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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Jonah 2 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/jonah/2.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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because I rejoice in your salvation.">1Samuel 2:1-10</a>), which is introduced in the same way. Comp. also the Note appended by the psalm collector at the end of Psalms 72, “The <span class= "ital">prayers</span> of David the son of Jesse are ended.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jonah/2-2.htm">Jonah 2:2</a></div><div class="verse">And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, <i>and</i> thou heardest my voice.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">By reason of mine affliction.—</span>See margin. There is a close correspondence between this opening and that of Psalms 120 Comp. also <a href="/psalms/18-6.htm" title="In my distress I called on the LORD, and cried to my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.">Psalm 18:6</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Out of the belly of hell.</span>—This remarkable expression—a forcible figure for imminent death—has its nearest parallel in <a href="/isaiah/5-14.htm" title="Therefore hell has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoices, shall descend into it.">Isaiah 5:14</a>, where <span class= "ital">sheôl</span> (see <a href="/psalms/6-5.htm" title="For in death there is no remembrance of you: in the grave who shall give you thanks?">Psalm 6:5</a>) is represented as opening a huge mouth to swallow the princes of the world and their pomp. The <span class= "ital">under-world</span> represents the Hebrew word <span class= "ital">sheôl</span> more nearly than <span class= "ital">hell</span> or the <span class= "ital">grave</span> (margin). (Comp. <a href="/psalms/18-5.htm" title="The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.">Psalm 18:5</a>; <a href="/psalms/30-3.htm" title="O LORD, you have brought up my soul from the grave: you have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.">Psalm 30:3</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">And thou heardest</span> . . .—The conjunction is unnecessarily introduced. The sudden change of person, a frequent figure in Hebrew poetry, is more striking without the connecting word.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jonah/2-3.htm">Jonah 2:3</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Hadst cast.—</span>Rather, <span class= "ital">didst cast.</span> (See <a href="/psalms/88-6.htm" title="You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.">Psalm 88:6</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Floods.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">river,</span> used here of the ocean currents. (Comp. <a href="/psalms/24-2.htm" title="For he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the floods.">Psalm 24:2</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">All thy billows and thy waves.—</span>More exactly, <span class= "ital">all thy breakers and billows.</span> (See <a href="/psalms/42-7.htm" title="Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterspouts: all your waves and your billows are gone over me.">Psalm 42:7</a>, where the same expression is used figuratively for great danger and distress.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jonah/2-4.htm">Jonah 2:4</a></div><div class="verse">Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">I am cast out of thy sight.</span>—“Jonah had wilfully withdrawn from standing in God’s presence. Now God had taken him at his word, and, as it seemed, cast him out of it. David had said in his haste, “I am cut off” (<a href="/psalms/31-22.htm" title="For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before your eyes: nevertheless you heard the voice of my supplications when I cried to you.">Psalm 31:22</a>), Jonah substitutes the stronger word, “I am cast forth,” driven forth, expelled like the mire and dirt which the waves drive along, or like the waves themselves in their restless motion, or the heathen (the word is the same) whom God had driven out before Israel, or as Adam from Paradise” (Pusey).<p><span class= "bld">Yet I will look again.—</span>The Hebrew is very impressive, and reads like one of those exile hopes so common in the Psalms: “Yet I have one thing left, to turn towards Thy holy Temple and pray.” (For the attitude see Note on <a href="/psalms/28-2.htm" title="Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your holy oracle.">Psalm 28:2</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jonah/2-5.htm">Jonah 2:5</a></div><div class="verse">The waters compassed me about, <i>even</i> to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">The waters.—</span>See reference in margin.<p><span class= "bld">The weeds were wrapped about my head.—</span>This graphic touch is quite original. The figure of overwhelming waters is a common one in Hebrew song to represent some crushing sorrow, but nowhere is the picture so vivid as here. At the same time the entire absence of any reference to the fish, which would, indeed, be altogether out of place in this picture of a drowning man entangled in seaweed, should be noticed. That on which the prophet lays stress is not on the mode of his escape, but his escape itself.