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| Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish |
Below are verses from Sefer Jonah, chapter 2.
I have spent many meditative moments in the Book of Jonah. In a sense, I have put myself in Jonah's shoes. I have been in the fish. Below are the verses from Jonah when he was in the gadol dawg (the great fish):
Jonah 2 NIV
“In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
and you listened to my cry.
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
brought my life up from the pit.
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
turn away from God’s love for them.
9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
Jonah Prays Psalms In the Fish
Jonah’s prayer in Jonah 2 is deliberately “psalm‑shaped”: almost every line echoes language, theology, and imagery from the Psalms of lament and thanksgiving, as if Jonah is praying from inside the Psalter.
Verse‑by‑verse Links
- Jonah 2:2 – “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me… from deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”
This matches the laments where the psalmist cries out from “distress,” “Sheol,” and “the depths,” and God hears from his temple: see Psalm 18:4–6; 116:3–4; 120:1; 130:1–2.[1][2][3]
Example: “In my distress I called upon the Lord… from his temple he heard my voice” (Psalm 18:6), and “The cords of death encompassed me… then I called on the name of the Lord” (Psalm 116:3–4).[1][2]
- Jonah 2:3 – “You hurled me into the depths… all your waves and breakers swept over me.”
This closely echoes Psalm 42:7, “all your breakers and your waves have gone over me,” and similar sea‑judgment imagery in Psalm 69:1–2, 14–15.[3][4]
- Jonah 2:4 – “I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.”
Parallels the sense of being cut off from God and yet looking toward his sanctuary: Psalm 31:22 (“I am cut off from before your eyes”) and many prayers focused on the temple as the place of heard prayer (e.g., Psalm 18:6; 28:2).[2][3]
- Jonah 2:5–6a – “The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me… To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever.”
Water as chaos, threat, and near‑death is classic lament language: Psalm 69:1–2, 14–15 (“I sink in deep mire… let not the deep swallow me up”); Psalm 88:6–7 (“you have put me in the depths of the pit… your waves have overwhelmed me”).[5][2][3]
- Jonah 2:6b–7 – “But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit… my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.”
“Pit” and “Sheol” language, with God lifting up the life of the suppliant, echoes Psalms like 30:3, 40:1–2, and again 18:4–6.[1][2] Jonah’s “my prayer came to you, into your holy temple” is almost a prose paraphrase of Psalm 18:6.[2]
- Jonah 2:8 – “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.”
This line resonates with anti‑idolatry statements and contrasts between idol‑worshipers and those who trust the Lord: e.g., Psalms 31:6; 115:4–11; 16:4.[2][3]
- Jonah 2:9 – “But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you… Salvation comes from the Lord.”
The vow‑paying, sacrificial thanksgiving, and doxology are thoroughly psalmic: compare Psalm 3:8 “Salvation belongs to the Lord,” and the frequent “I will offer sacrifices… I will pay my vows” (Psalms 50:14–15; 66:13–14; 116:17–18).[2][3] One study notes explicitly that Jonah 2:9 stands in verbal parallel to Psalm 3:8.[2]
Overall pattern with the Psalter
Scholars have laid out Jonah 2 side‑by‑side with many psalms and shown sustained allusion: Jonah 2 uses phrases and motifs found in Psalms 3, 18, 30–31, 42, 69, 88, 120, 130, and others.[1][6][3][7] It is not usually a verbatim quotation but a dense mosaic, the way a worshiper steeped in Israel’s songbook would naturally pray.
Several implications of this pattern are often highlighted:
- Jonah’s prayer is structurally a thanksgiving psalm (like Psalm 30 or 116): it moves from distress, to cry, to deliverance, to vowed praise.[2][3]
- By praying in the language of the Psalms, Jonah places his personal crisis inside Israel’s larger story of crying from the depths and being heard.[1][8][9]
- Some interpreters argue that the heavy use of psalm‑language may even expose Jonah’s heart: he can “pray like David,” yet the narrative will show his compassion does not match the psalms’ concern for all nations turning to the Lord.[10][2][11]
Read Jonah 2 alongside Psalms 18, 42, 69, 88, 116, and 130; the repeated vocabulary of depths, Sheol, waves, temple, vows, and “salvation belongs to the Lord” makes the interconnection unmistakable.[1][2][3]
Citations:
[1] Psalms in Jonah 2 – PeterGoeman.com https://petergoeman.com/psalms-jonah-2/
[2] 2. The Psalm of the Prodigal Prophet (Jonah 2:1-10) - Bible.org https://bible.org/seriespage/psalm-prodigal-prophet-jonah-21-10
[3] Jonah's prayer (2) https://sb.rfpa.org/jonahs-prayer-2/
[4] Jonah 2:3 | Psalm 42:7 https://intertextual.bible/text/jonah-2.3-psalms-42.7
[5] Jonah and the Psalm | Christianity 201 - WordPress.com https://christianity201.wordpress.com/2020/04/19/jonah-and-the-psalm/
[6] Jonah 2 - Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible - StudyLight.org https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/bcc/jonah-2.html
[7] Jonah's prayer life and the Psalms | - Communion Church https://communionchurch.org/2021/04/26/jonahs-prayer-life-and-the-psalms/
[8] Patterns of Allusive Poetry in Jonah's Psalm: Intertexts ... https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/sblpress/jbl/article/144/1/85/399524/Patterns-of-Allusive-Poetry-in-Jonah-s-Psalm
[9] recursion and variation in the "prophecy" of https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2342&context=auss
[10] An Evidence of Repentance or Hypocrisy: Why Does Jonah 2 Cite ... https://davidschrock.com/2018/04/03/an-evidence-of-repentance-or-hypocrisy-why-does-jonah-2-cite-so-many-psalms/
[11] Jonah and the Art of Being Broken - The Gospel Coalition https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/jonah-art-of-being-broken/
[12] Jonah 2 NRSVA - A Psalm of Thanksgiving - Bible Gateway https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jonah+2&version=NRSVA
[13] Jonah 2 Parallel Chapters - Bible Hub https://biblehub.com/nas-esv/jonah/2.htm
[14] A Prayer Inside A Whale - Jonah 2 (Prayers Of The Bible) https://derekcharlesjohnson.com/blogs/latest-news/posts/5608670/a-prayer-inside-a-whale-jonah-2-prayers-of-the-bible
[15] Jonah's Prayer - She Reads Truth https://shereadstruth.com/jonahs-prayer-2/
