2 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.
3 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.
4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
KJVKing James Version
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
Show all 3 translations
JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
2 (2-3) And he said: I called out of mine affliction unto the LORD, and He answered me; out of the belly of the nether-world cried I, and Thou heardest my voice.
3 (2-4) For Thou didst cast me into the depth, in the heart of the seas, and the flood was round about me; all Thy waves and Thy billows passed over me.
4 (2-5) And I said: 'I am cast out from before Thine eyes'; yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple.
Psalms 18:4-6(v2)The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on…
Psalms 120:1(v2)In my distress, I cried to Yahweh. He answered me.
Psalms 34:6(v2)This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
Psalms 31:22(v4)As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.
Psalms 42:7(v3)Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
Show all 39 cross-references
Psalms 86:13(v2)For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
Lamentations 3:54(v3)Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
Psalms 5:7(v4)But as for me, in the abundance of your loving kindness I will come into your house. I will bow toward your holy temple in reverence of you.
Psalms 88:1-7(v2)Yahweh, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you. Let my prayer enter into your presence. Turn your ear to my cry.…
Psalms 69:1-2(v3)Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck! I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where…
1 Samuel 30:6(v2)David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the souls of all the people were grieved, every man for his sons…
Hebrews 5:7(v2)He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from…
2 Chronicles 6:38(v4)if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have carried them captive,…
Isaiah 38:17(v4)Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my…
1 Kings 8:38-39(v4)whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart, and…
Psalms 22:24(v2)For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, Neither has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he…
Psalms 116:3(v2)The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow.
Jeremiah 7:15(v4)I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole offspring of Ephraim.
Daniel 6:10(v4)When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his room toward Jerusalem) and he…
Matthew 12:40(v2)For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart…
Psalms 4:1(v2)Answer me when I call, God of my righteousness. Give me relief from my distress. Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
Genesis 32:7-12(v2)Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels,…
1 Kings 8:42(v4)(for they shall hear of your great name, and of your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm); when he comes and prays toward this house;
1 Kings 8:48(v4)if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you…
1 Kings 9:7(v4)then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of…
Psalms 16:10(v2)For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.
Psalms 61:2(v2)From the end of the earth, I will call to you when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Psalms 65:2(v2)You who hear prayer, all men will come to you.
Psalms 77:1-7(v4)My cry goes to God! Indeed, I cry to God for help, and for him to listen to me. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was…
Isaiah 14:9(v2)Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the…
Isaiah 38:10-14(v4)I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.” I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in…
Isaiah 49:14(v4)But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.”
Jeremiah 15:1(v4)Then Yahweh said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not turn toward this people. Cast them out of my sight,…
Ezekiel 37:11(v4)Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is…
Luke 22:44(v2)Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
Psalms 69:14-15(v3)Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. Don’t let the…
Psalms 88:5-8(v3)set apart among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand. You have laid me…
Psalms 142:1-3(v2)I cry with my voice to Yahweh. With my voice, I ask Yahweh for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him. I tell him my troubles. When my…
Acts 2:27(v2)because you will not leave my soul in Hades, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv2–4Then he says, I cried, when I had trouble,…
Then he says, I cried, when I had trouble, to Jehovah, and he answered me. Jonah no doubt relates now, after having come forth from the bowels of the fish, what had happened to him, and he gives thanks to the Lord. This verse then contains two parts, — that Jonah in his trouble fled to God, — and the latter part contains thanksgiving for having been miraculously delivered beyond what flesh could have thought. I cried, he says, in my distress, to Jehovah; I cried out from the bowels of hell, thou hast heard my voice. Jonah, as we shall hereafter see, directed his prayers to God not without great struggle; he contended with many difficulties; but however great the impediments in his way, he still persevered and ceased not from praying. He now tells us that he had not prayed in vain; and, that he might amplify the grace of God, he says, from the bowels of the grave He mentioned distress (angustiam — straitness) in the first clause; but here he more clearly expresses how remarkable and extraordinary had been the kindness of God, that he came forth safe from the bowels of the fish, which were like the bowels of the grave. שאול, shaul, derived from corruption, is called the grave by the Hebrews, and the Latin translator has almost everywhere rendered it hell, (infernum;) and שאול, shaul, is also sometimes taken for hell, that is, the state of the reprobate, because they know that they are condemned by God: it is, however, taken more frequently for the grave; and I am disposed to retain this sense, — that the fish was like the grave. But he means that he was so shut up in the grave, that there was no escape open to him.
What are the bowels of the grave? Even the inside or the recess of the grave itself. When Jonah was in this state, he says, that he was heard by the Lord. It may be proper to repeat again what I have already slightly touched, — that Jonah was not so oppressed, though under the heaviest trial, but that his petitions came forth to God. He prayed as it were from hell, and not simply prayed, for he, at the same time, sets forth his vehemence and ardor by saying, that he cried and cried aloud. Distress, no doubt, extorted from Jonah these urgent entreaties. However this might have been, he did not howl, as the unbelieving are wont to do, who feel their own evils and bitterly complain; and yet they pour forth vain howlings. Jonah here shows himself to be different from them by saying, that he cried and cried aloud to God. It now follows —
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 translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv2, 4For he was now in the fish’s belly as…
For he was now in the fish’s belly as in a grave or place of darkness.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv2–4Jon 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of…
Jon 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, [and] thou heardest my voice.
Ver. 2. And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction] His lips did not move in affliction, like a creaking door or a new cart wheel, with murmuring and mutinying against God and men; he set not his mouth against heaven (as the howling wolf when hunger bitten), neither did his tongue walk through the earth, cursing the day of his birth, and cutting deep into the sides of such as were means of his misery, Psa 73:9. But putting his mouth in the dust, if so be there might be hope, he cried by reason of his affliction, Lam 3:29. The time of affliction is the time of supplication; no time like that for granting of suits, Zec 13:9. God’s afflicted may have what they will of him then, such are his fatherly compassions to his sick children; he reserveth his best comforts for the worst times, and then speaketh to the hearts of his people when he hath brought them into the wilderness, Hos 2:13. This Jonah experimented, and therefore said, "I cried out of mine affliction unto the Lord."
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“ Ad Dominum afflicto de pectore suspirando. ”
And he heard me] How else am I alive amidst so many deaths? Here is a visible answer, a real return: O, "blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me," Psa 66:20. Surely as the cloud, which riseth out of the earth many times in thin and insensible vapours, falleth down in great and abundant showers; so our prayers, which ascend weak and narrow, return with a full and enlarged answer. This was but a pitiful poor prayer that Jonah here made, as appears Jon 2:4; and so was that of David, Psa 31:22, "For I said in mine haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee." It would be wide with us if God should answer the best of us according to our prayers, yea, though well watered with tears; since, Ipsae lacrymae sint lacrymabiles, we had need to weep over our tears, sigh over our sobs, mourn over our griefs. Jonah was so taken with this kindness from the Lord his God that he repeats it and celebrates it a second time.
Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice] The whale’s belly he calleth hell’s belly, because horrid and hideous, deep and dismal. Thence he cried, as David did, De profundis, from the depths, and was heard and delivered. Yea, had hell itself closed her mouth upon a praying Jonah, it could not long have held him, but must have vomited him up. A mandamus commission from God will do it at any time, Psa 44:4, and what cannot faithful prayer have of God? there is a certain omnipotence in it, said Luther.
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv2–4And said: the former verse was a general account…
And said: the former verse was a general account that he prayed, this word in the front of this verse is a transition to a more full account of his prayer, what for substance, and somewhat of the words also.
I cried; not with a loud voice of the tongue, as it was not ordinarily feasible in so close a prison, so nor was it necessary he should, where none were to hear but his God, who heareth the strongest desires, and accounts them the strongest cries; so Jonah cried with his whole heart.
