing stream that hurried past their home; and the story has it that for long, long years thereafter the music of the organ was still heard beneath the waters; for, though they drowned the instrument, they could not drown its song. There is a lesson for us even in an apparently worthless legend. When Gods waves and billows roll over us, let us remember that we are Gods, and that will set the seal. Though the organ beneath the surface may run the risk of being drowned, if the Spirit of God is with us, then the sweet new song will be going on all the same. (Christian Herald.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Jonah 2
THE GREAT FISH AND WHAT IT MEANS-THE PSALM
Jonah 2
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AT this point in the tale appears the Great Fish. "And Jehovah prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."
After the very natural story which we have followed, this verse obtrudes itself with a shock of unreality and grotesqueness. What an anticlimax! say some; what a clumsy intrusion! So it is if Jonah be taken as an individual. But if we keep in mind that he stands here, not for himself, but for his nation, the difficulty and the grotesqueness disappear. It is Israels ill-will to the heathen, Israels refusal of her mission, Israels embarkation on the stormy sea of the worlds politics, which we have had described as Jonahs. Upon her flight from Gods will there followed her Exile, and from her Exile, which was for a set period, she came back to her own land, a people still, and still Gods servant to the heathen. How was the author to express this national death and resurrection? In conformity with the popular language of his time, he had described Israels turning from Gods will by her embarkation on a stormy sea, always the symbol of the prophets for the tossing heathen world that was ready to engulf her; and now to express her exile and return he sought metaphors in the same rich poetry of the popular imagination.
To the Israelite who watched from his hills that stormy coast on which the waves hardly ever cease to break in their impotent restlessness, the sea was a symbol of arrogance and futile defiance to the will of God. The popular mythology of the Semites had filled it with turbulent monsters, snakes, and dragons who wallowed like its own waves, helpless against the bounds set to them, or rose to wage war against the gods in heaven and the great lights which they had created; but a god slays them and casts their carcasses for meat and drink to the thirsty people of the desert. It is a symbol of the perpetual war between light and darkness; the dragons are the clouds, the slayer the sun. A variant form, which approaches closely to that of Jonahs great fish, is still found in Palestine. In May, 1891, I witnessed at Hasbeya, on the western skirts of Hermon, an eclipse of the moon.
When the shadow began to creep across her disc there rose from the village a hideous din of drums, metal pots, and planks of wood beaten together; guns were fired, and there was much shouting. I was told that this was done to terrify the great fish which was swallowing the moon, and to make him disgorge her. Now these purely natural myths were applied by the prophets and poets of the Old Testament to the illustration, not only of Jehovahs sovereignty over the storm and the night, but of His conquest of the heathen powers who had enslaved His people. Isaiah had heard in the sea the confusion and rage of the peoples against the bulwark which Jehovah set around Israel, {Isa_17:12-14} but it is chiefly from the time of the Exile onward that the myths themselves, with their cruel monsters and the prey of these, are applied to the great heathen powers and their captive, Israel. One prophet explicitly describes the Exile of Israel as the swallowing of the nation by the monster, the Babylonian tyrant, whom God forces at last to disgorge his prey. Israel says: {Jer_51:34} "Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me and crushed me, he hath swallowed me up like the Dragon, filling his belly, from my delights he hath cast me out." But Jehovah replies: {Jer_51:44-45} "I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed My people, go ye out of the midst of her."
It has been justly remarked by Canon Cheyne that this passage may be considered as the intervening link between the original form of the myth and the application of it made in the story of Jonah. To this the objection might be offered that in the story of Jonah "the great fish" is not actually represented as the means of the prophets temporary destruction, like the monster in Jeremiah 51, but rather as the vessel of his deliverance. This is true, yet it only means that our author has still further adapted the very plastic material offered him by this much-transformed myth. But we do not depend for our proof upon the comparison of a single passage. Let the student of the Book of Jonah read carefully the many passages of the Old Testament, in which the sea or its monsters rage in vain against Jehovah, or are harnessed and led about by Him; or still more those passages in which His conquest of these monsters is made to figure His conquest of the heathen powers-and the conclusion will appear irresistible that the story of the "great fish" and of Jonah the type of Israel is drawn from the same source. Such a solution of the problem has one great advantage. It relieves us of the grotesqueness which attaches to the literal conception of the story, and of the necessity of those painful efforts for accounting for a miracle which have distorted the common-sense and even the orthodoxy of so many commentators of the book. We are dealing, let us remember, with poetry-a poetry inspired by one of the most sublime truths of the Old Testament, but whose figures are drawn from the legends and myths of the people to whom it is addressed. To treat this as prose is not only to sin against the commonsense which God has given us, but against the simple and obvious intention of the author. It is blindness both to reason and to Scripture.
