Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Passage sections 1 ▾
Jonah and the Great Fish narrative 1:1–2:10
Themes 3 ▾
Redemption 2 Prayer 2 Suffering and Perseverance 2
People 1 ▾
Jonah Divided Monarchy 1, 10
Speakers 2 ▾
Jonah human 1-9 God divine 10
Typology 2 ▾
Jonah → Christ 10 Jonah as type of Christ 10
Miracles 1 ▾
Jonah and the Great Fish 10
Historic voices 6 ▾
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2× 1, 3-10 Against Heresies (Adversus Haereses) 2× 2, 11 Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible 1× 1-10 John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible 1× 1-8 Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary 1× 2-10 Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament 1× 2-3, 5, 8, 10
Manuscript witnesses 5 ▾
Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325 Codex Alexandrinus A c. AD 400-440 Aleppo Codex (Crown of Aleppo) c. AD 930 Leningrad Codex (Codex Leningradensis) AD 1008
Cross-references 92 ▾
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What is Jonah 2 about?

From the belly of the fish, in the very place of his rebellion, Jonah lifted up a prayer of thanksgiving to the LORD, recounting how the waters had compassed him about and how he had cried out of the belly of hell and been heard. Though he had sunk to the bottoms of the mountains, he remembered the LORD and looked again toward His holy temple, confessing that they who observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. He vowed to sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving and declared the theme of the whole book, that salvation is of the LORD, whereupon God spoke to the fish and it vomited him out upon the dry land. This deliverance of a disobedient prophet from the deep the Lord Jesus would later claim as the sign of His own three days in the heart of the earth, so that Jonah's rescue points forward to the resurrection at the center of God's saving work.

Historical backdrop

Jonah son of Amittai prophesied in the days of Jeroboam II, when Assyria was passing through a spell of weakness and Nineveh, on the east bank of the Tigris, was already an ancient and fearsome city though not yet the empire's capital. To the west lay the open Mediterranean and the Phoenician sea lanes that ran all the way to Tarshish at the far edge of the known world, and from the port of Joppa a man could buy passage on a cargo ship bound that way. East stood the Assyrian metropolis whose armies would within a generation begin to devour Israel itself.

Matthew Henry on Jonah 2
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Jonah 2
The Church Fathers on Jonah 2

Jonah 2

Jonah Chapter 2
2

1Then Jonah prayed unto Jehovah his God out of the fish’s belly. 2And he said, I called by reason of mine affliction unto Jehovah, And he answered me; Out of the belly of Sheol cried I, And thou heardest my voice. 3For thou didst cast me into the depth, in the heart of the seas, And the flood was round about me; All thy waves and thy billows passed over me.

4And I said, I am cast out from before thine eyes; Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. 5The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; The deep was round about me; The weeds were wrapped about my head. 6I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed upon me for ever: Yet hast thou brought up my life from the pit, O Jehovah my God. 7When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Jehovah; And my prayer came in unto thee, into thy holy temple. 8They that regard lying vanities Forsake their own mercy. 9But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation is of Jehovah.

10And Jehovah spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. 11

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What is Jonah 2 about?

From the belly of the fish, in the very place of his rebellion, Jonah lifted up a prayer of thanksgiving to the LORD, recounting how the waters had compassed him about and how he had cried out of the belly of hell and been heard. Though he had sunk to the bottoms of the mountains, he remembered the LORD and looked again toward His holy temple, confessing that they who observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. He vowed to sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving and declared the theme of the whole book, that salvation is of the LORD, whereupon God spoke to the fish and it vomited him out upon the dry land. This deliverance of a disobedient prophet from the deep the Lord Jesus would later claim as the sign of His own three days in the heart of the earth, so that Jonah's rescue points forward to the resurrection at the center of God's saving work.