Jonah 2

“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God.” Jonah 2:1

Virtually this whole chapter relates a prayer offered by Jonah as he was inside the big fish. Boice says, “In the water and then in the great fish, he learned what hell was like, and it was there at the nadir of this misery that he repented and turned to God again…Thomas John Carlisle wrote, ‘I was so obsessed with what was going on inside the whale that I missed seeing the drama inside Jonah.’” [1]

We cannot even imagine what it was like to be thrown overboard and to be swallowed by a large sea creature. I suppose that the very first prayer Jonah prayed was a sincere thanksgiving that he was somehow still alive. No doubt he thought he was drowning in all this action. He might have been partially unconscious or insensible. He likely prayed the words of Psalm 139:18, “…when I awake, I am still with you.” If the big fish were a shark, Jonah had escaped the razor-sharp teeth. Whether shark or whale, both were magnificent killing and meat-processing machines. Jonah must have been in extreme discomfort even as he cried out to God.

Many writers have long doubted that the fish was a whale. They have testified that a whale has too small a mouth to swallow a man. Boice says that a sperm whale might have a mouth 20 feet long, 15 feet high, and 9 feet wide. That would mean that the mouth would be larger than most rooms in an average-sized house. The food of choice for a sperm whale would largely be squid, and these are often much larger than a man. [2] Can we imagine what it was like to be sliding down the fish’s throat, covered with squid, and maybe an octopus or two? What a tangled, slimy mess!

“He said: ‘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’” (2:2). There is just no impossible problem that is too difficult for God. British Bible scholar, Donald Guthrie, comments: “What Jonah endured ‘figuratively (Heb. 11:19 – a similar figure of death) Jesus endured in reality…As Jonah cried, ‘I am cast out from your presence; (v. 4),’ so Christ was constrained to cry, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ (Mt. 27:46).” [3]

Several commentators have noted that Jonah was a man saturated with the scriptures, particularly the Psalms. The prophet was not provided with a Bible scroll, a table, a chair, and a candle so he could read inside the fish. Instead, he was in the process of being digested with gastric juices splashing upon his body and inside temperatures probably close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. He illustrates for us how important it is for us to have the word of God hidden in our hearts.

James Burton Coffman, Churches of Christ theologian and commentator, lists some of the Psalms that the prophet may have been referring to:

Jonah 2:3 b Psalms 18:7; Psalms 120:1

Jonah 2:4 b Psalms 18:6; Psalms 30:4

Jonah 2:5 Psalms 42:8

Jonah 2:6 Psalms 31:23; Psalms 5:8

Jonah 2:7 Psalms 18:8; Psalms 69:2

Jonah 2:8 Psalms 18:17; Psalms 30:4; Psalms 103:4

Jonah 2:9 Psalms 142:4; Psalms 143:4; Psalms 18:7; Psalms 5:8

Jonah 2:10 Psalms 88:3; Psalms 31:7; Psalms 26:7; Psalms 50:14; Psalms 50:23; Psalms 42:5; Psalms 116:7. [4]

Phillips comments: “For a little while, Jonah was allowed to reap what he had sown. He had rejoiced at the thought of God’s judgment being poured out on Nineveh. Now he found out what it was like to be under God’s judgment…Having gloated over the nasty medicine that God had bottled for Nineveh, he was forced to take a large dose of it himself.” [5]

From the belly of Sheol, the abode of the dead, Jonah perceived that God had heard his pitiful cry. Perhaps he had cried out in the words of Psalm 18:5, “The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.” Then the answer was acknowledged: “You, LORD, brought me up from the realm of the dead; you spared me from going down to the pit” (Psa. 30:3). Although Jonah was still in the belly of the fish, he knew by faith that deliverance was on the way.

“You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple’” (2:3-4). Here, the prophet seems to be calling out in the words of Psalm 42:7, “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” In all his distress, the prophet speaks a word of faith that he will once again see the holy temple in Jerusalem. In Jonah’s day, that temple was still standing.