These views are confirmed by an examination of the Psalm or Prayer which is put into Jonahs mouth while he is yet in the fish. We have already seen what grounds there are for believing that the Psalm belongs to the authors own plan, and from the beginning appeared just where it does now. But we may also point out how, in consistence with its context, this is a Psalm, not of an individual Israelite, but of the nation as a whole. It is largely drawn from the national liturgy. It is full of cries which we know, though they are expressed in the singular number, to have been used of the whole people, or at least of that pious portion of them, who were Israel indeed. True that in the original portion of the Psalm, and by far its most beautiful verses, we seem to have the description of a drowning man swept to the bottom of the sea. But even here, the colossal scenery and the magnificent hyperbole of the language suit not the experience of an individual, but the extremities of that vast gulf of exile into which a whole nation was plunged. It is a nations carcass which rolls upon those infernal tides that swirl among the roots of mountains and behind the barred gates of earth. Finally, Jon_2:9-10 are obviously a contrast, not between the individual prophet and the heathen, but between the true Israel, who in exile preserve their loyalty to Jehovah, and those Jews who, forsaking their "covenant-love," lapse to idolatry. We find many parallels to this in exilic and post-exilic literature.
"And Jonah prayed to Jehovah his God from the belly of the fish, and said:"-
"I cried out of my anguish to Jehovah, and He answered me; From the belly of Inferno I sought help-Thou heardest my voice. For Thou hadst cast me into the depth, to the heart of the seas, and the flood rolled around me; All Thy breakers and billows went over me. Then I said I am hurled from Thy sight: shall I ever again look towards Thy holy temple? Waters enwrapped me to the soul; the Deep rolled around me";
"The tangle was bound about my head. I was gone down to the roots of the hills; Earth and her bars were behind me forever. But Thou broughtest my life up from destruction, Jehovah my God! When my soul fainted upon me, I remembered Jehovah, And my prayer came in unto Thee, to Thy holy temple. They that observe the idols of vanity, They forsake their covenant-love. But to the sound of praise I will sacrifice to Thee; What I have vowed I will perform. Salvation is Jehovahs."
"And Jehovah spake to the fish, and it threw up Jonah on the dry land."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 7, 8 CRITICAL NOTES. Prayed] Really praised. His] not only to…
CRITICAL NOTES. Prayed] Really praised. His] not only to Jehovah as the sailors did. “He shows his faith by adoring Him as his God” [Burk], The structure of this hymn, composed like many Psalms, and filled with allusions to them, falls into three strophes (Jon_2:4; Jon_2:6; Jon_2:8): each of which rises from distress to deliverance and hope [cf. Lange].
Jon_2:2. Cried] More definite than Psa_16:1; Psa_120:1. Belly] Womb of Sheol, i.e. the peril of death; snares of death (Psa_18:5); deliverance out of Sheol (Psa_30:3).
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Jon_2:3. Deep] abyss (Psa_42:7). Midst] Heart of the seas, in the fathomless depth, away from the shores. Floods] The stream or current of the sea which sweeps along, as Psa_24:2. Waves] from Strâbãr, to break; thy breakers and thy billows roll. “Thy billows, because he felt in his conscience that the sea with its waves and billows was the serv. ant of God and of his wrath to punish sin” [Luther].
Jon_2:4. Said] in my heart, i.e. I thought that I was banished from thy protection and care (Psa_31:23). Look] Lit. look intently, an assurance that he will yet appear in the temple to praise God (Psa_5:8).
PRAYER AND DISTRESS.—Jon_2:1-4
Jonah now describes his mournful and dismal condition. Let us notice his sorrows, prayers, and hopes.
