Jonah 2:5

“The waters compassed me about,

Even to the soul,

The deep was round about me,

The weeds were wrapped about my head.”

But his awful experience had gone on. (God does not always step in immediately until we have learned our lesson). He had felt as though the waters had entered into his very soul. The depths of the sea had been all around him, and he had felt weeds wrapping round his head. He had known that he was drowning, which was of course what he had anticipated. Rescue had been far from his mind.

For the whole idea compare Psalms 69:1. Save Me, O God, for the waters are come into my soul, -- I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me'. But in the case of Jonah the experience had been a literal one.