Jonah 2 Commentary

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Jonah 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish,

• prayed (KJV): 2Ch 33:11-13 Ps 50:15 91:15 Isa 26:16 Ho 5:15 6:1-3 Jas 5:13 
• out (KJV): Job 13:15 Ps 130:1,2 La 3:53-56 Ac 16:24,25 

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish,

Jonah 2:2 and he said, “I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.  

• I cried (KJV): Ge 32:7-12,24-28 1Sa 30:6 Ps 4:1 18:4-6 22:24 34:6 65:2 Ps 120:1 142:1-3 Lu 22:44 Heb 5:7 
• by reason of mine (KJV): or, out of mine, 1Sa 1:16 
• out (KJV): Ps 18:5,6 61:2 86:13 88:1-7 116:3 
• hell (KJV): or, the grave, Ps 16:10 Isa 14:9 Mt 12:40 Ac 2:27 
• and thou (KJV): Ps 34:6 65:2 

and he said, “I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice

Jonah 2:3 “For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me.  

• thou (KJV): Jon 1:12-16 Ps 69:1,2,14,15 88:5-8 La 3:54 
• midst (KJV): Heb. heart
• all (KJV): Ps 42:7 

For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me

Jonah 2:4 “So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’  

• I said (KJV): Ps 31:22 77:1-7 Isa 38:10-14,17 49:14 Eze 37:11   
• out (KJV): 1Ki 9:7 Jer 7:15 15:1 
• toward (KJV): 1Ki 8:38,39,42,48 2Ch 6:38 Ps 5:7 Da 6:10 

So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple

Jonah 2:5 “Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head.  

• Ps 40:2 69:1,2 La 3:54 

Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head

Jonah 2:6 “I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.  

• bottoms (KJV): Heb. cuttings off
• mountains (KJV): De 32:22 Ps 65:6 104:6,8 Isa 40:12 Hab 3:6,10 
• the earth (KJV): Job 38:4-11 Pr 8:25-29 
• yet (KJV): Ps 16:10 Isa 38:17 Ac 13:33-37 
• corruption (KJV): or, the pit, Job 33:24,28 Ps 30:3,9 55:23 143:7 

I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God

Jonah 2:7 “While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple.  

• my soul (KJV): Ps 22:14 27:13 119:81-83 Heb 12:3 
• I remembered (KJV): 1Sa 30:6 Ps 20:7 42:5,11 43:5 77:10,11 143:5 Isa 50:10 La 3:21-26 2Co 1:9,10 
• my prayer (KJV): 2Ch 30:27 Ps 18:6 
• holy (KJV): Jon 2:4 Ps 11:4 65:4 Mic 1:2 Hab 2:20 

While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple

Jonah 2:8 “Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness,  

• 1Sa 12:21 2Ki 17:15 Ps 31:6 Jer 2:13 10:8,14,15 16:19 Hab 2:18-20 

Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness,  

Jonah lays his finger on the root of these difficulties and then renders up to God a sacrifice which is always acceptable to Him: the voice of praise and thanksgiving (Heb 13:15). “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Ps 51:16–17).
 

Jonah 2:9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD.” 

• I will sacrifice (KJV): Ge 35:3 Ps 50:14,23 66:13-15 107:22 116:17,18 Jer 33:11 Ho 14:2 Ro 12:1 Heb 13:15 
• I will pay (KJV): De 23:18 2Sa 15:7 Job 22:27 Ec 5:4,5 
• Salvation (KJV): Ps 3:8 37:39,40 68:20 Isa 45:17 Joh 4:22 Ac 4:12 Rev 7:10 

But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving.

That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD

Ps 50:14 This promise seems to reflect Jonah's repentance of his rebellion, and his commitment to fulfill the calling he had once heeded from God (when he became a prophet) and then later resisted. Prayer leads to heart-searching; so we find Jonah meditating upon his earlier promise to God and promising to pay that which he had vowed to the Lord. When first called to the prophetic ministry, he had solemnly promised to do the Lord’s bidding and to bear His message. In the depths of the sea and the belly of the sea monster he mends his broken promises. He has become a man of integrity. We have here another vital and sadly neglected truth. Do not give empty promises unto the Lord. He will require full payment and keep you to your word. How carelessly some throw upon the altar of dedication the sacred vow of service, only to go their way and forget their vow:

    “I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord;
     I’ll be what you want me to be.”

How easy it is to lie to God, just because the words are set to music. “When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not be slack to pay it: for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee” (Dt 23:21). “When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools; pay that which thou hast vowed” (Ec 5:4). “Thou…shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths” (Mt5:33; cf. Ps 76:11).
    Thus chapter two  ends as did chapter one —with the making of vows, the mariners in the ship, the prophet in the fish. However, Jonah keeps going until he turns from the contemplation of himself to a new view and knowledge of God, at which he cried “Salvation is of the Lord.” 

SALVATION IS FROM THE LORD: Ps 50:23 yeshuw'ah: DELIVERANCE: God had to discipline Jonah and took him to the depths of distress to teach him that He (God) is the Deliverer & that He desires to deliver those who call out. He does not want not "for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." 2Pe 3:9.
    Jonah learned this sentence of good theology in a strange college. He learned it in the whale’s belly, at the bottom of the mountains, with the weeds wrapped about his head, when he supposed that the earth with her bars was about him for ever. Most of the grand truths of God have to be learned by trouble; they must be burned into us with the hot iron of affliction, otherwise we shall not truly receive them. No man is competent to judge in matters of the kingdom, until first he has been tried; since there are many things to be learned in the depths which we can never know in the heights. We discover many secrets in the caverns of the ocean, which, though we had soared to heaven, we never could have known. He shall best meet the wants of God’s people as a preacher who has had those wants himself; he shall best comfort God’s Israel who has needed comfort; and he shall best preach salvation who has felt his own need of it. Jonah, when he was delivered from his great danger, when by the command of God the fish had obediently left its great deeps and delivered its cargo upon dry land, was then capable of judging; and this was the result of his experience under his trouble — ”Salvation is of the Lord.”

Jonah 2:10 Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.

• Jon 1:17 Ge 1:3,7,9,11,14 Ps 33:9 105:31,34 Isa 50:2 Mt 8:8,9,26,27 

Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land - He has regained his perspective and clarified his message. Because God wants to use us even more than we want to be used, his deliverance is immediate. Jonah received a ride back home in a “salt-water taxi” and came out preaching. So God disciplines and trains for His work those He would use.

Henry Morris - the fish.  This statement reminds us again that this experience of Jonah's was altogether miraculous. It cannot be supported by referring to supposedly similar occurrences in the lore of the whaling trade. God "prepared the fish" (Jonah 1:17) to swallow Jonah, then later "spake unto the fish" to deposit him on the shore.