I. The great distress. “I cried by reason of my distress.”
1. Distress in the deep. Pharaoh’s army sank into the deep; and the sea is often as the grave. (a) Into the heart of the seas, far away from the shores, and down into the fathomless bottom. (b) Encircled by the floods. “The floods have compassed me” (cf. Psa_46:3; Psa_69:1-2; Psa_88:6). (c) Swept by the billows. The broken surges and mountain-billows rolled over his head. Sin casts into darkness and dismal gulfs. The punishment of God is often intense, but love is seen in it all. “Thy waves.”
2. Distress in Sheol. “From the belly of hell.” His confinement was like the lower world, the region of ghosts. But no abyss of grief is beyond Divine help. God can keep alive and deliver from the pit. “O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave, thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit.”
3. Distress away from God’s presence. “I am driven out of thy sight.” This was the worst of all, yet only a just retribution for one who had fled from the presence of God. Jonah’s sin, and the Divine judgment upon it, pierced his soul, darkened his prospect, and led him to despair. Hope of deliverance for body or soul seemed no longer cherished. But man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. Bradford said the prison can be made the palace of the Great King. Seek to be near God, and feel distressed at distance which is (a) a penal consequence of sin; (b) a sad complaint with God’s people. “Why standest thou afar off, O Lord?”
II. The earnest prayer. Sorrows within, around, and above him, led him to cry out to God. The Church is indebted for its best men, and the world for its best sayings, to affliction. Many of God’s children have first prayed by reason of distress. Backsliders have been reclaimed, and prayers quickened into cries, by poignant grief.
1. Its intensity. “I cried.” Prosperity tends to negligence, formality, and deadness in prayer; distress makes it earnest and ardent (Jas_5:13). “Many, silent with their lips, have cried aloud with their heart,” says Augustine. “Many, noisy with their lips, could, with heart turned away, obtain nothing.”
2. Its directness. “Unto Jehovah, and Jehovah as his God” (Jon_2:1). Away from himself, and up to the throne of the Eternal, were his confidence and desire fixed. He was yet the servant of God, linked to him by past discipline and future hope. The covenant of God stands firm, and brighter than stars does it shine in the depths of sorrow. “This God is our God.”
3. Its place. “The fish’s belly.” What an oratory! No place is amiss for prayer. The wilderness and the den, the prison, and “the belly of hell. The voice of a child is heard wherever he cries in distress. “Call upon me in the day of trouble,” &c.
3. Its language. Most of its expressions are found in the Psalms. It is well to be conversant with Scripture, which gives consolation and aids devotion in all circumstances. Our prayers would be more refreshing to others, and more acceptable to God, if offered in words of inspiration.
4. Its speed. “Thou heardest my voice.” God, who cast him down, lifted him up; inspired his heart, and answered his petition. God had called upon Jonah, and often calls to us, without response. But when we turn in penitence and prayer to him he listens. There is a voice in faith and prayer which God quickly hears, for “he delighteth in mercy.”
“Prayer ardent opens heaven” [Young].
REVIVED FEELING.—Jon_2:4
By degrees Jonah gained strength to hope and pray. His despondency was only momentary. A ray of light pierced the darkness, and blessed his heart. “I will look again,” &c. Learn—
I. That a servant of God may be overcome with fear. Not only assaulted with temptation and despair, but overcome by them for a time. Men change in feeling, rejoice to-day, and doubt to-morrow. Light and darkness alternate in the spiritual as in the natural world. But resist temptation, seek to gather strength, and look again. “Cast not away, therefore, your confidence.”
II. That the weakest act of faith may be mighty in overcoming fear. Faith in God will sustain us in extremest sufferings, and find a way in greatest impediments. To remain in unbelief, rest under the waves, or trust in anything but the promise, is folly. Jonah looked not at probabilities, at things as they really were, but with fixed eye toward the holy temple. His faith pierced the darkness, and pictured the mercy-seat and the Divine presence. A true retrospect of God’s house will tinge the present with hope, and dissipate the clouds that darken our horizon. “All things are possible to him that believeth.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Jon_2:2. The affliction.
1. Its acknowledged source. Neither himself nor the mariners were considered. All comes from God. “Thou hast cast me into the deep.” “Thy waves,” &c. “It was not you, but God, that sent me here.”
2. Its benevolent design. Design there was, and that design not malevolent. “God is love.” He does not afflict willingly, but for our future good and his glory.
