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 waves and your billows
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 at 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
Lexham English Bible
2 And Jonah prayed to Yahweh his God from the belly of the fish 2 and said,
“I called from my distress[a] to Yahweh,
and he answered me;
from the belly of Sheol[b] I cried for help—
you heard my voice.
3 And you threw me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the sea currents surrounded me;
all your breakers and your surging waves
passed over me.
4 And I said, ‘I am banished[c]
from your sight;
how[d] will I continue to look[e]
on your holy temple?’[f]
5 The waters encompassed me up to my neck;
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 I went down to the foundations of the mountains;
the Underworld—its bars were around me forever.
But you brought up my life from the pit,
Yahweh my God.
7 When my life was ebbing away from me,
I remembered Yahweh,
and my prayer came to you,
to your holy temple.[g]
8 Those who worship vain idols
forsake their loyal love.[h]
9 But I, with a voice of thanksgiving,
will sacrifice to you;
I will fulfill what I have vowed.
Deliverance[i] belongs to Yahweh!”
10 And Yahweh spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out on the dry land.
Footnotes
- Jonah 2:2 Literally “from distress for me”
- Jonah 2:2 “Sheol” is a Hebrew term for the place where the dead reside (i.e. the Underworld)
- Jonah 2:4 Or “expelled,” or “driven away”
- Jonah 2:4 Or “however, I will continue to look on your holy temple”
- Jonah 2:4 Literally “will I do again to look,” meaning “will I continue to look”
- Jonah 2:4 Literally “on the temple of your holiness”
- Jonah 2:7 Literally “to the temple of your holiness”
- Jonah 2:8 This could mean (1) they forsake the loyal love they should show to God or (2) they forfeit forsake the loyal love that God would have shown to them
- Jonah 2:9 Or “salvation”
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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