Jonah 2:7

When my soul fainted within me,.... Covered with grief; overwhelmed with sorrow; ready to faint and sink at the sight of his sins; and under a sense of the wrath and displeasure of God, and being

When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

When, so soon as, and so often as, my soul fainted within me, my heart was perplexed with variety of fears, sorrows, temptations, and difficulties; whenever I did forecast, and devise what way I might likely escape out of this forlorn condition, I was dispirited, my heart sunk within me, 42:4; and I had fainted if I had not remembered the mighty, faithful, wise, and gracious God, who could save me, and on whose mercy I relied, who had promised the best of two deliverances, the eternal, whatever he did with me as to the temporal deliverance. I remembered the Lord, with faith and prayer, for it is not a bare recalling of God to his mind, but a recalling his mercy and promise to his mind. And my prayer, made in the fish’ s belly, in his prison more dismal than ever was that of Manasseh, came in unto thee; did enter the ears of the Lord, he heard and readily answered. Into thine holy temple; typically the temple at Jerusalem, to which Jonah looked; but principally heaven, the temple of his glory, whence God gives the command for his delivery, orders the gaoler to set him safe on shore.

Jonah 2:7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.Ver. 7. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord] And could say, as the Church in Isaiah 63:16, when at lowest, "Doubtless thou art our father, our redeemer, thy name is from everlasting." As there is in the creatures an instinct of nature to do after their kind; so there. is of grace in the saints to run to God. "Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early," Isaiah 26:8-9. "O Lord," saith Habakkuk, Habakkuk 1:12, "art not thou from everlasting my God, and mine Holy One?" It was a bold question, but God approves and assents to it in a gracious answer ere they went farther: "We shall not die" (say they abruptly), "O Lord, thou hast ordained them" (the Chaldeans) "for judgment"; but us only for chastisement. Here was the triumph of their faith, and this was that which held up Jonah’ s hope, though with wonderful difficulty, held head above water. He remembered "the years of the right hand of the Most High," Psalms 77:10; he called to mind his songs in the night season, Jonah 2:6, his former experience, a just ground of his present confidence. He remembered the Lord, his power and goodness, those two pillars, the Jachin and the Boaz, that support faith; and this fetched him again when ready to faint. "I had even fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living," Psalms 27:13. And my prayer came in unto thee] q.d. Though I was so faint I could scarcely utter a prayer, yet thou hearkenedst and heardest, as Malachi 3:16; thou madest hard shift to hear (as I may say); thine ears were in my prayers, as St Peter hath it, 1 Peter 3:12; thou feltest my breathing, when no voice could be heard, Lamentations 3:56; thou heldest not "thy peace at my tears," Psalms 39:12, quando fletu agerem non afflatu; yea, thou heardest the voice of mine affliction, Genesis 16:11. Into thine holy temple] Whether we take it to be the temple at Jerusalem (a type of Christ), Jonah’ s prayer was accepted for Christ’ s sake; and proved to no less purpose, though made in the whale’ s belly, than if he had been pouring it out in God’ s holy temple.

(7) Fainted.—Literally, covered itself. Comp. Jonah 4:8. (See Psalms 61:2; Psalms 142:3; Psalms 143:4, where the same Hebrew word is rendered overwhelmed. Comp. Psalms 107:5.) Here, apparently, we are to think of the blinding mist of death slowly stealing over sight and sense. Into thine holy temple.—See Jonah 2:4, and comp. Psalms 18:6.

Verse 7. When my soul fainted] When I had given up all hope of life. My prayer came in unto thee] Here prayer is personified, and is represented as a messenger going from the distressed, and entering into the temple of God, and standing before him. This is a very fine and delicate image. This clause is one of those which I suppose the prophet to have added when he penned this prayer.

7. fainted] Lit., covered itself; with reference to the film and darkness that comes over eye and mind in fainting and exhaustion. Comp. Psalms 142:3; Psalms 107:5, where the same Heb. word occurs. thine holy temple] at Jerusalem, as in Jonah 2:4.

When my sold fainted - , literally “was covered, within me,” was dizzied, overwhelmed. The word is used of actual faintness from heat, Jonah 4:8. thirst, Amos 8:13. exhaustion, Isaiah 51:20.

6. The bottoms of the mountains — Literally, the cuttings off; the extreme ends. The mountains are thought of as extending their roots to the bottom of the sea (Psalms 18:5).