“Now let us thank the Eternal Power, convinced
That heaven but tries our virtue by affliction:
That oft the cloud which wraps the present hour,
Serves but to brighten all our future days.”
Jon_2:2-3. The right use of the Psalter. Even holy men of God, who were partakers of the Holy Ghost, have not refused to appeal to, and to cite formally, the books of Scripture, which existed already in their time. A strong argument for the authority of the Holy Scriptures [Lange].
Depths.
1. Sorrow.
2. Despair.
3. Desertion.
“One woe doth tread upon another’s heel,
So fast they follow” [Shakespeare].
“Thus woe succeeds woe, as wave a wave.” [Herrick.]
Look again.
1. A determination to remember God in future.
2. An expression of encouragement derived from displays of Divine providence and mercy. “God gave him no hope save that he preserved him alive. For he seemed to himself forsaken of God. Wonderful pattern of faith which gains strength even from God’s seeming desertion” [Pusey].
Again, past experience in God’s house.
1. When improved, (a) A source of comfort in distress, (b) A ground of hope for future blessings.
2. When abused, (a) Taken an evidence of present grace. (b) Made an excuse for further effort. If you have not force enough to contemplate God in heaven, try again by fresh exercises of faith and prayer; you may be refreshed with a more excellent view and better hope than Moses had on Nebo’s summit. The hasty conclusion. “Then I said, I am cast out.” I. Its cause.
1. Consciousness of guilt.
2. Calamity interpreted as visitations of God. II. Its folly. God reproves, and often severely, but never casts away his children. When we speak in haste we do not consider. Our minds are then disturbed, and we distrust God. (Cf. David, 1Sa_27:1; Psa_21:2.) “Hasty words,” says one, “are but for a moment on the tongue, but they often lie for years on the conscience.” The mischief of hasty conclusions is great. “Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Hindrances and aids to prayer.
Jon 2:4
Hindrances and aids to prayer.
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I. Prayer is founded on knowledge and prayer is prompted by desire. If then for knowledge there be error, and if instead of desire there be coldness, then is prayer hindered. It cannot be denied that we are all prone to error as to God’s character and mind towards us. A wrong idea of God, of His character as unlovely, or of His mind as unloving towards us, is one chief impediment to the work of prayer. The other is a wrong feeling towards Him. Not misconception, not error, but (in the plainest sense of the words) some form or other of sin.
II. Whatever makes us know God better, and love Him more, will be an aid and help to prayer. (i) It is one chief office of the Bible to assist prayer by revealing God. Look upon it as you look upon visiting one who is to you as your own soul; an opportunity of increased knowledge, which increase of knowledge is evermore also an increase of love. (ii) Thus will it be also with the hearing of the Word in public. "Praying’s the end of preaching." The value of each particular sermon may be estimated, not by the beauty of its language, and not by the power of its argument, but by this question rather, Did it make me pray? (iii) Another of the aids to prayer is what we term comprehensively the discipline of life. (iv) The chiefest of the helps to prayer is prayer.
Pray once, and you will pray again. Fray as you can today to-morrow you shall pray better.
C. J. Vaughan, Voices of the Prophets, p. 177.
References: Jon 2:4.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1813. Jon 2:8.—J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table, p. 307. Jon 2:9.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 131; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 57. Jon 2:10.—A. Watson, Sermons for Sundays: Festivals and Fasts, 3rd series, p. 399.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v8
Jonah
‘LYING VANITIES’
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Jon 2:8.
Jonah’s refusal to obey the divine command to go to Nineveh and cry against it is best taken, not as prosaic history, but as a poetical representation of Israel’s failure to obey the divine call of witnessing for God. In like manner, his being cast into the sea and swallowed by the great fish, is a poetic reproduction, for homiletical purposes, of Israel’s sufferings at the hands of the heathen whom it had failed to warn. The song which is put into Jonah’s mouth when in the fish’s belly, of which our text is a fragment, represents the result on the part of the nation of these hard experiences. ‘Lying vanities’ mean idols, and ‘their own mercy’ means God. The text is a brief, pregnant utterance of the great truth which had been forced home to Israel by sufferings and exile, that to turn from Jehovah to false gods was to turn from the sure source of tender care to lies and emptiness. That is but one case of the wider truth that an ungodly life is the acme of stupidity, a tragic mistake, as well as a great sin.
