Jonah 2
English Standard Version
Jonah's Prayer
2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
(A)“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
(B)out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
(C)and you heard my voice.
3 (D)For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
(E)all your breakers and your waves
passed over me.
4 (F)Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
(G)yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
5 (H)The waters closed in over me (I)to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I went down,
to the land whose bars closed upon me forever.
Yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord my God.
7 When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
(J)and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
8 (K)Those who pay regard to vain idols
(L)forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 (M)But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
(N)Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
Jonah 2
1599 Geneva Bible
2 1 Jonah is in the fish’s belly. 2 His prayer. 10 He is delivered.
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God [a]out of the fish’s belly,
2 And said, I cried in mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me: out of the belly [b]of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
3 For thou hadst cast me into the bottom in the midst of the sea, and the floods compassed me about: all thy surges, and all thy waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am [c]cast away out of thy sight: yet will I look again toward thine holy Temple.
5 The waters compassed me about unto the soul: the depth closed me round about, and the weeds were wrapped about mine head.
6 I went down to the bottom of the mountains: the earth with her bars was about me forever, yet hast thou brought up my [d]life from the pit, O Lord my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came unto thee into thine holy Temple.
8 They that wait upon lying [e]vanities, forsake their own [f]mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving, and will pay that that I have vowed: salvation is of the Lord.
10 And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it cast out Jonah upon the dry land.
Footnotes
- Jonah 2:1 Being now swallowed up of death, and seeing no remedy to escape, his faith brast out unto the Lord, knowing that out of the very hell he was able to deliver him.
- Jonah 2:2 For he was now in the fish’s belly as in a grave or place of darkness.
- Jonah 2:4 This declared what his prayer was, and how he labored between hope and despair, considering the neglect of his vocation, and God’s judgments for the same: but yet in the end faith got the victory.
- Jonah 2:6 Thou hast delivered me from the belly of the fish and all these dangers, as it were raising me from death to life.
- Jonah 2:8 They that depend upon anything save on God alone.
- Jonah 2:8 They refuse their own felicity, and that goodness which they should else receive of God.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
