Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Jonah
Chapter 2: Salvation Is of the LORD
Jonah 2 is a prayer offered from the strangest of sanctuaries, the belly of a great fish, in the depths of the sea. Sinking under 'all thy billows and thy waves,' with 'the weeds wrapped about my head,' the runaway prophet at last turns his face back to God: 'I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.' From the place of death he is heard, and his soul rises in thanksgiving to the great truth the whole book exists to teach: 'Salvation is of the LORD.' The Lord Jesus made Jonah's three days in the fish a sign of His own three days in the heart of the earth, so that this dark deep becomes a picture of the tomb from which Christ, and all who are His, are brought up alive.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Jonah chapter 2, the prophet's prayer of distress and deliverance from the belly of the fish. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. This chapter is a prayer of a man brought to the bottom, and it points beyond itself to the death and resurrection of Christ. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
Out of the Belly of Hell
A cry from the very bottom, and God hears it.
I Will Look Again
A drowning man turns his face back to God.
Brought Up From Corruption
Three days in the deep, a sign of Christ's tomb.
Salvation Is of the LORD
The truth the whole book was written to teach.
Out of the Belly of Hell Cried I (Jonah 2:1-6)
From inside the fish, sinking to the roots of the mountains and cast out of God's sight, Jonah cries to the LORD and turns his face toward the holy temple, and God brings his life up from the pit of corruption.
Yet Will I Look Again Toward Thy Holy Temple
"Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God."
Hebrew Study
"out of the belly of hell cried I," sheol (שְׁאוֹל). Sheol is the realm of the dead, the grave, the pit. Jonah felt himself already in the jaws of death, "the belly of hell," and from that place he cried, "and thou heardest my voice." No place is too deep for God to hear a genuine cry, "if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there" (Psalm 139:8). This is the wonder of grace: even from the bottom, even from a self-inflicted ruin, a cry to the LORD is heard. And the language reaches beyond Jonah, for the Lord Jesus truly entered death's domain and was not left there, "thou wilt not leave my soul in hell" (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27).
"yet I will look again toward thy holy temple." Here is the hinge of the prayer, the little word "yet." Jonah has just said, "I am cast out of thy sight", he feels utterly rejected, and then faith answers despair: "yet I will look again toward thy holy temple." To look "toward" the temple was the posture of a praying Israelite turning to the place of God's presence and mercy (1 Kings 8:38-39; Daniel 6:10). Even sunk in the sea, Jonah turns his heart Godward. That "yet" is the turn of true faith, refusing to let feelings of rejection have the last word, but looking again to the God of mercy. Faith is often just this: when everything says "cast out," to look again to God.
Explanation
Jonah, who had run from God and gone "down" all through chapter 1, down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into the sea, now prays from the deepest "down" of all, "the fish's belly." His prayer looks back on the terror: God had "cast me into the deep," and "all thy billows and thy waves passed over me." He describes drowning with vivid horror, "the weeds were wrapped about my head," "I went down to the bottoms of the mountains," "the earth with her bars was about me for ever." It is the language of a man who has touched the very floor of death.
Yet the prayer is not despair but rescued faith. At his lowest, Jonah "cried... unto the LORD, and he heard me." Feeling "cast out of thy sight," he still turned, "yet I will look again toward thy holy temple." And the great reversal comes: "yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God." God reached into the pit and brought him "up." The whole movement of the prayer is from down to up, from the belly of hell to life restored, all of it the work of a God who hears a cry from the bottom.
Gospel Focus
This prayer is a gift to everyone who has ever hit bottom, especially by their own fault. Jonah's trouble was self-inflicted; he was fleeing God. Yet from "the belly of hell" he cried, and God heard. There is no pit so deep, no rebellion so far gone, that a genuine cry to the LORD cannot reach Him. "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD" (Psalm 130:1). If you have run from God and the waters have closed over your head, this chapter says: look again toward His mercy, cry from where you are, and He will hear.
And see the greater sign. Jonah's three days in the deep, brought "up... from corruption," were made by the Lord Jesus a sign of His own death and resurrection: "as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40). Jonah went into the deep to save the sailors from the storm his sin had caused; Christ went into death to save us from the storm our sin deserved. Jonah was brought up alive as a sign; Christ rose in truth, and because He was "brought up... from corruption," so shall all who are His. The dark deep becomes the empty tomb, and the cry from the bottom is answered by resurrection.
Salvation Is of the LORD (Jonah 2:7-10)
As his soul fainted Jonah remembered the LORD, renounced the emptiness of idols, and confessed the theme of the whole book, that salvation belongs to God alone, whereupon the fish delivers him onto dry land.
They That Observe Lying Vanities Forsake Their Own Mercy
"When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land."
Hebrew Study
"Salvation is of the LORD," yeshuah (יְשׁוּעָה). This is the summit of Jonah's prayer and the heart of the whole book. "Salvation" (yeshuah) belongs to the LORD; it comes from Him, is His to give, and is found nowhere else. The Hebrew word is the root of the name Jesus (Yeshua), "the LORD is salvation." Jonah, who did not want God to save Nineveh, learns in the deep that salvation is entirely God's, both his own rescue and Nineveh's. "Salvation belongeth unto the LORD" (Psalm 3:8); "neither is there salvation in any other" (Acts 4:12). The truth Jonah confessed in the fish is the truth the gospel proclaims: we cannot save ourselves; salvation is of the LORD, who came in the flesh as Jesus, the Saviour whose very name means "the LORD saves."
