¹sn The eight verses of Jonah’s prayer in Hebrew contain twenty-seven first-person pronominal references to himself. There are fifteen second- or third-person references to the Lord.
²tn Tg. Jonah 2:2 renders this interpretively: “and he heard my prayer.”
sn The first verse of the prayer summarizes the whole—“I was in trouble; I called to the Lord for help; he rescued me; I will give him thanks”—before elaborating on the nature and extent of the trouble (vv. 3-7a), mentioning the cry for help and the subsequent rescue (6b-7), and promising to give thanks (8-9). These elements, as well as much vocabulary and imagery found in Jonah’s prayer, appear also in other Hebrew psalms. With Jonah 2:1 compare, for example, Pss 18:6; 22:24; 81:7; 116:1-4; 120:1; 130:1-2; Lam 3:55-56. These references and others indicate that Jonah was familiar with prayers used in worship at the temple in Jerusalem; he knew “all the right words.” Consider also Ps 107 with Jonah as a whole.
³sn Sheol was a name for the place of residence of the dead, the underworld (see Job 7:9-10; Isa 38:17-18). Jonah pictures himself in the belly of Sheol, its very center—in other words he is as good as dead.
⁴tn Heb “voice.” The term loq (qol, “voice”) functions as a metonymy for the content of what is uttered: cry for help in prayer.
⁵tn Or “You had thrown me.” Verse 3 begins the detailed description of Jonah’s plight, which resulted from being thrown into the sea.
⁶tn Heb “the deep.”
⁷tn Heb “heart.”
⁸tc The BHS editors suggest deleting either hl*Wxm= (m^etsulah, “into the deep”) or <yM!y~ bb^l=B! (bilvav yammim, “into the heart of the sea”). They propose that one or the other is a scribal gloss on the remaining term. However, the use of an appositional phrase within a poetic colon is not unprecedented in Hebrew poetry. The MT is therefore best retained.
⁹tn Or “the stream.” The Hebrew word rh*n` (nahar) is used in parallel with <y~ (yam, “sea”) in Ps 24:2 (both are plural) to describe the oceans of the world and in Ps 66:6 to speak of the sea crossed by Israel in the exodus from Egypt.
<sup>10</sup>tn Heb “surrounded.”
<sup>11</sup>tn Heb “your breakers and your waves.” This phrase is a nominal hendiadys; the first noun functions as an attributive adjective modifying the second noun: “your breaking waves.”
<sup>12</sup>tn Heb “your… your…” The 2ms suffixes on ;yL#g~w+ ;yr\B*v=m! (mishbarekha v<sup>e</sup>gallekha, “your breakers and your waves”) function as genitives of source. Just as God had hurled a violent wind upon the sea and had sovereignly sent the large fish to swallow him (1:17 [2:1 HT]), Jonah viewed God as sovereignly responsible for afflicting him with sea waves that were crashing upon his head, threatening to drown him. Tg. Jonah 2:3 alters the 2ms suffixes to 3ms suffixes to make them refer to the sea and not to God, for the sake of smoothness: “all the gales of the sea and its billows.”
<sup>13</sup>tn Heb “crossed.”
<sup>14</sup>sn Verses 3 and 5 multiply terms describing Jonah’s watery plight. The images used in v. 3 appear also in 2 Sam 22:5-6; Pss 42:7; 51:11; 69:1-2, 14-15; 88:6-7; 102:10.
<sup>15</sup>tn Heb “And I said.” The verb rm^a* (’amar, “to say”) is sometimes used to depict inner speech and thoughts of a character (HALOT 66 s.v. rma 4; BDB 56 s.v. rm^a* 2; e.g., Gen 17:17; Ruth 4:4; 1 Sam 20:26; Esth 6:6). While many translations render this “I said” (KJV, NKJV, NAB, ASV, NASV, NIV, NLT), several nuance it “I thought” (JPS, NJPS, NEB, REB, NJB, TEV, CEV).
<sup>16</sup>tn Or “I have been expelled from your attention”; Heb “from in front of your eyes.” See also Ps 31:22; Lam 3:54-56.
