1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish. 2 He began, “In my agony I cried out to the Lord and he answered me; from the depths of Sheol I pleaded for help and you answered me. 3 You threw me into the deep, all the way down to the bottom of the sea. Water flooded all around me; your crashing waves rolled over me. 4 I said to myself, ‘The Lord has banished me from his sight. Will I ever see your holy Temple again?’ 5 The water swirled over me so I couldn't breathe; the deep sucked me down; seaweed wrapped itself around my head. 6 I sank down to the base of the mountains; the earth barred me in forever. But you, my Lord, my God, brought me back up from the abyss. 7 As my life ebbed away, I remembered the Lord; my prayer came to you in your holy Temple. 8 Those who worship worthless idols give up their trust in God's goodness. 9 But I will offer you sacrifices, shouting out my thanks. I will keep my promises to you, for salvation comes from the Lord.” 10 Then the Lord told the fish to spit out Jonah onto the shore.
Jonah 2 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (10)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Lamentations 3:53–56; Psalm 91:15; Psalm 130:1–2; Job 13:15; Isaiah 26:16
- 2 Psalm 18:4–6; Psalm 120:1; Psalm 34:6; Psalm 86:13; Psalm 88:1–7
- 3 Psalm 42:7; Lamentations 3:54; Psalm 69:1–2; Psalm 69:14–15; Psalm 88:5–8
- 4 Psalm 31:22; Psalm 5:7; 2 Chronicles 6:38; Isaiah 38:17; 1 Kings 8:38–39
- 5 Psalm 69:1–2; Lamentations 3:54; Psalm 40:2
- 6 Psalm 30:3; Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 38:17; Deuteronomy 32:22; Psalm 143:7
- 7 Psalm 18:6; 2 Chronicles 30:27; Psalm 143:5; Psalm 11:4; 1 Samuel 30:6
- 8 Psalm 31:6; Jeremiah 2:13; 2 Kings 17:15; 1 Samuel 12:21; Jeremiah 10:8
- 9 Psalm 3:8; Psalm 50:14; Ecclesiastes 5:4–5; Hebrews 13:15; Psalm 50:23
- 10 Matthew 8:26–27; Psalm 33:9; Matthew 8:8–9; Isaiah 50:2; Genesis 1:3
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… unhoped-for salvation from God, might rise from the dead, and glorify God, and repeat that word which was uttered in prophecy by Jonah: "I cried by reason of mine affliction to the Lord my God, and He heard me out of the belly of hell;" and that he might always continue glorifying God, and giving thanks without ceasing, for that …
Jonas cried from the deep; from the whale's belly. He was not only beneath the waves, but also in the entrails of the beast; nevertheless, those waves and that body prevented not his prayer from reaching God, and the beast's belly could not contain the voice of his prayer.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
Of this our Saviour the Prophet Jonas formed the type, when he prayed out of the belly of the whale, and said, I cried in my affliction, and so on; out of the belly of hell, and yet he was in the whale; but though in the whale, he says that he is in Hades; for he was a …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)