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By reason of mine affliction; distress, or straits with which he was encompasseth and close besieged; nor was there ever closer siege laid to any one, his body and mind both shut up, the one by the monstrous dungeon of the fish’s belly, and the other by the terrors of the Almighty.
Unto the Lord: it was in many respects fit Jonah should petition God, for he was committed by his special warrant, and none either had power or authority to deliver him but God.
He heard me: though Jonah say not how God did hear, in what particular, yet he knew both how and in what; the support of his person, the exercise of his reason, the workings of his heart toward God, and a hope or assurance that lie should be delivered, were part of the mercy God gave, and he prayed for.
Out of the belly of hell cried I; the grave, so Sheol; so it was as dark to Jonah, and had been as destructive too, if mercy had not prevented. This is doubled, to intimate both the prisoner’s earnestness, and the greatness of the mercy given to one that was as shut up in the grave.
Thou heardest my yoke; of his soul, whilst he was in that dismal dungeon; as above.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv2–4For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in…
For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas,.... Though the mariners did this, yet Jonah ascribes it to the Lord; he knew it was he, whom he had sinned against and offended; that he was he that sent the storm after him into the sea; that determined the lot to fall upon him; that it was not only by his permission, but according to his will, that he should be east into it, and overcame the reluctance of the men to it, and so worked upon them that they did it; and therefore Jonah imputes it to him, and not to them; nor does he complain of it, or murmur at it; or censure it as an unrighteous action, or as hard, cruel, and severe; but rather mentions it to set off the greatness of his deliverance: and by this it appears, that it was far from shore when Jonah was cast into the sea, it was the great deep; and which also is confirmed by the large fish which swallowed him, which could, not swim but in deep waters; and because of the multitude of the waters, called "seas", and "in the heart" (c) of them, as it may be rendered; and agreeably Christ the antitype of Jonah lay in the heart of the earth, Mat 12:40;
and the floods compassed me about; all thy billows and thy waves passed over me; which was his case as soon as cast into the sea, before the fish had swallowed him, as well as after: this was literally true of Jonah, what David says figuratively concerning his afflictions, and from whom the prophet seems to borrow the expressions, Psa 42:7; and indeed he might use them also in a metaphorical sense, with a view to the afflictions of body, and sorrows of death, that compassed him; and to the billows and waves of divine wrath, which in his apprehension lay upon him, and rolled over him.
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(c) "in corde", V. L. Cocceius; "in cor", Montanus, Drusius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv2, 4Affliction - Straits with which he was encompassed, his…
Affliction - Straits with which he was encompassed, his body and mind being both shut up, the one by the monstrous dungeon of the fish's belly, and the other by the terrors of the Almighty. Heardest my voice - Of which undoubtedly God gave him an assurance in his own soul.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv2–4Verse 2. Out of the belly of hell] Among…
Verse 2. Out of the belly of hell] Among the Hebrews שאול sheol means the grave, any deep pit, the place of separate spirits, c. Here the prophet represents himself as in the bottom of the sea for so sheol must be understood in this place.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v4Jon 2:4-7. Then I said, I am cast out,…
Jon 2:4-7. Then I said, I am cast out, &c. — “My first apprehensions were, that as I had justly forfeited thy favour by my disobedience, so thou wouldest cast me out of thy protection; yet, upon recollecting myself, I thought it my duty not to despair of thy mercy, but direct my prayer toward thy heavenly habitation.” — Lowth. The waters compassed me even to the soul — Or life; that is, to the extreme hazard of my life; and I thought of nothing more than losing my life among the waves. I went, &c. — I went down to the bottom of the sea, where the foundations of the mountains lie. Or, the fish carried me down as deep in the sea as are the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me — I found myself enclosed on every side, without any way for escape; and should have been enclosed for ever, had not thy power interposed. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption — But, notwithstanding it was involved in all these terrible circumstances, which seemed to preclude all possibility of its being preserved, yet thou, O my God, by thy power didst save my life from destruction. When my soul fainted within me — When I seemed just expiring, and lost all hopes of being preserved; I remembered the Lord — I thought of thy almighty power and boundless mercy, O Jehovah, who causest to be whatsoever thou willest; and my prayer came in unto thee — And therefore I addressed my prayer to thee, as being persuaded that thou couldest still preserve me, even in the most extreme dangers; and my faith was not disappointed; for I found, by the event, that thou couldest deliver me, as I believed thou wast able to do.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv2–4I cried by reason of mine affliction - ,…
I cried by reason of mine affliction - , or, “out of affliction” which came “to me.” So the Psalmist thanked God in the same words, though in a different order ; “To the Lord in trouble to me I called, and He heard me.” He “called,” and God heard and answered , “He does not say, I “call,” but I “called”; he does not pray for the future, but gives thanks for the past.” Strange cause of thankfulness this would seem to most faith, to be alive in such a grave; to abide there hour after hour, and day after day, in one unchanging darkness, carried to and fro helplessly, with no known escape from his fetid prison, except to death! Yet spiritual light shone on that depth of darkness. The voracious creature, which never opened his mouth save to destroy life, had swallowed him, to save it . “What looked like death, became safe-keeping,” and so the prophet who had fled to avoid doing the will of God and to do his own, now willed to be carried about, he knew not where, at the will; as it seemed, of the huge animal in which he lay, but in truth, where God directed it, and he gave thanks. God had heard him. The first token of God’s mercy was the earnest of the whole. God was dealing with him, was looking on him. It was enough.
Out of the belly of hell cried I. - The deep waters were as a grave, and he was counted “among the dead” Psa 88:4. Death seemed so certain that it was all one as if he were in the womb of hell, not to be reborn to life until the last Day. So David said Psa 18:5, “The bands of death compassed me round about;” and Psa 30:3, “Thou hast drawn my life out of hell.” The waters choked his speech; but he cried with a loud cry to God Who knew the heart. “I cried; Thou heardest.” The words vary only by a kindred letter . The real heart’s cry to God according to the mind of God and His hearing are one, whether, for man’s good, He seem at the time to hear or no.
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“Not of the voice but of the heart is God the Hearer, as He is the Seer. Do the ears of God wait for sound? How then could the prayer of Jonah from the inmost belly of the whale, through the bowels of so great a creature, out of the very bottomless depths, through so great a mass of waters, make its way to heaven?” “Loud crying to God is not with the voice but with the heart. Many, silent with their lips, have cried aloud with their heart; many, noisy with their lips, could, with heart turned away, obtain nothing. If then thou criest, cry within, where God heareth.” “Jonah cried aloud to God out of the fish’s belly, out of the deep of the sea, out of the depths of disobedience; and his prayer reached to God, Who rescued him from the waves, brought him forth out of the vast creature, absolved him from the guilt. Let the sinner too cry aloud, whom, departing from God, the storm of desires overwhelmed, the malignant Enemy devoured, the waves of this present world sucked under! Let him own that he is in the depth, that so his prayer may reach to God.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv2–3Prayed. He entertained these sentiments. (Sanct. xiv.) --- He…
Prayed. He entertained these sentiments. (Sanct. xiv.) --- He afterwards wrote them down. (Calmet)
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv2–4His 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. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv2, 42. I cried… he heard — R.V., “I called……
2. I cried… he heard — R.V., “I called… he answered.” The tenses indicate that both the petition and the reply are experiences of the past (Jon_2:6).
By reason of mine affliction — Better, R.V. margin, “out of mine affliction”; which is further described in 3ff.
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Belly of hell — R.V., “Sheol.” On the latter see on Hos_13:14. It is frequently pictured as a ravenous beast, with a greedy appetite (Pro_30:16; Hab_2:5), with a wide-open mouth (Isa_5:14). Here a belly is given to it, which may have been suggested by the belly of the fish. As in Psa_18:5; Psa_30:3, Sheol is a poetic picture for the dangers of death, from which there seems no escape. With 2a compare Psa_120:1, or Psa_18:6; with Jon_2:2 b compare Psa_18:5.
