4 For you have put me down into the deep, into the heart of the sea; and the river was round about me; all your waves and your rolling waters went over me.
And as for me, I said in my fear, I am cut off from before your eyes; but you gave ear to the voice of my prayer, when my cry went up to you.
But as for me, I will come into your house, in the full measure of your mercy; and in your fear I will give worship, turning my eyes to your holy Temple.
If with all their heart and soul they are turned again to you, in the land where they are prisoners, the land where they have been taken, and make their prayers, turning their eyes to their land which you gave to their fathers, and to the town which you took for yourself, and the house which I have made for your name:
See, in place of peace my soul had bitter sorrow. but you have kept back my soul from the underworld; for you have put all my sins out of your memory.
And I will send you away from before my face, as I have sent away all your brothers, even all the seed of Ephraim.
Whatever prayer or request for your grace is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, whatever his trouble may be, whose hands are stretched out to this house: Give ear in heaven your living-place, acting in mercy; and give to every man whose secret heart is open to you, the reward of all his ways; for you, and you only, have knowledge of the hearts of all the children of men:
(For they will have news of your great name and your strong hand and your out-stretched arm;) when he comes to make his prayer, turning to this house:
And with all their heart and soul are turned again to you, in the land of those who took them prisoners, and make their prayer to you, turning their eyes to this land which you gave to their fathers, and to the town which you took for yourself, and the house which I made for your name:
Then I will have Israel cut off from the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for myself, I will put away from before my eyes; and Israel will be a public example, and a word of shame among all peoples.
<To the chief music-maker. After Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A Psalm.> I was crying to God with my voice; even to God with my voice, and he gave ear to me. In the day of my trouble, my heart was turned to the Lord: my hand was stretched out in the night without resting; my soul would not be comforted. I will keep God in memory, with sounds of grief; my thoughts are troubled, and my spirit is overcome. (Selah.) You keep my eyes from sleep; I am so troubled that no words come. My thoughts go back to the days of the past, to the years which are gone. The memory of my song comes back to me in the night; my thoughts are moving in my heart; my spirit is searching with care. Will the Lord put me away for ever? will he be kind no longer?
I said, In the quiet of my days I am going down into the underworld: the rest of my years are being taken away from me. I said, I will not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living: I will not see man again or those living in the world. My resting-place is pulled up and taken away from me like a herdsman's tent: my life is rolled up like a linen-worker's thread; I am cut off from the cloth on the frame: from day even to night you give me up to pain. I am crying out with pain till the morning; it is as if a lion was crushing all my bones. I make cries like a bird; I give out sounds of grief like a dove: my eyes are looking up with desire; O Lord, I am crushed, take up my cause.
But Zion said, The Lord has given me up, I have gone from his memory.
Then the Lord said to me, Even if Moses and Samuel came before me, I would have no desire for this people: send them away from before me, and let them go.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Jonah 2
Commentary on Jonah 2 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 2
We left Jonah in the belly of the fish, and had reason to think we should hear no more of him, that if he were not destroyed by the waters of the sea he would be consumed in the bowels of that leviathan, "out of whose mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire, and whose breath kindles coals,' Job 41:19, 21. But God brings his people through fire, and through water (Ps. 66:12); and by his power, behold, Jonah the prophet is yet alive, and is heard of again. In this chapter God hears from him, for we find him praying; in the next Nineveh hears from him, for we find him preaching. In his prayer we have,
In the last verse we have Jonah's deliverance out of the belly of the fish, and his coming safe and sound upon dry land again.
Jon 2:1-9
God and his servant Jonah had parted in anger, and the quarrel began on Jonah's side; he fled from his country that he might outrun his work; but we hope to see them both together again, and the reconciliation begins on God's side. In the close of the foregoing chapter we found God returning to Jonah in a way of mercy, delivering him from going down to the pit, having found a ransom; in this chapter we find Jonah returning to God in a way of duty; he was called up in the former chapter to pray to his God, but we are not told that he did so; however, now at length he is brought to it. Now observe here,
Jon 2:10
We have here Jonah's discharge from his imprisonment, and his deliverance from that death which there he was threatened with-his return, though not to life, for he lived in the fish's belly, yet to the land of the living, for from that he seemed to be quite cut off-his resurrection, though not from death, yet from the grave, for surely never man was so buried alive as Jonah was in the fish's belly. His enlargement may be considered,