JONAH 2

1 From inside the fish[1] Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.

Note that despite everything that has happened no matter what the relationship between Jonah and God, he remains “his” God.

The following prayer is made up from a lot of different prayers found in the Psalms. These are shown as footnotes.

Do you find it useful using set prayers?

Do you find that you incorporate the words of biblical prayers in your own prayers?

2 He said:

“In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.[2]
From the depths of the grave[3] I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.[4]
3 You hurled me into the deep,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.[5]

Jonah recognises that God hurled him into the deep, this was not just chance, it wasn’t just that it was a bad day to be in a boat. We find similar descriptions of God’s involvement in the things that happen in Job.1:21; 2:10 and 2 Sa.16:5-11.

Why do bad things happen? Is it always God? Always chance? A combination of the two?

4 I said, ‘I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’[6]

Jonah is not saying that God can literately not see him now, but that he no longer views him positively. Its interesting that Jonah says he will look again to the Holy Temple, this is the direction which prayers where said in, and a place that Jonah had turned his back on. The statement that he wants to look on this temple again is a statement that he wants to be part of God’s community again and wants to stop running.

5 The engulfing waters threatened me,[7]
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.[8]
6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you brought my life up from the pit,
O Lord my God.

The phrase “the earth beneath barred me in forever” may be a play on the earth as the home of the living, and Jonah facing death.

“But you brought my life up from the pit” Heizekiah adopts these words in Isa 38.17, as Jonah adopted the words of the psalms.


7 “When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.[9]

Do we remember God more when things are going well or when things are going badly?

Here we see that Jonah prays to “your holy temple” again, and in so doing he is praying again in the direction that he had turned is back on.

8 “Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace that could be theirs.[10]

Jonah had fled from the Land of God, in the direction of a land populated by heathens, in a boat full of heathen sailors (who showed there character to be somewhat better than Jonahs!) Jonah is now saying how worthless the idols that people like the sailors cling to, and in this he is acknowledging that they he had been putting himself in the hands of people who did not have God’s grace. He may also be making a reference to Nineveh here, in saying that God’s grace could be there’s if only they will turn to God. In part it feels like Jonah is trying to put some distance between himself and the mistake he made by saying that he no longer wants these things!

Do you find that when you come before God you find yourself saying “At least I am not like them?”. How do you think God see such prayers?

9 But I, with a song of thanksgiving,
will sacrifice to you.[11]
What I have vowed I will make good.
Salvation comes from the Lord.”


Do you think that Jonah is thanking God for saving him in advance of it happening? Or is he just generally giving him thanks?

There is a biblical precedent for praising God before he saves us on the assumption that he will see 2Ch. 20:21.


10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Within the order of this pray we see him being saved just after he has thanked God for saving him!

Do you think this is significant? What if any influence should this have on the way we pray?

[1] The Hebrew is a little uncertain here, it could be translated as “when (delivered) out of the fishes belly”
[2] Psa.120:1
[3] Hebrew Sheol
[4] Psa. 30:3-4
[5] Psa.42:71
[6] Psa.31:22
[7] Or waters were at my throat
[8] Psa.69: 1
[9] Psa.142: 3; 18:6
[10] Psa.31:6
[11] Psa.116:17, 18 and 3:8