Jon_2:3 describes the affliction from which came deliverance.
For thou hadst cast — Literally, And thou didst cast. This can hardly be interpreted as giving the reason for the thanksgiving. Better, Yea, thou didst cast. This is a perfectly possible translation. It certainly is not necessary to suppose that a clause has dropped out. In the case of Jonah, Jehovah was the real author of the calamity (Jon_1:14; compare also Jon_1:4, and the references there).
Deep,… midst of the seas;… floods… billows… waves — Taken in connection with the experiences of Jonah these terms might all be interpreted literally. On the other hand, in the psalm literature, these or similar terms are used figuratively of the depths of trouble and distress. The “midst (R.V., “heart”) of the seas” (for plural compare G.-K., 124a), which defines “deep,” is the bottom of the sea (Exo_15:5; Mic_7:19).
Floods — Literally, river; the currents of the sea (Psa_24:2).
Thy — Jehovah made them (Jon_1:9) and controls them (Psa_18:4-5). For the last clause compare especially Psa_42:7.
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 Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv2–42. and said] The prayer which follows falls naturally…
2. and said] The prayer which follows falls naturally into three parts or divisions. In each of these the two elements of danger and deliverance, of need and help, appear. But they enter into them in very different proportions. Faith grows, and the prospect brightens at each fresh stage of the hymn. The first rises to prayer, the second to confidence, the third to thankfulness and praise.
I. Jon_2:2-4.
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(1) Introduction, containing the general subject of the hymn: I cried and was heard, I was in trouble and was delivered. Jon_2:2.
(2) Description of the danger and distress. Jon_2:3.
(3) Faith triumphing over despondency and prompting to prayer. Jon_2:4.
II. Jon_2:5-6.
(1) More vivid description of the danger and distress. Jon_2:5-6 a.
(2) Deliverance not only prayed for, but possessed. Jon_2:6 b.
III. Jon_2:7-9.
(1) Prayer, offered in danger and distress, has been heard. Jon_2:7.
(2) God, no longer forsaken, but sought and recognised as the fountain of mercy, has granted deliverance which shall be acknowledged with sacrifices of thanksgiving and vows joyfully paid. Jon_2:8-9 a.
(3) All salvation, as this typical instance shows, is of God. Jon_2:9 b.
The prayer is remarkable for its many resemblances in thought and expression to passages in the Book of Psalms. The words of the Psalter, however, are not exactly and literally quoted, but its ideas and phrases are freely wrought into the prayer, as if drawn from the well-stored memory of a pious Israelite, familiar with its contents, and naturally giving vent to his feelings in the cherished forms, which were now instinct for him with new life and meaning. The manner in which our English literature (not only sacred, but secular and even profane and infidel) abounds in Scripture imagery and phraseology may help us to understand how coincidences of this kind may have arisen, without any deliberate intention on the part of a later writer to copy from an earlier, or even any direct consciousness that he was doing so.
by reason of mine affliction] Rather, as in A.V. and R.V. margin, out of mine affliction, i.e. out of the midst of it, while it still compassed me about. The time referred to is when he was in the sea.
The first half of this verse is identical in the Heb. words, though not in their order, with Psa_120:1, except that in the Psalm we have “in,” instead of “from” or “out of” mine affliction, and a lengthened form of the word for affliction is used. The coincidence cannot, however, be properly said to affect the date of the Book of Jonah. The Psalm, it is true, belongs to a collection which “in its present form must have been made after the return from Babylon,” but it by no means follows that no ode of the collection had been composed before that time. Besides, the whole sentence is, both in language and idea, too commonplace, so to speak, to be safely insisted upon as a quotation at all. Two quite independent writers may easily have lighted on it. And moreover, if quoted at all, it may owe its origin no less probably to Psalms 18, between which and the prayer of Jonah the resemblance, though less exact in this particular verse, is as a whole more close and striking. Comp. Psa_18:6 (1st clause).
of hell] The unseen world, the place of the dead, amongst whom, when cast into the sea, he seemed already to be numbered. Comp. Psa_18:5. “the sorrows of hell (or rather “the bonds of the unseen world”) compassed me about.”
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 Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv2–4(2) By reason of mine affliction.—See margin. There is…
(2) By reason of mine affliction.—See margin. There is a close correspondence between this opening and that of Psalms 120 Comp. also Psa_18:6.
Out of the belly of hell.—This remarkable expression—a forcible figure for imminent death—has its nearest parallel in Isa_5:14, where sheôl (see Psa_6:5) is represented as opening a huge mouth to swallow the princes of the world and their pomp. The under-world represents the Hebrew word sheôl more nearly than hell or the grave (margin). (Comp. Psa_18:5; Psa_30:3.)
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And thou heardest . . .—The conjunction is unnecessarily introduced. The sudden change of person, a frequent figure in Hebrew poetry, is more striking without the connecting word.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv2–4He introduces the prayer with the tact that he…
He introduces the prayer with the tact that he cried to God in distress and was heard. By reason of mine affliction; better, out of my affliction. This may be a reminiscence of Psa_120:1 or Psa_18:6; but from such coincidences nothing can be established concerning the date of the book. Like circumstances call forth like expressions; and the writers may have composed them quite independently of one another. Hell (Sheol). The unseen world. (Eze_32:21) He was as though dead when thus engulfed. (comp. Psa_18:5) Cried I. (Psa_28:1, Psa_28:2) Thou heardest my voice. (Psa_130:1, Psa_130:2)
Vers. 2, 3. Affliction and prayer.
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Doubtless the language of this psalm of thanksgiving was the result of subsequent meditation, for it is evidently a studied composition, resembling in passages several of the sacred Hebrew odes. But the sentiments were those actually experienced by the prophet when in the most humiliating position. In his experience was much which may prove very instructive and helpful to ourselves.
I DEEP AFFLICTION. The language of ver. 3, literally descriptive of Jonah"s state and sufferings, is tinged with poetical feeling, and, like similar passages in the Psalms, is emblematic of the afflictions which, at some periods of human life, are the appointed experience of God"s people. The deep waters of trouble must be passed through; the mighty billows must roll over the spirit. Sorrow submerges and apparently overwhelms even the child of God; how much more the impenitent and disobedient!
II EARNEST PRAYER. How, indeed, can prayer be other than earnest, if it be offered from "the belly of hell"? Those afflictions are, indeed, a blessing which prompt such supplications as those which came from Jonah"s lips. Far from human succour, and perhaps from human pity, the afflicted lift their voice, and cry, by reason of their afflictions, unto the Lord. There is something very instructive in the language used by Jonah, attributing his affliction to the Being upon whom he was calling, Thou hadst cast me into the deep,... thy billows and thy waves passed over me." In this way the distressed may learn the lesson which the wisdom and the love of God would teach.
III GRACIOUS DELIVERANCE. When in Scripture it is said that God hears, we may usually understand more than is expressed. He hears to answer, to rescue, to save. The Omnipresent did not lose sight of his servant even when he was beneath the waves of the ocean; and the All-gracious was not inattentive to his supplication, though offered from the depths where weeds were about the suppliant"s head. If there are those who fear lest their situation or their circumstances should shut them out from the regard and interest of the Supreme, they may well take courage when they think of the experience of the prophet, who called upon the Lord from the depths, and was heard and was delivered.
Vers. 2-10. Triumph, thanksgiving.
"And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice," etc. This is one of the most striking instances in all Scripture of the benefit of believing prayer. "Lord, what a change within us one short hour Spent in thy presence will prevail to make! What heavy burdens from our bosom take! What parched lands refresh as with a shower! We kneel, and all around us seems to lower; We rise, and all, the distant and the near, Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear. We kneel, how weak; we rise, how full of power! Why therefore should we do ourselves this wrong, That we are ever overborne with care? That we should ever weak or heartless be, Anxious or troubled, when with us in prayer, And joy, and strength, and courage, are with thee? (Trench.)
