Jonah 2:5

The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. THE WATERS COMPASSED ME ABOUT, EVEN TO THE SOUL - i:e., threatening to extinguish the animal life. THE WEEDS WERE WRAPPED ABOUT MY HEAD - he felt as if the seaweeds through which he was dragged were wrapped about his head. Or, rather, Jonah was not swallowed at once, but sank to the bottom of the sea, God keeping him alive there, as he did subsequently in the fish's belly. Then it was that the seaweed was wrapped round his head, as though it were his grave napkin....

Here in many words Jonah relates how many things had happened to him, which were calculated to overwhelm his mind with terror and to drive him far from God, and to take away every desire for prayer. But we must ever bear in mind what we have already stated, — that he had to do with God: and this ought to be well considered by us. The case was the same with David, when he says in Psalms 39:9, ‘Thou hast yet done it;’ for, after having complained of his enemies, he turned his mind to God: “What then do I? what do I gain by these complaints? for men alone do not vex me; thou, God, he says, hast done this.” So it was with Jonah; he ever set before him the wrath of God, for he knew that such a calamity had not happened to him but on account of his sins. He therefore says that _he was by waters beset, _and then, that he was _surrounded by the deep; _but at length he adds, that God _made his li...

1-9 Observe when Jonah prayed. When he was in trouble, under the tokens of God's displeasure against him for sin: when we are in affliction we must pray. Being kept alive by miracle, he prayed. A sense of God's good-will to us, notwithstanding our offences, opens the lips in prayer, which were closed with the dread of wrath. Also, where he prayed; in the belly of the fish. No place is amiss for prayer. Men may shut us from communion with one another, but not from communion with God. To whom he prayed; to the Lord his God. This encourages even backsliders to return. What his prayer was. This seems to relate his experience and reflections, then and afterwards, rather than to be the form or substance of his prayer. Jonah reflects on the earnestness of his prayer, and God's readiness to hear and answer. If we would get good by our troubles, we must notice the hand of God in them. He had wic...

Verse Jonah 2:5. _THE WATERS COMPASSED ME ABOUT_ EVEN _TO THE SOUL_] So as to seem to deprive me of life. I had no hope left. _THE WEEDS WERE WRAPPED ABOUT MY HEAD._] This may be understood literally also. He found himself in the fish's stomach, together with _sea weeds_, and such like marine substances, which the fish had taken for its aliment....

THE WATERS COMPASSED ME ABOUT EVEN TO THE SOUL - Words which to others were figures of distress (Psalms 69:2. See the introduction to Jonah), “the waters have come even to the soul,” were to Jonah realities. Sunk in the deep seas, the water strove to penetrate at every opening. To draw breath, which sustains life, to him would have been death. There was but a breath between him and death. “The deep encompassed me,” encircling, meeting him wherever he turned, holding him imprisoned on every side, so that there was no escape, and, if there otherwise had been, he was bound motionless, “the weed was wrapped around my head, like a grave-band.” “The weed” was the well known seaweed, which, even near the surface of the sea where man can struggle, twines round him, a peril even to the strong swimmer, entangling him often the more, the more he struggles to extricate himself

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

THE WATERS COMPASSED ME ABOUT, [EVEN] TO THE SOUL,.... Either when he was first cast into the sea, which almost suffocated him, and just ready to take away his life, could not breathe for them, as is the case of a man drowning; or these were the waters the fish drew into its belly, in such large quantities, that they compassed him about, even to the endangering of his life there. So the Targum, "the waters surrounded me unto death.'' In this Jonah was a type of Christ in his afflictions and sorrows, which were so many and heavy, that he is said to be "exceeding sorrowful", or surrounded with sorrow, "even unto death", Matthew 26:38; see also Psalms 69:1; THE DEPTH CLOSED ME ROUND ABOUT; the great deep, the waters of the sea, both when he fell into it, and while i

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.

THANKSGIVING FOR DELIVERANCE. This psalm is a thanksgiving for deliverance from peril, and therefore, if spoken by Jonah, should have followed Jonah 2:10. The description, however, is quite unsuitable to Jonah's condition; it is that of a man who has been in imminent danger of drowning but has been rescued. Yahweh answered him when he called in distress from the belly of Sheol. Yahweh had flung him into the depth, he was submerged by His billows. He thought himself banished from God's presence, never to behold His holy Temple. The seaweed formed a turban for his head, he sank to the roots of the mountains, yet Yahweh has brought him back from the pit. When his life seemed ebbing away, he remembered Yahweh, and his prayer reached Him in the Temple. Worshippers of idols forsake their refuge, but he will offer sacrifice to Yahweh with thanksgiving, and pay what he had vowed in his peril....