In confirmation and enforcement of our text we may consider:-
I. The illusory vanity of the objects pursued.
The Old Testament tone of reference to idols is one of bitter contempt. Its rigid monotheism was intensified and embittered by the universal prevalence of idolatry; and there is a certain hardness in its tone in reference to the gods of the nations round about, which has little room for pity, and finds expression in such names as those of our text-’vanities,’ ‘lies,’ ‘nothingness,’ and the like. To the Jew, encompassed on all sides by idol-worshippers, the alternative was vehement indignation or entire surrender. The Mohammedan in British India exhibits much the same attitude to Vishnu and Siva as the Jew did to Baal and Ashtoreth. It is easy to be tolerant of dead gods, but it becomes treason to Jehovah to parley with them when they are alive.
But the point which we desire to insist upon here is somewhat wider than the vanity of idols. It is the emptiness of all objects of human pursuit apart from God. These last three words need to be made very prominent; for in itself ‘every creature of God is good,’ and the emptiness does not inhere in themselves, but first appears when they are set in His place. He, and only He, can, and does, satisfy the whole nature-is authority for the will, peace for the conscience, love for the heart, light for the understanding, rest for all seeking. He, and He alone, can fill the past with the light in which is no regret, the present with a satisfaction rounded and complete, the future with a hope certain as experience, to which we shall ever approximate, and which we can never exhaust and outgrow. Any, or all, the other objects of human endeavour may be won, and yet we may be miserable. The inadequacy of all these ought to be pressed home upon us more than it is, not only by their limitations whilst they last, but by the transiency of them all. ‘The fashion of this world passeth away,’ as the Apostle John puts it, in a forcible expression which likens all this frame of things to a panorama being unwound from one roller and on to another. The painted screen is but paint at the best, and is in perpetual motion, which is not arrested by the vain clutches of hands that would fain stop the irresistible and tragic gliding past.
These vanities are ‘lying vanities.’ There is only one aim of life which, being pursued and attained, fulfils the promises by which it drew man after it. It is a bald commonplace, reiterated not only by preachers but by moralists of every kind, and confirmed by universal experience, that a hope fulfilled is a hope disappointed. There is only one thing more tragic than a life which has failed in its aims, and it is a life which has perfectly succeeded in them, and has found that what promised to be bread turns to ashes. The word of promise may be kept to the ear, but is always broken to the hope. Many a millionaire loses the power to enjoy his millions by the very process by which he gains them. The old Jewish thinker was wise not only in taking as the summing up of all worldly pursuits the sad sentence, ‘All is vanity,’ but in putting it into the lips of a king who had won all he sought. The sorceress draws us within her charmed circle by lying words and illusory charms, and when she has so secured the captives, her mask is thrown off and her native hideousness displayed.
II. The hard service which lying vanities require.
The phrase in our text is a quotation, slightly altered, from Psa 31:6: ‘I hate them that regard lying vanities; but I trust in the Lord.’ The alteration in the form of the verb as it occurs in Jonah expresses the intensity of regard, and gives the picture of watching with anxious solicitude, as the eyes of a servant turned to his master, or those of a dog to its owner. The world is a very hard master, and requires from its servants the concentration of thought, heart, and effort. We need only recall the thousand sermons devoted to the enforcement of ‘the gospel of getting on,’ which prosperous worldlings are continually preaching. A chorus of voices on every side of us is dinning into the ears of every young man and woman the necessity for success in life’s struggle of taking for a motto, ‘This one thing I do.’ How many a man is there, who in the race after wealth or fame, has flung away aspirations, visions of noble, truthful love to life, and a hundred other precious things? Browning tells a hideous story of a mother flinging, one after another, her infants to the wolves as she urged her sledge over the snowy plain. No less hideous, and still more maiming, are the surrenders that men make when once their hearts have been filled with the foolish ambitions of worldly success. Let us fix it in our minds, that nothing that time and sense can give is worth the price that it exacts.
‘It is only heaven that can be had for the asking;
It is only God that is given away.’
All sin is slavery. Its yoke presses painfully on the neck, and its burden is heavy indeed, and the rest which it promises never comes.
III. The self-inflicted loss.
Our text suggests that there are two ways by which we may learn the folly of a godless life-One, the consideration of what it turns to, the other, the thought of what it departs from.