In the brighter part of Jonah"s prayer we notice his
I GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF PRAYER AS ANSWERED. (Vers. 2, 7) Happy effect of certainty as to this. There are grounds for such certainty:
1. When prayer is offered trustfully, poured as lute the ear of a Father, who has promised to hear such prayer. Answer to be expected, since God is true and never can deceive us.
2. When the evil dreaded is actually averted, or the benefit asked is sent. Unbelief says it would have been so at any rate; faith says, "My prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
3. When the heart is filled with a sense of the goodness and love of God and his trustworthiness even before the answer comes, it may be felt that the prayer is heard. Confidence in God as Hearer of prayer is a most valuable Christian grace ever associated with deep humility infinitely removed from presumption and boasting.
II HUMBLE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF PAST GUILT AND FOLLY. (Ver. 8) "They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy." This is what he had done. Human devices contrary to will of God are "lying vanities;" empty, they bring no satisfaction; lying, they promise peace and safety, but bring misery and horrible troubles. So Eve found, so Pharaoh, so Israel when they went after ways of heathen. So Jonah himself. So all who forsake Fountain of living waters and hew out to themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. Worldly devices to get happiness apart from God are indeed "vanity of vanities." Soul of man cannot be satisfied with husks. For God"s servants to follow them is to forsake their own mercy. It is for prodigal son to change father"s house for society of rioters and harlots: "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about". (Psa_32:10) The way of duty is ever the way of safety, peace, and comfort; neglected duty is a sure forerunner of trouble; an evil conscience can never be the harbinger of sweet content.
III PUBLIC EXPRESSION OF THANKSGIVING AND CONSECRATION. (Ver. 9) Sacrifice thanksgiving vows. This is to be done openly and publicly at the proper place. No concealment by Jonah of what had taken place. He would at once proclaim his own guilt, and declare himself a monument of God"s grace. Genuine repentance carries spirit of self-abasement, conscious indebtedness to God eagerness to be more consecrated to him. The spring of this feeling is of the Lord." God"s saving mercy keeps alive in redeemed hearts the sense of infinite obligation, and prompts to every suitable recognition. No other spiritual dynamic like this all active obedience, all the labour of love, all patient endurance spring from this; whatever our mercies, we have the duty of grateful remembrance of them. and active consecration to God in connection with them. Jonah is disentombed (ver. 10). "And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." At length the purpose of the chastisement is served, therefore it is removed. The great fish continues under God"s control, and having carried Jonah safely through the deep, deposits him on the dry land. "As you see the foamy track the creature leaves behind gradually melting into the quiet green of the sea; as you turn and look at the prophet, washing himself from the filth of his living grave, and then standing upon the shore, inhaling the fresh breeze, rejoicing in heaven"s blessed light, and to prove and feel himself alive, to make sure that all was not a dream shouting, perhaps, in a loud voice, "Salvation is of the Lord," say, "God helping me, I shall never despair. Never. For! see that the heaviest judgment may ripen into mercy. The darkest night may have a morning. The deepest grave has a resurrection portal. A voyage wrapped in whirling storm, and horrible with engulfing dangers, may yet end in safety on a sunny shore (Raleigh).
Jonah a sign:
1. To the Ninevites. His history a twofold picture lesson to them.
(1) Of the consequence of spurning the authority of the God of the Hebrews; for he is no local deity, but Lord of earth and sea, of all creatures and all their actions, and has showed he could signally punish and humble Jonah on the very element to which he had betaken himself for safety from this God. It was before this God the iniquities of Nineveh had come. How must he view these?
(2) Of the pardoning, restoring, and preserving mercy of God to the penitent God not inexorable if Nineveh should repent, it, like Jonah, would experience God"s mercy.
2. To the men of Christ"s generation.
(1) In his humiliation. The Jews asked of Christ a sign (Mat_12:40) some great display of power in the heavens. He refused; the only sign to be given would be precisely opposite, viz. that of Jonah a sign not in heaven, but beneath the surface of the earth. "As Jonah suffered humiliation for his own sin, so Jesus would suffer humiliation for the sin which he bore. Reality of his Messiahship was to be shown in his death and burial, and continuing for the same period as Jonah under the power of death. Divine, saving power of Jesus is connected with his humiliation as Sin bearer. As if Jesus had said, "The signs which are to discover themselves in me are to grow darker, and not brighter: they are to be derived, not from the heavens above, but from the depths beneath from the very chamber of the dead; yet am I not less on that account the Ambassador of Heaven; yea, surpassing Jonah in the depth of my humiliation, I still more surpass him in the dignity of my character; and the inhabitants of the heathen city, which repented at his preaching, will assuredly rise up in judgment to condemn the impenitent of this generation (Fairbairn).
(2) In his exaltation. This view is rather implied than expressed by our Lord. Jonah escaping from the fish is a type of Christ rising from the dead. The Ninevites were moved to repentance by means of the type; they must have heard Jonah"s history and been greatly impressed by it. The Jews had the antitype the literal resurrection of Christ from the dead, but were not moved by it. Herein is a great lesson for all listen to the Divine Messenger, who liveth and was dead, and is alive forever, and hath the keys of hell and of Death!"though our Lord"s pointing to the sign of Jonah, with the assurance that no other would be given them, might at first seem to betoken only trouble and disaster to his mission, yet the more thoughtful and discerning minds would not fail to discover, on further reflection, that there was also couched under it a promise of encouragement and success far beyond anything that had hitherto appeared. He was to become to the world the sign that Jonah was to Nineveh only when he entered on the resurrection life, and in his Name repentance and remission of sins were preached to the people. And hence the great stress laid upon the fact of the resurrection by the first heralds of the gospel, and the wonderful effect produced by it upon those who heard them, not simply on account of the proof it afforded of the truth of Christ"s pretensions to be the Son of God, but also, and still more, for the impressive attestation, the living witness it gave of the placability of God, and of the holy earnestness of his desire that sinners would repent and live. Precisely as in the case of Jonah, though in a manner unspeakably more solemn and affecting, the things that had befallen Jesus and the condition in which he now presented himself through his ambassadors to the people, were seen to be a singular and most magnificent provision of love on the part of God to reach their consciences, and to avert, ere it might be too late, the doom of condemnation which Divine justice had suspended over their heads (Fairbairn). W.G.B.
HOMILIES BY G.T. COSTER Ver. 2. The value of affliction (as seen in Jonah"s prayer).
It:
1. Brings the man to himself. To soul consciousness, to God consciousness. When "in the shadow of a great affliction, the soul sits dumb." Chastened, he feels his need of chastisement, and knows from whom it comes. "Thy waves;" "thy billows.
2. Brings the consolation of Scripture to the man. From various psalms of sorrow (now remembered) Jonah quotes. By sorrow he enters into the sorrows of others. Affliction "opens up the mine of Scripture, before seen only on the surface.
3. Brings the man to God. He "cries" to him. He comes to him. He feels that "sorrow"s crown of sorrow" is in being "cast out of God"s sight.
4. Brings the assurance of salvation to the man. Thus, divinely blest, affliction is good. The soul, then, triumphant over trouble, can exclaim, "Salvation is of the Lord;" "O Lord my God. G.T.C.
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 Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv2, 4I cried by reason of mine affliction.
Jon_2:2
I cried by reason of mine affliction.
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Troubles and deliverance
I. The fact of trouble. Jonah is at one with all men in a common experience of trouble. No child of God is born to a heritage of unmitigated grief. Some compensating mercy is sure to throw its mellow light over the angriest storm. Some specimens of trouble. So many hampered lives; so many obstacles to goodness; so many and so powerful temptations; so many apparent contradictions to the truth of an infinite goodness. Jonahs trouble was his being thrust off into a conscious distance from God.
