Jonah 2:5

compassed me about It would be better, perhaps, to render surrounded me, in order to show that this is a different word from that in Jonah 2:3, and then in the second clause of this verse, where the word is the same as in Jonah 2:3, to render compassed me about, instead of closed me round about.

to the soul i. e. so as to endanger my soul, or life. Comp. Psalms 69:1 (where similar language is used figuratively) and Jeremiah 4:10.

the weeds The Heb. word is sûph, which so often occurs in the name RedSea (lit., sea of sûph). "The sûph of the sea, it seems quite certain, is a seaweed resembling wool. Such sea-weed is thrown up abundantly on the shores of the Red Sea." Smith's Bible Dict., Art. Red Sea.