Jonah 2 contains a wonderful prayer for deliverence. God has brought disobedient Jonah so low that the only place he could look was up. God did deliver Jonah, and used him to bring repentance to the wicked city of Niniveh.
Consider also the Messaianic implications of Jonah being in the “lower parts of the earth” for 3 days and nights. Jesus himself said that he would give the nation of Israel the “sign of the prophet Jonas” to validate his claim of being the Messiah.
It seems likely that this prayer was written by a reflective Jonah a long time after the fact. This is further confirmed by the fact that the author uses past tense to describe what happened, and that it uses quite a bit of praise language– something you wouldn’t expect from someone inside a fish. Nevertheless, because it says he prayed this from within the fish, I’m sure it reflects the sentiments that Jonah felt, as well as those he felt after being delivered from it.
As with all prayers in the Bible, this one is saturated with truth about God and His Salvation. I especially love the closing truth which sums up the whole prayer, indeed, even the whole Bible: “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying,
“I called out to the LORD, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O LORD my God.
When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the LORD,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the LORD!”
And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
Jonah 2