II. Deliverance from trouble. The steps toward such deliverance are stated in Our Scripture.
1. Jonah remembered God. Submissive memory of God is the first step.
2. Prayer is the next step.
3. A thankful trust is the next. (Wayland Hoyt, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v2Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
hell
Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v3General Information:
General Information:
This is a continuation of Jonah's prayer that started in Jonah 2:2. In verse 4 Jonah spoke of something he had prayed before this prayer.
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into the depths, into the heart of the seas
This speaks of the vastness of the ocean Jonah was in. (See: Parallelism)
into the heart of the seas
"to the bottom of the sea"
the currents surrounded me
"the sea water closed in around me"
waves and billows
These are disturbances on the surface of the ocean. (See: Doublet)
I am driven out
This can be stated in active form. AT: "You have driven me away" or "You have sent me away" (See: Active or Passive)
from before your eyes
Here Yahweh is represented by his "eyes." AT: "from you" (See: Synecdoche)
yet I will again look toward your holy temple
Jonah has hope that, in spite of all he is going through, he will see the temple. (See: Rhetorical Question)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv2, 42:2 Jonah’s psalm-prayer opens by recalling a previous prayer…
2:2 Jonah’s psalm-prayer opens by recalling a previous prayer that was not so polished yet was all the more fervent—his cry for help while on the verge of drowning. • from the land of the dead (literally from the belly of Sheol): Sheol was thought to be the abode of the dead (see Isa 14:15; Ezek 31:15-17). The belly metaphor for Sheol is found nowhere else in the Old Testament; it pictures Jonah’s experience of being delivered from Sheol through the belly of a fish.
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Then he says, I cried, when I had trouble,…
Then he says, I cried, when I had trouble, to Jehovah, and he answered me. Jonah no doubt relates now, after having come forth from the bowels of the fish, what had happened to him, and he gives thanks to the Lord. This verse then contains two parts, — that Jonah in his trouble fled to God, — and the latter part contains thanksgiving for having been miraculously delivered beyond what flesh could have thought. I cried, he says, in my distress, to Jehovah; I cried out from the bowels of hell, thou hast heard my voice. Jonah, as we shall hereafter see, directed his prayers to God not without great struggle; he contended with many difficulties; but however great the impediments in his way, he still persevered and ceased not from praying. He now tells us that he had not prayed in vain; and, that he might amplify the grace of God, he says, from the bowels of the grave He mentioned distress (angustiam — straitness) in the first clause; but here he more clearly expresses how remarkable and extraordinary had been the kindness of God, that he came forth safe from the bowels of the fish, which were like the bowels of the grave. שאול, shaul, derived from corruption, is called the grave by the Hebrews, and the Latin translator has almost everywhere rendered it hell, (infernum;) and שאול, shaul, is also sometimes taken for hell, that is, the state of the reprobate, because they know that they are condemned by God: it is, however, taken more frequently for the grave; and I am disposed to retain this sense, — that the fish was like the grave. But he means that he was so shut up in the grave, that there was no escape open to him.
What are the bowels of the grave? Even the inside or the recess of the grave itself. When Jonah was in this state, he says, that he was heard by the Lord. It may be proper to repeat again what I have already slightly touched, — that Jonah was not so oppressed, though under the heaviest trial, but that his petitions came forth to God. He prayed as it were from hell, and not simply prayed, for he, at the same time, sets forth his vehemence and ardor by saying, that he cried and cried aloud. Distress, no doubt, extorted from Jonah these urgent entreaties. However this might have been, he did not howl, as the unbelieving are wont to do, who feel their own evils and bitterly complain; and yet they pour forth vain howlings. Jonah here shows himself to be different from them by saying, that he cried and cried aloud to God. It now follows —
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 vv2, 4 For he was now in the fish’s belly as…
For he was now in the fish’s belly as in a grave or place of darkness.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Jon 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of…
Jon 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, [and] thou heardest my voice.
Ver. 2. And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction] His lips did not move in affliction, like a creaking door or a new cart wheel, with murmuring and mutinying against God and men; he set not his mouth against heaven (as the howling wolf when hunger bitten), neither did his tongue walk through the earth, cursing the day of his birth, and cutting deep into the sides of such as were means of his misery, Psa 73:9. But putting his mouth in the dust, if so be there might be hope, he cried by reason of his affliction, Lam 3:29. The time of affliction is the time of supplication; no time like that for granting of suits, Zec 13:9. God’s afflicted may have what they will of him then, such are his fatherly compassions to his sick children; he reserveth his best comforts for the worst times, and then speaketh to the hearts of his people when he hath brought them into the wilderness, Hos 2:13. This Jonah experimented, and therefore said, "I cried out of mine affliction unto the Lord."
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“ Ad Dominum afflicto de pectore suspirando. ”
And he heard me] How else am I alive amidst so many deaths? Here is a visible answer, a real return: O, "blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me," Psa 66:20. Surely as the cloud, which riseth out of the earth many times in thin and insensible vapours, falleth down in great and abundant showers; so our prayers, which ascend weak and narrow, return with a full and enlarged answer. This was but a pitiful poor prayer that Jonah here made, as appears Jon 2:4; and so was that of David, Psa 31:22, "For I said in mine haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee." It would be wide with us if God should answer the best of us according to our prayers, yea, though well watered with tears; since, Ipsae lacrymae sint lacrymabiles, we had need to weep over our tears, sigh over our sobs, mourn over our griefs. Jonah was so taken with this kindness from the Lord his God that he repeats it and celebrates it a second time.
Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice] The whale’s belly he calleth hell’s belly, because horrid and hideous, deep and dismal. Thence he cried, as David did, De profundis, from the depths, and was heard and delivered. Yea, had hell itself closed her mouth upon a praying Jonah, it could not long have held him, but must have vomited him up. A mandamus commission from God will do it at any time, Psa 44:4, and what cannot faithful prayer have of God? there is a certain omnipotence in it, said Luther.
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 vv2–4 And said: the former verse was a general account…
And said: the former verse was a general account that he prayed, this word in the front of this verse is a transition to a more full account of his prayer, what for substance, and somewhat of the words also.
I cried; not with a loud voice of the tongue, as it was not ordinarily feasible in so close a prison, so nor was it necessary he should, where none were to hear but his God, who heareth the strongest desires, and accounts them the strongest cries; so Jonah cried with his whole heart.
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By reason of mine affliction; distress, or straits with which he was encompasseth and close besieged; nor was there ever closer siege laid to any one, his body and mind both shut up, the one by the monstrous dungeon of the fish’s belly, and the other by the terrors of the Almighty.
Unto the Lord: it was in many respects fit Jonah should petition God, for he was committed by his special warrant, and none either had power or authority to deliver him but God.
He heard me: though Jonah say not how God did hear, in what particular, yet he knew both how and in what; the support of his person, the exercise of his reason, the workings of his heart toward God, and a hope or assurance that lie should be delivered, were part of the mercy God gave, and he prayed for.
Out of the belly of hell cried I; the grave, so Sheol; so it was as dark to Jonah, and had been as destructive too, if mercy had not prevented. This is doubled, to intimate both the prisoner’s earnestness, and the greatness of the mercy given to one that was as shut up in the grave.
Thou heardest my yoke; of his soul, whilst he was in that dismal dungeon; as above.
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 vv2–4 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in…
For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas,.... Though the mariners did this, yet Jonah ascribes it to the Lord; he knew it was he, whom he had sinned against and offended; that he was he that sent the storm after him into the sea; that determined the lot to fall upon him; that it was not only by his permission, but according to his will, that he should be east into it, and overcame the reluctance of the men to it, and so worked upon them that they did it; and therefore Jonah imputes it to him, and not to them; nor does he complain of it, or murmur at it; or censure it as an unrighteous action, or as hard, cruel, and severe; but rather mentions it to set off the greatness of his deliverance: and by this it appears, that it was far from shore when Jonah was cast into the sea, it was the great deep; and which also is confirmed by the large fish which swallowed him, which could, not swim but in deep waters; and because of the multitude of the waters, called "seas", and "in the heart" (c) of them, as it may be rendered; and agreeably Christ the antitype of Jonah lay in the heart of the earth, Mat 12:40;
and the floods compassed me about; all thy billows and thy waves passed over me; which was his case as soon as cast into the sea, before the fish had swallowed him, as well as after: this was literally true of Jonah, what David says figuratively concerning his afflictions, and from whom the prophet seems to borrow the expressions, Psa 42:7; and indeed he might use them also in a metaphorical sense, with a view to the afflictions of body, and sorrows of death, that compassed him; and to the billows and waves of divine wrath, which in his apprehension lay upon him, and rolled over him.
