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Jonah’s Prayer

[a]Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. He said,

“I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble,
    and he answered me.
I called to you from the land of the dead,[b]
    and Lord, you heard me!
You threw me into the ocean depths,
    and I sank down to the heart of the sea.
The mighty waters engulfed me;
    I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.
Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence.
    Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’

“I sank beneath the waves,
    and the waters closed over me.
    Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.
I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.
    I was imprisoned in the earth,
    whose gates lock shut forever.
But you, O Lord my God,
    snatched me from the jaws of death!
As my life was slipping away,
    I remembered the Lord.
And my earnest prayer went out to you
    in your holy Temple.
Those who worship false gods
    turn their backs on all God’s mercies.
But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise,
    and I will fulfill all my vows.
    For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.”

10 Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.

Footnotes

  1. 2:1 Verses 2:1-10 are numbered 2:2-11 in Hebrew text.
  2. 2:2 Hebrew from Sheol.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly,

And said, I cried out of my distress to the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of Sheol cried I, and You heard my voice.(A)

For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your waves and Your billows passed over me.(B)

Then I said, I have been cast out of Your presence and Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.(C)

The waters compassed me about, even to [the extinction of] life; the abyss surrounded me, the seaweed was wrapped about my head.(D)

I went down to the bottoms and the very roots of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever. Yet You have brought up my life from the pit and corruption, O Lord my God.

When my soul fainted upon me [crushing me], I earnestly and seriously remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple.

Those who pay regard to false, useless, and worthless idols forsake their own [Source of] mercy and loving-kindness.

But as for me, I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation and deliverance belong to the Lord!

10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.