Jonah 2:8

observe lying vanities Comp. Psalms 31:6, where the same Heb. word is rendered "regard." By "lying vanities" we are to understand "all inventions with which men deceive themselves" (Calvin), all false, and therefore vain and disappointing objects of trust and confidence. Idols and false gods are no doubt included, but the sentiment is conceived and expressed in the most general form, and therefore embraces Jonah's own case. He had observed the lying vanity, the deceitful promise of his own will and his own way, as opposed to God; and not only had he found that God was stronger than he, but he had been brought to see and confess that in such a course he had been his own enemy.

forsake their own mercy Rather, their mercy. Some (as Kalisch, for example) would render, "they forget their kindness," i.e. "they quickly and heedlessly forget the mercies they have enjoyed; the word forsakebeing taken in the sense of deserting, or dismissing, viz. from their thoughts," and "theirmercies," as analogous to the phrase, the sure mercies of David(Isaiah 55:3), "the benefits conferred upon or enjoyed by David." But, apart from the meaning thus arbitrarily given to the word "forsake," the sentiment attributed to the writer is unsatisfactory and untrue. "The suppliant declares," writes Kalisch, "I was in distress, I prayed and was saved; and now, unlike the idolaters who gracelessly forget the bounties they have received, I shall evince my gratitude to Jehovah by the voice of praise and by sacred gifts." But it is not true that the idolaters in this sense "forget the benefits they have received," as ch. Jonah 1:16 shows, and as the heathen temples filled with votive offerings in acknowledgment of deliverance abundantly testify.

By "their mercy" we are to understand God, who is the only source of mercy and loving-kindness to all His creatures. The sentiment is similar to that which is figuratively expressed by the prophet Jeremiah: "They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." (Jeremiah 2:13.) So God is called, "my mercy," Psalms 144:2 (margin), the same word being used as here.