Jonah 2:8

They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. THEY THAT OBSERVE LYING VANITIES - regard or reverence idols, powerless to save (). FORSAKE THEIR OWN MERCY - Yahweh, the very idea of whom is identified now in Jonah's mind with mercy and loving-kindness. As the Psalmist () calls Him, "my goodness;" God, who is to me all beneficence. Compare , "the God of my mercy" - literally, my kindness-God.' Jonah had "forsaken his own mercy," God, to flee to pagan lands where "lying vanities" (idols) were worshipped. But now, taught by his own preservation in conscious life in the fish's belly and by the inability of the mariners' idols to lull the storm ...

Here Jonah says first, that men miserably go astray, when they turn aside to vain superstitions, for they rob themselves of the chief good: for he calls whatever help or aid that is necessary for salvation, the mercy of men. The sense then is that as soon as men depart from God, they depart from life and salvation, and that nothing is retained by them, for they willfully cast aside whatever good that can be hoped and desired. Some elicit a contrary meaning, that the superstitious, when they return to a sound mind, relinquish their own reproach; for חסד, _chesad, _sometimes means reproach. They then think that the way of true penitence is here described, — that when God restores men from their straying to the right way, he gives them at the same time a sound mind, so that they rid themselves from all their vices. This is indeed true, but it is too strained a meaning. Others confine this t...

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 2:8. _THEY THAT OBSERVE LYING VANITIES_] They that trust in idols, follow _vain predictions_, permit themselves to be influenced with _foolish fears_, so as to induce them to _leave the path of_ _obvious duty, forsake their own mercy_. In leaving that God who is the _Fountain of mercy_, they abandon that _measure of mercy_ which he had treasured up for them....

THEY THAT OBSERVE LYING VANITIES - , i. e., (by the force of the Hebrew form , that diligently watch, pay deference to, court, sue, “vanities of vanities,” vain things, which prove themselves vain at last, failing the hopes which trust in them. Such were actual idols, in which men openly professed that they trusted Such are all things in which men trust, out of God. One is not more vain than another. All have this common principle of vanity, that people look, out of God, to that which has its only existence or permanence from God. It is then one general maxim, including all people’s idols, idols of the flesh, idols of intellect, idols of ambition, idols of pride, idols of self and self-will. People “observe” them, as gods, watch them, hang upon them, never lose sight of them, guard them as though they could keep them. But what are they? “lying vanities,” breath and wind, which none can g...

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

THEY THAT OBSERVE LYING VANITIES FORSAKE THEIR OWN MERCY. They that worship idols, who are nothing, mere vanity and lies, and deceive those that serve them, these forsake the God of their lives, and of their mercies; and so do all such who serve divers lusts and pleasures, and pursue the vanities of this life; and also those who follow the dictates of carnal sense and reason, to the neglect of the will of God, and obedience to his commands; which was Jonah's case, and is, I think, chiefly intended. The Targum, Syriac version, and so Jarchi, and most interpreters, understand it of worshippers of idols in general; and Kimchi of the mariners of the ship Jonah had been in; who promised to relinquish their idols, but did not; and vowed to serve the Lord, and sacrifice to him, but did not perform what they promised. But I rather think Jonah reflects upon himself in particular, as well as leave...

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....