‘They forsake their own Mercy,’ that is God. The phrase is here almost equivalent to ‘His name’; and it carries the blessed thought that He has entered into relations with every soul, so that each man of us-even if he have turned to ‘lying vanities’-can still call Him, ‘my own Mercy.’ He is ours; more our own than is anything without us. He is ours, because we are made for Him, and He is all for us. He is ours by His love, and by His gift of Himself in the Son of His love. He is ours; if we take Him for ours by an inward communication of Himself to us in the innermost depths of our being. He becomes ‘the Master-Light of all our seeing.’ In the mysterious inwardness of mutual possession, the soul which has given itself to God and possesses Him, has not only communion, but may even venture to claim as its own the deeper and more mysterious union with God. Those multiform mercies, ‘which endure for ever,’ and speed on their manifold errands into every remotest region of His universe, gather themselves together, as the diffused lights of some nebulæ oncentrate themselves into a sun. That sun, like the star that led the wise men from the East, and finally stood over one poor house in an obscure village, will shine lambent above, and will pass into, the humblest heart that opens for it. They who can say, as we all can if we will, ‘My God,’ can never want.
And if we turn to the alternative in our text, and consider who they are to whom we turn when we turn from God, there should be nothing more needed to drive home the wholesome conviction of the folly of the wisest, who deliberately prefers shadow to substance, lying vanities to the one true and only reality. I beseech you to take that which is your own, and which no man can take from you. Weigh in the scales of conscience, and in the light of the deepest necessities of your nature, the whole pile of those emptinesses that have been telling you lies ever since you listened to them; and place in the other scale the mercy of God, and the Christ who brings it to you, and decide which is the weightier, and which it becomes you to take for your pattern for ever.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 His Prayer of Thanksgiving
His Prayer of Thanksgiving
This beautiful song of deliverance shows clearly the familiarity of the writer with earlier Psalms. It reflects very plainly the horror inspired by the sea in the minds of an inland people. It is not necessary, on the interpretation adopted, to argue whether or not it is suitable to Jonah's position. Advocates of the national view of the book think it specially suitable to describe the sorrows of the people when drowning in the deep gulf of exile. If so, the references to 'thy holy temple' are not happy. On the whole, a personal application suits best the quotations from the Psalms, especially Jon_2:4 = Psa_31:22, Jon_2:9 = Psa_42:4; Psa_50:14.
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2. Out of the belly of hell] hell=Sheol, the realm of the dead, thought of here as a devouring monster. The phrase is purely pictorial: cp. 'from the jaws of death.'
3. Both parts of this v. are echoes from Psa_88:6-7; Psa_42:7.
4. Cp. Psa_31:22. Toward thy holy temple] cp. 1Ki_8:35-38, and for the longing for the Temple Psalms 84, etc.
5. Even to the soul] cp. Psa_69:1. The meaning is that the waters so press in that life itself is threatened. The weeds] Floating sea-weed entangles him as he sinks.
6. The bottoms of the mountains] their roots or foundations lying deep in the heart of the sea: cp. Milton, 'Hymn on the Nativity:' 'While the Creator great.. Cast the dark foundations deep.' Was about] RV 'closed upon.' The thought is that as he sinks he goes far from the earth, the home of the living, and its doors are closed and barred against him for ever. No return to the light and sunshine seems possible. Corruption] RV 'the pit,' i.e. of Sheol, as in Jon_2:2.
7. Cp. Psa_107:5; Psa_142:3 mg. Psa_18:6.
8. Lying vanities] cp. Deu_32:21 = idol gods. 'Vanity,' lit. 'a breath,' means something evanescent and worthless.
Their own mercy] This is used as a name for Jehovah. In Psa_144:2 the same word is rendered 'my goodness,' RV 'loving-kindness.' It is here a pregnant use describing Jehovah as the sum and source of mercy,
9. Cp. Psa_42:4; Psa_50:14-23. For vowed cp. also Jon_1:16.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1–2 great fish
great fish
No miracle of Scripture has called forth so much unbelief. The issue is not between the doubter and this ancient record, but between the doubter and the Lord Jesus Christ. Mat 12:39; Mat 12:40. Science, "falsely so called" 1Ti 6:20 failing to take account of the fact that it deals only with the outward phenomena of a fallen race, and of an earth under a curse Gen 3:17-19 is intolerant of miracles. To faith, and to true science, miracle is what might be expected of divine love, interposing God in a physically and morally disordered universe. Rom 8:19-23.
