Jonah 1:17–2:10 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, the sailors “took up Jonah and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging” (Jonah 1:15).
Right after that, the passage tells in a single sentence what became of Jonah: “The LORD prepared a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17).
This lesson reads the prayer Jonah prayed inside the fish.
1Then Jonah prayed to the LORD, his God, out of the fish’s belly.
2He said, “I called because of my affliction to the LORD. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice.
3For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me.
4I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
5The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head.
6I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever; yet you have brought my life up from the pit, LORD my God.
7“When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD. My prayer came in to you, into your holy temple.
8Those who regard vain idols forsake their own mercy.
9But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the LORD.”
10Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.
Out of the fish’s belly. “Then Jonah prayed to the LORD, his God, out of the fish’s belly” (v. 1). In the last lesson, the ship master told him, “Arise, call on your God!” (Jonah 1:6), and the passage did not record him praying. In this lesson, inside the fish, he prays.
The belly of Sheol. His first words are: “I called because of my affliction to the LORD. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice” (v. 2).
The flood was all around me. He describes where he is: “For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me” (v. 3); “The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head” (v. 5); “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever” (v. 6). In Lesson 1 the passage said he “went down to Joppa” (Jonah 1:3) and “had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship” (Jonah 1:5); here he says, “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains” (v. 6).
Toward your holy temple. In the deepest place, he says: “I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple” (v. 4). Later he says: “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD. My prayer came in to you, into your holy temple” (v. 7).
Up from the pit. Straight after “The earth barred me in forever” comes “yet you have brought my life up from the pit, LORD my God” (v. 6). When he says this, he is still inside the fish.
Salvation belongs to the LORD. Near the end of the prayer he says, “But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed” (v. 9). The last line is: “Salvation belongs to the LORD” (v. 9).
On the dry land. “Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land” (v. 10). On the ship, Jonah had said the LORD is the God “who has made the sea and the dry land” (Jonah 1:9); in this lesson, he is back on the dry land.
A good deal of Jonah’s prayer inside the fish uses words Israel also prayed in the Psalms:
- “All your waves and your billows have swept over me” (Ps 42:7) is almost the same line as Jonah’s “All your waves and your billows passed over me” (v. 3).
- “In my distress, I cried to the LORD. He answered me” (Ps 120:1) is very close to Jonah’s first words (v. 2).
- “Salvation belongs to the LORD” (Ps 3:8) — the very same words as Jonah’s last line (v. 9).
Readers can see this: inside the fish, Jonah prayed with words Israel often used when they prayed.
Perhaps you are in a very deep place right now: the flood all around, every door seemingly shut, and you hardly know where to begin to pray.
This lesson does not say that if you pray you will be out of there at once. What it shows you is this: Jonah spoke to the LORD from inside the fish; many of the words he used were already there in the Psalms; and while he was still inside the fish he said, “yet you have brought my life up from the pit” (v. 6). A psalm prays the same way: “Out of the depths I have cried to you, LORD” (Ps 130:1).
This week: From Jonah’s prayer (vv. 2–9), choose the one line that sounds most like where you are now, and copy it out. This week, begin your prayer with that line each day.
The passage says: “The LORD prepared a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17).
When some asked Jesus for a sign, he said: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet” (Matt 12:39). And he went on: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt 12:40).
These two are read side by side: Jonah inside the fish, and the ‘three days and three nights’ Jesus himself spoke of (Matt 12:40).
Scripture: World English Bible.