Jonah 2:10

And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO THE FISH, AND IT VOMITED OUT JONAH UPON THE DRY LAND - probably on the coast of Palestine. Remarks: (1) The time of Jonah's prayer was when the three days and nights were all but passed. Feeling himself still safe, though entombed so long in the fish's belly he takes his preservation so far as an earnest of God's purpose to grant him final deliverance. Secure that God, who had done so much, would fulfill the rest, he offers thanksgiving as though his prayers were heard, and he already delivered from his living grave. A sense of God's favour restored to us, notwithstanding our transgressions, opens in thanksgivings the heart which had teen closed with the fear of His anger. (2) It is a sure mark of grace when a man can pray unto the Lord as "his God." Jonah felt God to be such to h...

The deliverance of Jonah is here in few words described; but how attentively ought we to consider the event? It was an incredible miracle, that Jonah should have continued alive and safe in the bowels of the fish for three days. For how was it that he was not a thousand times smothered or drowned by waters? We know that fish continually draw in water: Jonah could not certainly respire while in the fish; and the life of man without breathing can hardly continue for a minute. Jonah, then, must have been preserved beyond the power of nature. Then how could it have been that the fish should cast forth Jonah on the shore, except God by his unsearchable power had drawn the fish there? Again, who could have supernaturally opened its bowels and its mouth? His coming forth, then, was in every way miraculous, yea, it was attended with many miracles. But Jonah, that he might the more extol the infi...

10 Jonah's deliverance may be considered as an instance of God's power over all the creatures. As an instance of God's mercy to a poor penitent, who in distress prays to him: and as a type and figure of Christ's resurrection. Amidst all our varying experiences, and the changing scenes of life; we should look by faith, fixedly, upon our once suffering and dying, but now risen and ascended Redeemer. Let us confess our sins, consider Christ's resurrection as an earnest of our own, and thankfully receive every temporal and spiritual deliverance, as the pledge of our eternal redemption....

Verse Jonah 2:10. _AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO THE FISH_] That is, by his influence the fish swam to shore, and cast Jonah on the dry land. So the whole was a miracle from the beginning to the end; and we need not perplex ourselves to find out _literal_ interpretations; such as, "When Jonah was thrown overboard he swam for his life, earnestly praying God to preserve him from drowning; and by his providence he was thrown into a _place of fish_-a _fishing cove_, where he was for a time _entangled among the weeds_, and hardly escaped with his life; and when safe, he composed this poetic prayer, in _metaphorical language_, which some have wrongly interpreted, by supposing that he was _swallowed by a fish_; when _dag_ should have been understood, as a _place of fish_, or _fishing_ _creek_," c. Now I say the original has no such meaning in the Bible:...

AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO THE FISH - Psalms 148:8. Wind and storm fulfill His word. The irrational creatures have wills. God had commanded the prophet, and he disobeyed. God, in some way, commanded the fish. He laid His will upon it, and the fish immediately obeyed; a pattern to the prophet when He released him. “God’s will, that anything should be completed, is law and fulfillment and hath the power of law. Not that Almighty God commanded the fish, as He does us or the holy angels, uttering in its mind what is to be done, or inserting into the heart the knowledge of what He chooseth. But if He be said to command irrational animals or elements or any part of the creation, this signifieth the law and command of His will. For all things yield to His will, and the mode of their obedience is to us altogether ineffable, but known to Him.” “Jonah,” says Chrysostom, “fl

EXPOSITION JONAH 2:1 Part I. JONAH'S PRAYER AND DELIVERANCE. JONAH 2:1 1_. Jonah, in the belly of the fish, offers a prayer of thanksgiving for his rescue from death by drowning, in which he sees a pledge of further deliverance._ JONAH 2:1 THEN JONAH PRAYED. These were his feelings when he sank in the waters and while he lay in his mysterious prison; he may have put them into their metrical form after his deliverance. The grammatical arrangement, and especially the language of verse 7, seem to speak of a deliverance already experienced rather than of one

AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO THE FISH,.... Or gave orders to it; he that made it could command it; all creatures are the servants of God, and do his will; what he says is done; he so ordered it by his providence, that this fish should come near the shore, and be so wrought upon by his power, that it could not retain Jonah any longer in its belly. It may be rendered h, "then the Lord spake", c. after Jonah had finished his prayer, or put up those ejaculations, the substance of which is contained in the above narrative: AND IT VOMITED OUT JONAH UPON THE DRY [LAND] not upon the shore of the Red sea, as some; much less upon the shore of Nineveh, which was not built upon the seashore, but upon the river Tigris; and the fish must have carried him all round Africa, and part of Asia, to have brought him to the banks of the Tigris; which could not have been done in three days' time, nor in much great...

Jonah 2:1. _Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly._ What a strange place for prayer! Surely then is the only prayer that ever went up to God out of a fish's belly. Jonah found himself alive;-that was the surprising thing, that he was alive in the belly of a fish;-and because he was alive, he began to pray. It is such a wonder that some people here should continue to live that they ought to begin to pray. If you live with death so near, and in so great peril, and yet you do not pray, what is to become of you? This prayer of Jonah is very remarkable because it is not a prayer at all in the sense in which we usually apply the word to petition and supplication. If you read the prayer through, you will see that it is almost all thanksgiving; and the best prayer in all the world is a prayer that is full of thankfulness. We praise the Lord for what he has done for us,...

CHAPTER 2 Jonah's Prayer and Deliverance _ 1. The prayer (John 2:1) _ 2. The deliverance (John 2:10) John 2:1. Some expositors have called attention to the fact that the prayer is not one offered up for deliverance, but it is a thanksgiving for the accomplished deliverance. But this is answered by the opening verse of this chapter, in which we are told that he prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. When he found that he had escaped the death he anticipated and that the power of God kept him alive, he realized that the Lord his God would also deliver him; in faith he praised Jehovah for the coming deliverance. His prayer is composed almost entirely of sentences found in Psalms. We give the references.

AND, &C. Jonah's rapid thought and words before he died were subsequently written down by him; for all the verbs are in the past tense, not the present. Compare Jonah 2:6, "didst bring", &c. See notes on p. 1247....