Jonah 2

Jonah’s Prayer

¹Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish,

²saying,

“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.

³For you cast me into the deep,[#Ps. 88:6, 7]

into the heart of the seas,

and the flood surrounded me;

all your waves and your billows

passed over me.

⁴Then I said, ‘I am driven away[#Ps. 31:22]

from your sight;

yet I shall again look

upon your holy temple.’

⁵The waters closed in over me to take my life;[#Lam. 3:54; #Ps. 69:1]

the deep surrounded me;

weeds were wrapped about my head

⁶at 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.

⁷When my life was fainting away,

I remembered the Lord ,

and my prayer came to you,

into your holy temple.

⁸Those who pay regard to vain idols[#Ps. 31:6; 2 Kgs. 17:15; Jer. 2:5]

forsake their hope of steadfast love.

⁹But I with the voice of thanksgiving[#Ps. 50:14; Hos. 14:2; Heb. 13:15]

will sacrifice to you;

what I have vowed I will pay.

Salvation belongs to the Lord !”

¹⁰And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.