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jonah/2-6.htm">Jonah 2:6</a></div><div class="verse">I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars <i>was</i> about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Bottoms of the mountains.—</span>Literally, <span class= "ital">ends</span> or <span class= "ital">cuttings off,</span> as, in margin. So the Vulg. <span class= "ital">extrema montium.</span> Mountains were in the Hebrew conception the pillars of the world (see <a href="/job/9-6.htm" title="Which shakes the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.">Job 9:6</a>; <a href="/job/26-11.htm" title="The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.">Job 26:11</a>), having their foundations firmly planted in the sea. These “hidden bases of the hills” were therefore the verge of the earth itself, and one lost among them would be close on the under-world of death.<p><span class= "bld">The earth with her bars</span> . . .—Literally, <span class= "ital">the earth her bars behind me for ever; i.e.,</span> the earth’s gates were closed upon me for ever, there was no possibility of return. The metaphor of a gateway to <span class= "ital">sheôl</span> is common (<a href="/isaiah/38-10.htm" title="I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.">Isaiah 38:10</a>, &c.), but the earth is nowhere else said to be so guarded. Ewald therefore proposes to read <span class= "ital">sheôl</span> here. But it is quite as natural to imagine a guarded passage out of the land of the living as into the land of the dead.<p><span class= "bld">Corruption.—</span>Rather, <span class= "ital">pit.</span> (See Note, <a href="/psalms/16-10.htm" title="For you will not leave my soul in hell; neither will you suffer your Holy One to see corruption.">Psalm 16:10</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jonah/2-7.htm">Jonah 2:7</a></div><div class="verse">When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">Fainted.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">covered itself.</span> Comp. <a href="/jonah/4-8.htm" title="And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.">Jonah 4:8</a>. (See <a href="/psalms/61-2.htm" title="From the end of the earth will I cry to you, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.">Psalm 61:2</a>; <a href="/psalms/142-3.htm" title="When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then you knew my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privately laid a snare for me.">Psalm 142:3</a>; <a href="/psalms/143-4.htm" title="Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.">Psalm 143:4</a>, where the same Hebrew word is rendered <span class= "ital">overwhelmed.</span> Comp. <a href="/psalms/107-5.htm" title="Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.">Psalm 107:5</a>.) Here, apparently, we are to think of the blinding mist of death slowly stealing over sight and sense.<p><span class= "bld">Into thine holy temple.—</span>See <a href="/jonah/2-4.htm" title="Then I said, I am cast out of your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.">Jonah 2:4</a>, and comp. <a href="/psalms/18-6.htm" title="In my distress I called on the LORD, and cried to my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.">Psalm 18:6</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jonah/2-8.htm">Jonah 2:8</a></div><div class="verse">They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">They that observe lying vanities.—</span>See Note, <a href="/psalms/31-6.htm" title="I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD.">Psalm 31:6</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Forsake their own mercy—</span><span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, forfeit their own share of the covenant grace. In <a href="/psalms/37-28.htm" title="For the LORD loves judgment, and forsakes not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.">Psalm 37:28</a> it is said that Jehovah does not forsake his <span class= "ital">chasîdim</span>; they, however, by forsaking Jehovah (Himself called Israel’s <span class= "ital">mercy,</span> <a href="/psalms/144-2.htm" title="My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdues my people under me.">Psalm 144:2</a>, margin) and His law (<a href="/psalms/89-30.htm" title="If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;">Psalm 89:30</a>) can forfeit their <span class= "ital">chesed</span> or covenant privilege.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jonah/2-9.htm">Jonah 2:9</a></div><div class="verse">But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay <i>that</i> that I have vowed. Salvation <i>is</i> of the LORD.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">But I will.</span>—The prophet, however, is not among such. He has sinned, but is still a member of the covenant people, and by sacrifice can be formally restored to that favour which repentance has regained.<p><span class= "bld">Salvation is of the Lord.—</span>Or, <span class= "ital">Deliverance is Jehovah’s.</span> (Comp. <a href="/psalms/3-8.htm" title="Salvation belongs to the LORD: your blessing is on your people. Selah.">Psalm 3:8</a>.)<p><span class= "bld"> <div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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