Jonah 2:6

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. I WENT DOWN TO THE BOTTOMS OF THE MOUNTAINS - their extremities, where they terminate in the hidden depths of the sea. Compare , "the foundations of the hills;" , "the foundations of the world." THE EARTH WITH HER BARS WAS ABOUT ME - the earth, the land of the living, was shut against me. The bars are the long submarine rocks, which were, as it were, his prison bars. FOREVER - so far as any effort of mine can deliver me. YET HAST THOU BROUGHT UP MY LIFE FROM CORRUPTION. As in the previous clauses he expresses the hopelessness of his state, so in this, h...

According to the same sense he says, _I descended to the roots of the mountains. _But he speaks of promontories, which were nigh the sea; as though he had said, that he was not cast into the midst of the sea, but that he had so sunk as to be fixed in the deep under the roots of mountains. All these things have the same designs which was to show that no deliverance could be hoped for, except God stretched forth his hand from heaven, and indeed in a manner new and incredible. He says that _the earth with its bars was around him. _He means by this kind of speaking, that he was so shut up, as if the whole earth had been like a door. We know what sort of bars are those of the earth, when we ascribe bars to it: for when any door is fastened with bolts, we know how small a portion it is. But when we suppose the earth itself to be like a door, what kind of things must the bolts be? It is the sam...

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...

VerseJonah 2:6. _I WENT DOWN TO THE BOTTOMS OF THE MOUNTAINS_] This also may be literally understood. The fish followed the slanting base of the mountains, till they terminated in a plain at the bottom of the great deep. _THE EARTH WITH HER BARS_] He represents himself as a prisoner in a dungeon, closed in with _bars_ which he could not remove, and which at first appeared to _be for ever_, i.e., the place where his life must terminate. _YET HAST THOU BROUGHT UP MY LIFE_] The substance of this poetic prayer was composed while in the fish's belly; but afterwards the prophet appears to have thrown it into its present poetic form, and to have added some circumstances, such as that before us; for he now speaks of his deliverance from this imminent danger of death. "Thou hast brought up my life from corruption....

I WENT DOWN TO THE BOTTOMS, (LITERALLY “THE CUTTINGS OFF”) OF THE MOUNTAINS - , the “roots” as the Chaldee and we call them, the hidden rocks, which the mountains push out, as it were, into the sea, and in which they end. Such hidden rocks extend along the whole length of that coast. These were his dungeon walls; “the earth, her bars,” those long submarine reefs of rock, his prison bars, “were around” him “forever:” the seaweeds were his chains: and, even thus, when things were at their uttermost, “Thou hast brought up my life from corruption,” to which his body would have fallen a prey, had not God sent the fish to deliver him. The deliverance for which be thanks God is altogether past: “Thou broughtest me up.” He calls “the” Lord, “my” God, because, being the God of all, He was especially his God, for whom He had done things of such marvelous love. God loves each soul which He has made...

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

I WENT DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE MOUNTAINS,.... Which are in the midst of the sea, whither the fish carried him, and where the waters are deep; or the bottom of rocks and promontories on the shore of the sea; and such vast rocks hanging over the sea, whose bottoms were in it, it seems are on the shore of Joppa, near to which Jonah was cast into the sea, as Egesippus f relates: THE EARTH WITH HER BARS [WAS] ABOUT ME FOR EVER; that is, the earth with its cliffs and rocks on the seashore, which are as bars to the sea, that it cannot overflow it; these were such bars to Jonah, that could he have got clear of the fish's belly, and attempted to swim to shore, he could never get to it, or over these bars, the rocks and cliffs, which were so steep and high: YET HAST THOU BROUGHT UP MY LIFE FROM CORRUPTION, O LORD MY GOD; notwithstanding these difficulties, which were insuperable by human power...

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....