“The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head” (2:5). We can imagine that the horrible storm had stirred up great masses of seaweed. Jonah was tangled up in it and even had it wrapped around his head. I wonder if Jonah may have still had some matted seaweed stuck in his hair when he showed up to preach at Nineveh. There was probably something about Jonah’s looks that made believers out of the people.

“To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, LORD my God, brought my life up from the pit” (2:6). After the large fish had swallowed Jonah, it probably took a deep dive to the foot of the mountains. We can hardly imagine the crushing pressures of such a dive. Yet, the prophet still had hope. He may have referred here to Psalm 18:15-16. “The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.”

Throughout this section, we see how Jonah did not just have faith that he would be delivered, but he had faith based on the unfailing word of God.

“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple” (2:7). As Jonah was fainting away, he might have remembered the words of Psalm 18:6, “In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.” Adam Clarke, 19th-century British Methodist scholar, tries to sum this up, saying, “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.” [6]

“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them” (2:8). Worthless idols or lying vanities were descriptive names for the idols of paganism. The pagan world was filled with all kinds of idols, thousands of them. Unfortunately, the people of Israel were involved in this idolatry as well, particularly in the worship of Baal. God’s people then and now have not totally escaped from idolatry. William Banks says: “We do not bow and scrape before heathen images, but we are also idolaters. Not in the crude way of Jonah’s time, but in a more subtle, sophisticated, and therefore a more sinister way. We have merely made some substitutions. In the place of Ashtaroth, Baal, Chemosh, Dagon, Diana, Isis, Mammon, Molech, and Nebo, we have put alcohol, ambition, automobiles, greed, Hollywood, jazz, money, nicotine, pleasure, science, sports, and sex…” [7]

“But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD’” (2:9). Guzik feels that at the end of Jonah 2:9 it is clear enough that Jonah has repented. [8] Jonah may well have been recalling parts of Psalm 50:14-15: “Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” Or perhaps he had Psalm 42:4 in mind: “These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.” It is truly amazing how saturated Jonah’s mind was with scripture. His experience is a good lesson for us to do the same, so we can overcome in our day of trouble.

“And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land” (2:10). Banks again notes that in Jonah’s deliverance, the word “vomit” has its only pleasant usage in the whole Bible. [9] Warren Wiersbe, American commentator and broadcaster, remarks, “What an ignominious way for a distinguished prophet to arrive on shore!” [10]

There has been a lot of speculation about this verse and about where Jonah was taken to and vomited out. One commentator thought he was taken all the way to Nineveh. That would have been quite impossible since there was no ocean access there. Our God is a very practical God, and he does not waste time or money. We can almost assume that during the three days and nights, the big fish was making its way back to the coasts of Israel or Lebanon. There would still have been over 400 miles (643 km) of travel left for Jonah before he could get to Nineveh.

Well, the story of Jonah and the big fish was a whale of a tale. It is the kind of thing a person would want to write a book about. Two great messages are clear throughout. Pett sums up the first, that the Lord God was in full control of creation. [11]

The second message was mentioned in our introduction in passages Matthew 12:39-41; 16:4, and in Luke 11:29-32. Jesus says, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40). Wiersbe notes how the “sign of Jonah” is clearly illustrated in his experience of ‘death,’ ‘burial,’ and ‘resurrection on the third day.’ This was the only sign Jesus gave to the nation of Israel.” [12]

Footnotes

1. Boice, The Minor Prophets, Vol. 1, pp. 281-282.

2. Ibid., p. 283.

3. D. Guthrie, J.A. Motyer, A.M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, The New Bible Commentary: Revised (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1970), p. 749.

4. Coffman, Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible, Commentary on Jonah, v. 2:2.

5. Phillips, Exploring The Minor Prophets, pp. 147-148.

6. Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke Commentary, Jonah, v. 2:7. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/jonah-1.html

7. Quoted in Coffman, Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible, Commentary on Jonah, p. 2:8.

8. Guzik, Enduring Word Bible Commentary, Jonah, vs. 2:8-9.

9. Quoted in Coffman, Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible, Commentary on Jonah, v. 2:10. 10

10. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, OT, p.1445.

11. Pett, Commentary on Joel, Peter Pett’s Commentary on the Bible, v. 2:10.

12. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, OT, p.1445.