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(c) "in corde", V. L. Cocceius; "in cor", Montanus, Drusius.
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 vv2, 4 Affliction - Straits with which he was encompassed, his…
Affliction - Straits with which he was encompassed, his body and mind being both shut up, the one by the monstrous dungeon of the fish's belly, and the other by the terrors of the Almighty. Heardest my voice - Of which undoubtedly God gave him an assurance in his own soul.
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Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Verse 2. Out of the belly of hell] Among…
Verse 2. Out of the belly of hell] Among the Hebrews שאול sheol means the grave, any deep pit, the place of separate spirits, c. Here the prophet represents himself as in the bottom of the sea for so sheol must be understood in this place.
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 v4 Jon 2:4-7. Then I said, I am cast out,…
Jon 2:4-7. Then I said, I am cast out, &c. — “My first apprehensions were, that as I had justly forfeited thy favour by my disobedience, so thou wouldest cast me out of thy protection; yet, upon recollecting myself, I thought it my duty not to despair of thy mercy, but direct my prayer toward thy heavenly habitation.” — Lowth. The waters compassed me even to the soul — Or life; that is, to the extreme hazard of my life; and I thought of nothing more than losing my life among the waves. I went, &c. — I went down to the bottom of the sea, where the foundations of the mountains lie. Or, the fish carried me down as deep in the sea as are the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about me — I found myself enclosed on every side, without any way for escape; and should have been enclosed for ever, had not thy power interposed. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption — But, notwithstanding it was involved in all these terrible circumstances, which seemed to preclude all possibility of its being preserved, yet thou, O my God, by thy power didst save my life from destruction. When my soul fainted within me — When I seemed just expiring, and lost all hopes of being preserved; I remembered the Lord — I thought of thy almighty power and boundless mercy, O Jehovah, who causest to be whatsoever thou willest; and my prayer came in unto thee — And therefore I addressed my prayer to thee, as being persuaded that thou couldest still preserve me, even in the most extreme dangers; and my faith was not disappointed; for I found, by the event, that thou couldest deliver me, as I believed thou wast able to do.
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Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2–4 I cried by reason of mine affliction - ,…
I cried by reason of mine affliction - , or, “out of affliction” which came “to me.” So the Psalmist thanked God in the same words, though in a different order ; “To the Lord in trouble to me I called, and He heard me.” He “called,” and God heard and answered , “He does not say, I “call,” but I “called”; he does not pray for the future, but gives thanks for the past.” Strange cause of thankfulness this would seem to most faith, to be alive in such a grave; to abide there hour after hour, and day after day, in one unchanging darkness, carried to and fro helplessly, with no known escape from his fetid prison, except to death! Yet spiritual light shone on that depth of darkness. The voracious creature, which never opened his mouth save to destroy life, had swallowed him, to save it . “What looked like death, became safe-keeping,” and so the prophet who had fled to avoid doing the will of God and to do his own, now willed to be carried about, he knew not where, at the will; as it seemed, of the huge animal in which he lay, but in truth, where God directed it, and he gave thanks. God had heard him. The first token of God’s mercy was the earnest of the whole. God was dealing with him, was looking on him. It was enough.
Out of the belly of hell cried I. - The deep waters were as a grave, and he was counted “among the dead” Psa 88:4. Death seemed so certain that it was all one as if he were in the womb of hell, not to be reborn to life until the last Day. So David said Psa 18:5, “The bands of death compassed me round about;” and Psa 30:3, “Thou hast drawn my life out of hell.” The waters choked his speech; but he cried with a loud cry to God Who knew the heart. “I cried; Thou heardest.” The words vary only by a kindred letter . The real heart’s cry to God according to the mind of God and His hearing are one, whether, for man’s good, He seem at the time to hear or no.
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“Not of the voice but of the heart is God the Hearer, as He is the Seer. Do the ears of God wait for sound? How then could the prayer of Jonah from the inmost belly of the whale, through the bowels of so great a creature, out of the very bottomless depths, through so great a mass of waters, make its way to heaven?” “Loud crying to God is not with the voice but with the heart. Many, silent with their lips, have cried aloud with their heart; many, noisy with their lips, could, with heart turned away, obtain nothing. If then thou criest, cry within, where God heareth.” “Jonah cried aloud to God out of the fish’s belly, out of the deep of the sea, out of the depths of disobedience; and his prayer reached to God, Who rescued him from the waves, brought him forth out of the vast creature, absolved him from the guilt. Let the sinner too cry aloud, whom, departing from God, the storm of desires overwhelmed, the malignant Enemy devoured, the waves of this present world sucked under! Let him own that he is in the depth, that so his prayer may reach to God.”
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 vv2–3 Prayed. He entertained these sentiments. (Sanct. xiv.) --- He…
Prayed. He entertained these sentiments. (Sanct. xiv.) --- He afterwards wrote them down. (Calmet)
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–4 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 vv2, 4 2. I cried… he heard — R.V., “I called……
2. I cried… he heard — R.V., “I called… he answered.” The tenses indicate that both the petition and the reply are experiences of the past (Jon_2:6).
By reason of mine affliction — Better, R.V. margin, “out of mine affliction”; which is further described in 3ff.
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Belly of hell — R.V., “Sheol.” On the latter see on Hos_13:14. It is frequently pictured as a ravenous beast, with a greedy appetite (Pro_30:16; Hab_2:5), with a wide-open mouth (Isa_5:14). Here a belly is given to it, which may have been suggested by the belly of the fish. As in Psa_18:5; Psa_30:3, Sheol is a poetic picture for the dangers of death, from which there seems no escape. With 2a compare Psa_120:1, or Psa_18:6; with Jon_2:2 b compare Psa_18:5.
Jon_2:3 describes the affliction from which came deliverance.
For thou hadst cast — Literally, And thou didst cast. This can hardly be interpreted as giving the reason for the thanksgiving. Better, Yea, thou didst cast. This is a perfectly possible translation. It certainly is not necessary to suppose that a clause has dropped out. In the case of Jonah, Jehovah was the real author of the calamity (Jon_1:14; compare also Jon_1:4, and the references there).
Deep,… midst of the seas;… floods… billows… waves — Taken in connection with the experiences of Jonah these terms might all be interpreted literally. On the other hand, in the psalm literature, these or similar terms are used figuratively of the depths of trouble and distress. The “midst (R.V., “heart”) of the seas” (for plural compare G.-K., 124a), which defines “deep,” is the bottom of the sea (Exo_15:5; Mic_7:19).
Floods — Literally, river; the currents of the sea (Psa_24:2).
Thy — Jehovah made them (Jon_1:9) and controls them (Psa_18:4-5). For the last clause compare especially Psa_42:7.
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 vv2–4 2. and said] The prayer which follows falls naturally…
2. and said] The prayer which follows falls naturally into three parts or divisions. In each of these the two elements of danger and deliverance, of need and help, appear. But they enter into them in very different proportions. Faith grows, and the prospect brightens at each fresh stage of the hymn. The first rises to prayer, the second to confidence, the third to thankfulness and praise.
I. Jon_2:2-4.
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(1) Introduction, containing the general subject of the hymn: I cried and was heard, I was in trouble and was delivered. Jon_2:2.
