CHAPTER 2 Dec. 2 
Jonah Prays from inside the Fish 
Then Jonah prayed to Yahweh his God out of the great fish’s belly. 2He said, I called because of my affliction to Yahweh and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice, 3for You threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas. The water was all around me. All Your waves and Your breakers passed over me. 4I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple’. 5The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me, the weeds were wrapped around my head. 6I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth barred me in forever: yet have You brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God. 7When my soul ebbed away within me, I remembered Yahweh. My prayer came in to You, into Your holy temple. 8Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy. 9But I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to Yahweh. 10Yahweh spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.

Commentary

2:2 Jonah knew his Bible well; his poem is absolutely full of references to the Psalms. And yet Ps. 139 had clearly stated that we cannot flee anywhere from God’s presence; for even in the deep sea, He will find us. Jonah knew this; and yet he didn’t know it. He had to learn what this meant in practice. And so, incident by incident, blow by blow, our theoretical knowledge is turned into flesh, into reality for us; for the same God who worked so hard in Jonah’s life is at work in ours.