"They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy." "Lying vanities" are worthless idols, the empty things people trust instead of God (the same word describes idols as "vanity" throughout the Old Testament). To cling to them is to "forsake their own mercy", to turn away from the only true mercy there is, God Himself. Every false hope we grip, money, self, superstition, idols of any kind, is a letting-go of the real mercy held out to us in God. Jonah had learned this the hard way; in the deep he let go of his own running and took hold of God. To forsake the vanities is to find the mercy.
Explanation
The prayer rises to its confession. "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD", at the point of collapse, memory of God returned, "and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple." Jonah then draws a lesson from his folly: "They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy." Those who chase empty idols abandon the only true mercy. Jonah himself had, in a sense, been chasing a vanity, his own will over God's, and had nearly forsaken God's mercy.
So he turns wholly to God: "I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed." And then the crowning word, the theme of the book: "Salvation is of the LORD." The moment that confession is made, the deliverance comes: "the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." God, who commanded the storm and the fish, now commands the prophet back to solid ground and a second chance. The one who learned that salvation is the LORD's is set again on dry land to do the LORD's will.
Gospel Focus
"Salvation is of the LORD" is the gospel in four words, and it is fitting that the reluctant prophet had to learn it in the belly of a fish. We cannot save ourselves, cannot climb out of our own deep, cannot earn our rescue; salvation is God's from first to last, "by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). The very name of the Saviour proclaims it: Jesus, Yeshua, "the LORD is salvation." The God to whom Jonah cried is the God who came to save us in the flesh of Jesus Christ, in whom alone "is there salvation."
And "they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy" is a searching word for us. Every idol we cling to, every empty hope we trust instead of God, is a letting-go of the mercy held out to us. The tragedy is not only that idols fail, but that clinging to them we push away the very mercy that would save us. Let go of the vanities. Turn, as Jonah turned in the deep, and take hold of the God whose salvation is real and free. He hears the cry from the bottom, He brings life up from corruption, and He sets the rescued on dry land, for salvation is of the LORD.
Chapter 2 in Review
Jonah 2 is a prayer from the bottom. From "the fish's belly," sunk beneath "all thy billows and thy waves," with "the weeds wrapped about my head," the runaway prophet cries, "out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice." Feeling "cast out of thy sight," faith answers with a "yet": "yet I will look again toward thy holy temple." God brings his "life up from corruption," and Jonah's soul rises to the confession that is the theme of the whole book: "Salvation is of the LORD." At that word the fish delivers him onto dry land, and the disobedient prophet is given a second chance.
For the Apostolic reader this chapter preaches grace to the fallen and points straight to Christ. It shows that no pit is too deep for God to hear a genuine cry, even a self-inflicted one, and that faith is often simply looking again to God when everything says "cast out." It teaches that salvation is entirely the LORD's, the very truth wrapped up in the name of Jesus, and that clinging to idols is forsaking the only mercy there is. And above all, in Jonah's three days in the deep and his being "brought up... from corruption," the Lord Jesus gave us the sign of His own death and resurrection. The cry from the belly of hell is answered by the empty tomb, and the last word over all who are in Christ is not the deep but dry land, not corruption but life.
- No pit is too deep for God to hear a genuine cry: "out of the belly of hell cried I" (2:2; Psalm 130:1).
- Faith answers despair with a "yet": "yet I will look again toward thy holy temple" (2:4).
- Jonah's three days in the deep are Christ's sign of death and resurrection (2:6; Matthew 12:40).
- Chasing idols means forsaking "their own mercy," the only true mercy, God Himself (2:8).
- "Salvation is of the LORD": the gospel in four words, and the meaning of the name Jesus (2:9; Ephesians 2:8).
- The God who hears the cry from the bottom sets the rescued back on dry land for His service (2:10).
Questions for Reflection
- Have you cried to God from your own "deep," and found that He hears?
- When you feel "cast out," can you answer with faith's "yet" and look again to God?
- What "lying vanities" are you tempted to trust instead of God's mercy?
- Do you rest in the truth that "salvation is of the LORD," not of yourself?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). Key terms: sheol ("hell," the grave, verse 2); yeshuah ("salvation," verse 9), the root of the name Jesus (Yeshua, "the LORD is salvation"). Crying to God from the depths: Psalm 18:4-6; 42:7; 69:1-2, 14-15; 130:1-2; Lamentations 3:55-57. Looking toward God's temple in prayer: 1 Kings 8:38-48; Daniel 6:10; Psalm 5:7. The sign of Jonah, Christ's death and resurrection: Matthew 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 11:29-30; and "thou wilt not leave my soul in hell," Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27, 31. Salvation belonging to God alone: Psalm 3:8; 37:39; Isaiah 45:22; Jonah 2:9; Acts 4:12; Ephesians 2:8-9; Revelation 7:10. Idols as "lying vanities": Deuteronomy 32:21; Psalm 31:6; Jeremiah 10:14-15; 16:19; Acts 14:15. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The cry from the belly of hell, faith's "yet," and life brought up from corruption: Jonah 2:1-6; Psalm 130:1; Matthew 12:40.
- Forsaking idols, and the great confession "Salvation is of the LORD": Jonah 2:7-10; Acts 4:12; Ephesians 2:8.