Reading Jonah
A prayer from the deep
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.
Jonah prays from inside the fish. His prayer describes surrounding waters, weeds around his head and descent to the roots of the mountains. He addresses God as the one who heard his cry and brought his life up from the pit.
The prayer turns toward the holy temple and ends with thanksgiving, a vow to sacrifice and the declaration that salvation belongs to the Lord. The account also records the fish releasing Jonah onto land. Which words describe his distress, and which describe the response he attributes to God?
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