(2) Description of the danger and distress. Jon_2:3.
(3) Faith triumphing over despondency and prompting to prayer. Jon_2:4.
II. Jon_2:5-6.
(1) More vivid description of the danger and distress. Jon_2:5-6 a.
(2) Deliverance not only prayed for, but possessed. Jon_2:6 b.
III. Jon_2:7-9.
(1) Prayer, offered in danger and distress, has been heard. Jon_2:7.
(2) God, no longer forsaken, but sought and recognised as the fountain of mercy, has granted deliverance which shall be acknowledged with sacrifices of thanksgiving and vows joyfully paid. Jon_2:8-9 a.
(3) All salvation, as this typical instance shows, is of God. Jon_2:9 b.
The prayer is remarkable for its many resemblances in thought and expression to passages in the Book of Psalms. The words of the Psalter, however, are not exactly and literally quoted, but its ideas and phrases are freely wrought into the prayer, as if drawn from the well-stored memory of a pious Israelite, familiar with its contents, and naturally giving vent to his feelings in the cherished forms, which were now instinct for him with new life and meaning. The manner in which our English literature (not only sacred, but secular and even profane and infidel) abounds in Scripture imagery and phraseology may help us to understand how coincidences of this kind may have arisen, without any deliberate intention on the part of a later writer to copy from an earlier, or even any direct consciousness that he was doing so.
by reason of mine affliction] Rather, as in A.V. and R.V. margin, out of mine affliction, i.e. out of the midst of it, while it still compassed me about. The time referred to is when he was in the sea.
The first half of this verse is identical in the Heb. words, though not in their order, with Psa_120:1, except that in the Psalm we have “in,” instead of “from” or “out of” mine affliction, and a lengthened form of the word for affliction is used. The coincidence cannot, however, be properly said to affect the date of the Book of Jonah. The Psalm, it is true, belongs to a collection which “in its present form must have been made after the return from Babylon,” but it by no means follows that no ode of the collection had been composed before that time. Besides, the whole sentence is, both in language and idea, too commonplace, so to speak, to be safely insisted upon as a quotation at all. Two quite independent writers may easily have lighted on it. And moreover, if quoted at all, it may owe its origin no less probably to Psalms 18, between which and the prayer of Jonah the resemblance, though less exact in this particular verse, is as a whole more close and striking. Comp. Psa_18:6 (1st clause).
of hell] The unseen world, the place of the dead, amongst whom, when cast into the sea, he seemed already to be numbered. Comp. Psa_18:5. “the sorrows of hell (or rather “the bonds of the unseen world”) compassed me about.”
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 vv2–4 (2) By reason of mine affliction.—See margin. There is…
(2) By reason of mine affliction.—See margin. There is a close correspondence between this opening and that of Psalms 120 Comp. also Psa_18:6.
Out of the belly of hell.—This remarkable expression—a forcible figure for imminent death—has its nearest parallel in Isa_5:14, where sheôl (see Psa_6:5) is represented as opening a huge mouth to swallow the princes of the world and their pomp. The under-world represents the Hebrew word sheôl more nearly than hell or the grave (margin). (Comp. Psa_18:5; Psa_30:3.)
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And thou heardest . . .—The conjunction is unnecessarily introduced. The sudden change of person, a frequent figure in Hebrew poetry, is more striking without the connecting word.
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 vv2–4 He introduces the prayer with the tact that he…
He introduces the prayer with the tact that he cried to God in distress and was heard. By reason of mine affliction; better, out of my affliction. This may be a reminiscence of Psa_120:1 or Psa_18:6; but from such coincidences nothing can be established concerning the date of the book. Like circumstances call forth like expressions; and the writers may have composed them quite independently of one another. Hell (Sheol). The unseen world. (Eze_32:21) He was as though dead when thus engulfed. (comp. Psa_18:5) Cried I. (Psa_28:1, Psa_28:2) Thou heardest my voice. (Psa_130:1, Psa_130:2)
Vers. 2, 3. Affliction and prayer.
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Doubtless the language of this psalm of thanksgiving was the result of subsequent meditation, for it is evidently a studied composition, resembling in passages several of the sacred Hebrew odes. But the sentiments were those actually experienced by the prophet when in the most humiliating position. In his experience was much which may prove very instructive and helpful to ourselves.
I DEEP AFFLICTION. The language of ver. 3, literally descriptive of Jonah"s state and sufferings, is tinged with poetical feeling, and, like similar passages in the Psalms, is emblematic of the afflictions which, at some periods of human life, are the appointed experience of God"s people. The deep waters of trouble must be passed through; the mighty billows must roll over the spirit. Sorrow submerges and apparently overwhelms even the child of God; how much more the impenitent and disobedient!
II EARNEST PRAYER. How, indeed, can prayer be other than earnest, if it be offered from "the belly of hell"? Those afflictions are, indeed, a blessing which prompt such supplications as those which came from Jonah"s lips. Far from human succour, and perhaps from human pity, the afflicted lift their voice, and cry, by reason of their afflictions, unto the Lord. There is something very instructive in the language used by Jonah, attributing his affliction to the Being upon whom he was calling, Thou hadst cast me into the deep,... thy billows and thy waves passed over me." In this way the distressed may learn the lesson which the wisdom and the love of God would teach.
III GRACIOUS DELIVERANCE. When in Scripture it is said that God hears, we may usually understand more than is expressed. He hears to answer, to rescue, to save. The Omnipresent did not lose sight of his servant even when he was beneath the waves of the ocean; and the All-gracious was not inattentive to his supplication, though offered from the depths where weeds were about the suppliant"s head. If there are those who fear lest their situation or their circumstances should shut them out from the regard and interest of the Supreme, they may well take courage when they think of the experience of the prophet, who called upon the Lord from the depths, and was heard and was delivered.
Vers. 2-10. Triumph, thanksgiving.
"And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice," etc. This is one of the most striking instances in all Scripture of the benefit of believing prayer. "Lord, what a change within us one short hour Spent in thy presence will prevail to make! What heavy burdens from our bosom take! What parched lands refresh as with a shower! We kneel, and all around us seems to lower; We rise, and all, the distant and the near, Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear. We kneel, how weak; we rise, how full of power! Why therefore should we do ourselves this wrong, That we are ever overborne with care? That we should ever weak or heartless be, Anxious or troubled, when with us in prayer, And joy, and strength, and courage, are with thee? (Trench.)
In the brighter part of Jonah"s prayer we notice his
I GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF PRAYER AS ANSWERED. (Vers. 2, 7) Happy effect of certainty as to this. There are grounds for such certainty:
1. When prayer is offered trustfully, poured as lute the ear of a Father, who has promised to hear such prayer. Answer to be expected, since God is true and never can deceive us.
2. When the evil dreaded is actually averted, or the benefit asked is sent. Unbelief says it would have been so at any rate; faith says, "My prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
3. When the heart is filled with a sense of the goodness and love of God and his trustworthiness even before the answer comes, it may be felt that the prayer is heard. Confidence in God as Hearer of prayer is a most valuable Christian grace ever associated with deep humility infinitely removed from presumption and boasting.
II HUMBLE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF PAST GUILT AND FOLLY. (Ver. 8) "They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy." This is what he had done. Human devices contrary to will of God are "lying vanities;" empty, they bring no satisfaction; lying, they promise peace and safety, but bring misery and horrible troubles. So Eve found, so Pharaoh, so Israel when they went after ways of heathen. So Jonah himself. So all who forsake Fountain of living waters and hew out to themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. Worldly devices to get happiness apart from God are indeed "vanity of vanities." Soul of man cannot be satisfied with husks. For God"s servants to follow them is to forsake their own mercy. It is for prodigal son to change father"s house for society of rioters and harlots: "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about". (Psa_32:10) The way of duty is ever the way of safety, peace, and comfort; neglected duty is a sure forerunner of trouble; an evil conscience can never be the harbinger of sweet content.