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prepared
Four prepared things. Jon 4:6; Jon 4:7; Jon 4:8
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Jonah’s Prayer and Deliverance
CHAPTER 2
Jonah’s Prayer and Deliverance
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1. The prayer (Jon 2:1-9)
2. The deliverance (Jon 2:10)
Jon 2:1-9. Some expositors have called attention to the fact that the prayer is not one offered up for deliverance, but it is a thanksgiving for the accomplished deliverance. But this is answered by the opening verse of this chapter, in which we are told that he prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly. When he found that he had escaped the death he anticipated and that the power of God kept him alive, he realized that the Lord his God would also deliver him; in faith he praised Jehovah for the coming deliverance. His prayer is composed almost entirely of sentences found in Psalms. We give the references. Jon 2:2 reminds of Psa 18:6-7; Psa 120:1. The word “hell” is the Hebrew “sheol,” the unknown region. See also Psa 30:3. Jon 2:3 contains a quotation from Psa 42:7, “All thy waves and billows passed over me.” In connection with Jon 2:4 consider Psa 31:22. Jon 2:5 is found in Psa 18:4, except the seaweed which crowned his head as he went into the deep; also Psa 69:2. The thanksgiving in Jon 2:6, “Yet hast Thou brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God” is closely allied to Psa 30:5. The first part of Jon 2:7 is from Psa 142:3 (marginal reading) and 143:4. The second part is found in Psa 5:7; Psa 18:6. The eighth verse reminds of Psa 31:6 and the ninth verse is to be connected with Psa 42:4.
The last utterance before the Lord commanded the fish is a triumphant shout, “Salvation is of the LORD,” a truth which many preachers in Christendom do not know.
Jon 2:10. The God of creation manifested His power over His creation by impelling the fish to release its prisoner. The place at which the fish vomited out Jonah is not mentioned; it was probably not very far from the seaport Joppa where he embarked.
The Typical Application
1. As to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord went into the jaws of death and died the sinner’s death, the substitute of sinners. Most of the passages from the Psalms which Jonah embodied in his prayer are prophetic predictions of the sufferings of Christ. He cried to God for deliverance and was heard. (See Heb 5:7) The answer was His resurrection. Over His blessed head passed the waves and billows of a Holy God, when as the substitute He hung on the cross. He knew more than Jonah could ever know what it meant, “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.” The Sixty-ninth Psalm is Messianic and the words Jonah used, “I sink in deep mire where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, where floods overthrow me,” tell us of the deep sufferings through which He passed. While Jonah’s head was wound about with the seaweeds of the deep, our Lord bore the crown of thorns, the emblem of the curse, upon His blessed head.
It was on the third day that the fish vomited out Jonah. The third day is marked in the Word of God as the day of resurrection. (See Gen 1:11-13; Hos 6:1-11.) On the third day our Lord left the grave behind and rose from among the dead. We quote a helpful paragraph on the question of the three days and nights:
“So our Lord Jesus, though by Jewish reckoning three days and nights in the grave, literally lay there but the whole of Saturday, the Sabbath, with the part of Friday not yet closed, and before the dawn of Sunday. For we must always remember in these questions the Jews’ method of reckoning. Part of a day regularly counted for the twenty-four hours. The evening and the morning, or any part, counted as a whole day. But the Lord, as we know, was crucified in the afternoon on Friday; His body lay all the Sabbath day in the grave; and He arose early on the Sunday morning. That space was counted three days and three nights, according to sanctioned Biblical reckoning, which no man who bows to Scripture would contest. This was asserted among the Jews, who, fertile as they have been in excuses for unbelief, have never, as far as I am aware, made difficulties on this score. The ignorance of Gentiles has exposed some of them when unfriendly to cavil at the phrase. The Jews found not a few stumbling blocks, but this is not one of them; they may know little of what is infinitely more momentous; but they know their own Bible too well to press an objection which would tell against the Hebrew Scriptures quite as much as the Greek.” (Wm. Kelly, Jonah)
2. As to the Nation. The prayer for deliverance and Jonah’s deliverance by the power of God foreshadows the coming experience of the remnant of Israel. There is coming the time of Jacob’s trouble in the closing years of this age. Then a part of the nation will call upon the Lord. Their prayers are also pre-written in the book of Psalms, and when finally they acknowledge that “salvation is of the LORD,” and He appears in His glory, to turn away ungodliness from Jacob, the Lord will bring them out of their spiritual and national death. He will speak to the fish, the nations, and they will give up the Jews. Then comes the third day of their restoration. (See Hos 6:1-3)
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Jonah’s Prayer of Thanksgiving and Praise.
Jonah’s Prayer of Thanksgiving and Praise.
The words, as here recorded, are not a prayer for deliverance, but a thanksgiving to the Lord for the deliverance already effected. From this we see, as Luther also remarks, that the thoughts which Jonah had during his confinement in the belly of the sea-monster were afterwards edited by him to form the powerful hymn of worship which we here have before us.
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v. 1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord, his God, out of the fish’s belly, these thoughts occurring to him again and again during his awful experience,
v. 2. and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction, out of the midst of the distress which he was suffering, unto the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of hell, literally, "out of the womb of sheol,". the realm of death, cried I, and Thou heardest my voice, delivering him from what seemed to be certain destruction, Cf Psa 18:6; Psa 30:4.
v. 3. For Thou hadst cast me into the deep, the sailors on the ship being but the executors of the punishment placed upon him by the Lord, in the midst of the seas, literally, "into the heart of the oceans"; and the floods compassed me about, namely, as he sank to the bottom; all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me. Cf Psa 42:8.
v. 4. Then I said, I am cast out of Thy sight, cut off from the gracious experience of God’s favor; yet I will look again toward Thy holy Temple, certain that he would again be permitted to worship with the Lord’s people.
v. 5. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul, so that he was ready to despair of his life, Cf Psa 18:5; Psa 69:2; the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head, apparently, enclosing him so that he could not escape.
v. 6. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains, the very depths of the ocean abyss, where the mountains have their foundations; the earth with her bars, the walls of the sea-basin, was about me forever; yet hast Thou brought up my life from corruption, from the pit which threatened to be his grave, O Lord, my God.
v. 7. When my soul fainted within me, when he was at the point of yielding to the night of death, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came in unto Thee, like a petitioner presenting his appeal in person, into Thine holy Temple, where the Lord had promised to hear those who put their trust in Him.
v. 8. They that observe lying vanities, placing their trust in idols and in false worship, forsake their own mercy, deliberately abandon their one hope of deliverance, namely, through the loving-kindness and tender mercies of Jehovah.
v. 9. But I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving, loudly proclaiming his gratitude for mercies received, Psa 42:5; I will pay that that I have vowed. Cf Psa 50:14-23. Salvation is of the Lord, it belongs to Jehovah, it is in His power. He alone can grant deliverance from all evil.
v. 10. And the Lord, who heard the repentant prayer of His servant, spake unto the fish, giving it a definite command, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land, very likely on the coast of Palestine. As far as the subject-matter of the story is concerned, it will be well to remember that one of the ancient teachers of the Church rightly calls all subtle inquiries concerning these things a foolish officiousness.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9 Yahweh his God
Yahweh his God
This means "Yahweh, the God he worshiped." The word "his" does not mean that Jonah owned God.
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He said
"Jonah said"
I called out to Yahweh about my distress
"I prayed to Yahweh about my great trouble." Even though Jonah was praying to Yahweh, he used Yahweh's name here and not "you." AT: "Yahweh, I called out to you about my distress"
he answered me
"Yahweh responded to me" or "he helped me"
from the belly of Sheol
"from the center of Sheol" or "from the deep part of Sheol." Possible meanings are 1) Jonah was speaking as being in the belly of the whale was being in Sheol or 2) Jonah believed that he was about to die and go to Sheol or 3) He spoke as if he already had died and gone there. (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
pray
Yahweh
God
Hades
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 2:1-9 Realizing that the Lord had graciously delivered him…
2:1-9 Realizing that the Lord had graciously delivered him by sending the fish, Jonah composed this psalm-like prayer. Its careful structure, conforming to the pattern of an individual song of thanksgiving, suggests that it may have been composed after the event, as Jonah recalled his emotions and concerns.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.