III PUBLIC EXPRESSION OF THANKSGIVING AND CONSECRATION. (Ver. 9) Sacrifice thanksgiving vows. This is to be done openly and publicly at the proper place. No concealment by Jonah of what had taken place. He would at once proclaim his own guilt, and declare himself a monument of God"s grace. Genuine repentance carries spirit of self-abasement, conscious indebtedness to God eagerness to be more consecrated to him. The spring of this feeling is of the Lord." God"s saving mercy keeps alive in redeemed hearts the sense of infinite obligation, and prompts to every suitable recognition. No other spiritual dynamic like this all active obedience, all the labour of love, all patient endurance spring from this; whatever our mercies, we have the duty of grateful remembrance of them. and active consecration to God in connection with them. Jonah is disentombed (ver. 10). "And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." At length the purpose of the chastisement is served, therefore it is removed. The great fish continues under God"s control, and having carried Jonah safely through the deep, deposits him on the dry land. "As you see the foamy track the creature leaves behind gradually melting into the quiet green of the sea; as you turn and look at the prophet, washing himself from the filth of his living grave, and then standing upon the shore, inhaling the fresh breeze, rejoicing in heaven"s blessed light, and to prove and feel himself alive, to make sure that all was not a dream shouting, perhaps, in a loud voice, "Salvation is of the Lord," say, "God helping me, I shall never despair. Never. For! see that the heaviest judgment may ripen into mercy. The darkest night may have a morning. The deepest grave has a resurrection portal. A voyage wrapped in whirling storm, and horrible with engulfing dangers, may yet end in safety on a sunny shore (Raleigh).
Jonah a sign:
1. To the Ninevites. His history a twofold picture lesson to them.
(1) Of the consequence of spurning the authority of the God of the Hebrews; for he is no local deity, but Lord of earth and sea, of all creatures and all their actions, and has showed he could signally punish and humble Jonah on the very element to which he had betaken himself for safety from this God. It was before this God the iniquities of Nineveh had come. How must he view these?
(2) Of the pardoning, restoring, and preserving mercy of God to the penitent God not inexorable if Nineveh should repent, it, like Jonah, would experience God"s mercy.
2. To the men of Christ"s generation.
(1) In his humiliation. The Jews asked of Christ a sign (Mat_12:40) some great display of power in the heavens. He refused; the only sign to be given would be precisely opposite, viz. that of Jonah a sign not in heaven, but beneath the surface of the earth. "As Jonah suffered humiliation for his own sin, so Jesus would suffer humiliation for the sin which he bore. Reality of his Messiahship was to be shown in his death and burial, and continuing for the same period as Jonah under the power of death. Divine, saving power of Jesus is connected with his humiliation as Sin bearer. As if Jesus had said, "The signs which are to discover themselves in me are to grow darker, and not brighter: they are to be derived, not from the heavens above, but from the depths beneath from the very chamber of the dead; yet am I not less on that account the Ambassador of Heaven; yea, surpassing Jonah in the depth of my humiliation, I still more surpass him in the dignity of my character; and the inhabitants of the heathen city, which repented at his preaching, will assuredly rise up in judgment to condemn the impenitent of this generation (Fairbairn).
(2) In his exaltation. This view is rather implied than expressed by our Lord. Jonah escaping from the fish is a type of Christ rising from the dead. The Ninevites were moved to repentance by means of the type; they must have heard Jonah"s history and been greatly impressed by it. The Jews had the antitype the literal resurrection of Christ from the dead, but were not moved by it. Herein is a great lesson for all listen to the Divine Messenger, who liveth and was dead, and is alive forever, and hath the keys of hell and of Death!"though our Lord"s pointing to the sign of Jonah, with the assurance that no other would be given them, might at first seem to betoken only trouble and disaster to his mission, yet the more thoughtful and discerning minds would not fail to discover, on further reflection, that there was also couched under it a promise of encouragement and success far beyond anything that had hitherto appeared. He was to become to the world the sign that Jonah was to Nineveh only when he entered on the resurrection life, and in his Name repentance and remission of sins were preached to the people. And hence the great stress laid upon the fact of the resurrection by the first heralds of the gospel, and the wonderful effect produced by it upon those who heard them, not simply on account of the proof it afforded of the truth of Christ"s pretensions to be the Son of God, but also, and still more, for the impressive attestation, the living witness it gave of the placability of God, and of the holy earnestness of his desire that sinners would repent and live. Precisely as in the case of Jonah, though in a manner unspeakably more solemn and affecting, the things that had befallen Jesus and the condition in which he now presented himself through his ambassadors to the people, were seen to be a singular and most magnificent provision of love on the part of God to reach their consciences, and to avert, ere it might be too late, the doom of condemnation which Divine justice had suspended over their heads (Fairbairn). W.G.B.
HOMILIES BY G.T. COSTER Ver. 2. The value of affliction (as seen in Jonah"s prayer).
It:
1. Brings the man to himself. To soul consciousness, to God consciousness. When "in the shadow of a great affliction, the soul sits dumb." Chastened, he feels his need of chastisement, and knows from whom it comes. "Thy waves;" "thy billows.
2. Brings the consolation of Scripture to the man. From various psalms of sorrow (now remembered) Jonah quotes. By sorrow he enters into the sorrows of others. Affliction "opens up the mine of Scripture, before seen only on the surface.
3. Brings the man to God. He "cries" to him. He comes to him. He feels that "sorrow"s crown of sorrow" is in being "cast out of God"s sight.
4. Brings the assurance of salvation to the man. Thus, divinely blest, affliction is good. The soul, then, triumphant over trouble, can exclaim, "Salvation is of the Lord;" "O Lord my God. G.T.C.
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 vv2, 4 I cried by reason of mine affliction.
Jon_2:2
I cried by reason of mine affliction.
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Troubles and deliverance
I. The fact of trouble. Jonah is at one with all men in a common experience of trouble. No child of God is born to a heritage of unmitigated grief. Some compensating mercy is sure to throw its mellow light over the angriest storm. Some specimens of trouble. So many hampered lives; so many obstacles to goodness; so many and so powerful temptations; so many apparent contradictions to the truth of an infinite goodness. Jonahs trouble was his being thrust off into a conscious distance from God.
II. Deliverance from trouble. The steps toward such deliverance are stated in Our Scripture.
1. Jonah remembered God. Submissive memory of God is the first step.
2. Prayer is the next step.
3. A thankful trust is the next. (Wayland Hoyt, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v2 Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
hell
Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v3 General Information:
General Information:
This is a continuation of Jonah's prayer that started in Jonah 2:2. In verse 4 Jonah spoke of something he had prayed before this prayer.
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into the depths, into the heart of the seas
This speaks of the vastness of the ocean Jonah was in. (See: Parallelism)
into the heart of the seas
"to the bottom of the sea"
the currents surrounded me
"the sea water closed in around me"
waves and billows
These are disturbances on the surface of the ocean. (See: Doublet)
I am driven out
This can be stated in active form. AT: "You have driven me away" or "You have sent me away" (See: Active or Passive)
from before your eyes
Here Yahweh is represented by his "eyes." AT: "from you" (See: Synecdoche)
yet I will again look toward your holy temple
Jonah has hope that, in spite of all he is going through, he will see the temple. (See: Rhetorical Question)
translationWords
heart
holy
temple
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 vv2, 4 2:2 Jonah’s psalm-prayer opens by recalling a previous prayer…
2:2 Jonah’s psalm-prayer opens by recalling a previous prayer that was not so polished yet was all the more fervent—his cry for help while on the verge of drowning. • from the land of the dead (literally from the belly of Sheol): Sheol was thought to be the abode of the dead (see Isa 14:15; Ezek 31:15-17). The belly metaphor for Sheol is found nowhere else in the Old Testament; it pictures Jonah’s experience of being delivered from Sheol through the belly of a fish.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.