<sup>17</sup>tc Or “Yet I will look again to your holy temple” or “Surely I will look again to your holy temple.” The MT and the vast majority of ancient textual witnesses vocalize consonantal ia (’kh) as the adverb Ea^ (’akh) which functions as an emphatic asseverative “surely” (BDB 36 s.v. Ea^ 1) or an adversative “yet, nevertheless” (BDB 36 s.v. Ea^ 2; so Tg. Jonah 2:4: “However, I shall look again upon your holy temple”). These options understand the line as an expression of hopeful piety. As a positive statement, Jonah expresses hope that he will live to return to worship in Jerusalem. It may be a way of saying, “I will pray for help, even though I have been banished” (see v. 8; cf. Dan 6:10). The sole dissenter is the Greek recension of Theodotion which reads the interrogative pw'" (pws, “how?”) which reflects an alternate vocalization tradition of Ea@ (’ekh)—a defectively written form of Eya@ (’ekh, “how?”; BDB 32 s.v. Eya@ 1). This would be translated, “How shall I again look at your holy temple?” (cf. NRSV). Jonah laments that he will not be able to worship at the temple in Jerusalem again—this is a metonymical statement (effect for cause) that he feels certain that he is about to die. It continues the expression of Jonah’s distress and separation from YHWH, begun in v. 2 and continued without relief in vv. 3-7a. The external evidence favors the MT; however, internal evidence seems to favor the alternate vocalization tradition reflected in Theodotion for four reasons. First, the form of the psalm is a declarative praise in which Jonah begins with a summary praise (v. 2), continues by recounting his past plight (vv. 3-6a) and YHWH’s intervention (vv. 6b-7), and concludes with a lesson (v. 8) and vow to praise (v. 9). So the statement with Ea@ in v. 4 falls within the plight—not within a declaration of confidence. Second, while the poetic parallelism of v. 4 could be antithetical (“I have been banished from your sight, yet I will again look to your holy temple”), synonymous parallelism fits the context of the lament better (“I have been banished from your sight; Will I ever again see your holy temple?”). Third, Ea@ is the more difficult vocalization because it is a defectively written form of Eya@ (“how?”) and therefore easily confused with Ea^ (“surely” or “yet, nevertheless”). Fourth, nothing in the first half of the psalm reflects any inkling of confidence on the part of Jonah that he would be delivered from imminent death. In fact, Jonah states in v. 7 that he did not turn to God in prayer until some time later when he was on the very brink of death.
sn Both options for the start of the line (“how?” and “yet” or “surely”) fit the ironic portrayal of Jonah in the prayer (see also vv.8-9). Jonah, who had been trying to escape the Lord’s attention, here appears remarkably fond of worshiping him. Is there perhaps also a hint of motivation for the Lord to rescue this eager worshiper? Confession of disobedience, on the other hand, is absent. Compare Ps 31:22, where the first half (describing the plight) is very similar to the first half of Jonah 2:3, and the second half starts with “nevertheless” (/k@a*, ’akhen) and is a positive contrast, a report that God heard, using four words that appear in Jonah 2:2 (cf. Job 32:7-8; Ps 82:6-7; Isa 49:4; Zeph 3:7).
<sup>18</sup>tn Heb “Will I ever see your holy temple again?” The rhetorical question expresses denial: Jonah despaired of ever seeing the temple again.
<sup>19</sup>tn Heb “as far as the throat.” The noun vp#n\ (nefesh) refers sometimes to the throat or neck (Pss 69:1[2]; 105:18; 124:4, 5; Isa 5:14; HALOT 712 s.v. vp#n\ 2). The water was up to Jonah’s neck (and beyond), so that his life was in great danger (cf. Ps 69:1).
<sup>20</sup>tn Or “the deep; the abyss” (<ohT=, t<sup>e</sup>hom). The simple “ocean” is perhaps too prosaic, since this Hebrew word has primeval connections (Gen 1:2; 7:11; 8:2; Prov 8:27-28) and speaks of the sea at its vastest (Job 38:16-18; Ps 36:6; 104:5-9).
<sup>21</sup>tc The consonantal form [ws (svf) is vocalized by the MT as [Ws (suf, “reed”) but the LXX’s ejscavth (escath, “end”) reflects a vocalization of [os (sof, “end”). The reading in Tg. Jonah 2:5 interpreted this as a reference to the Reed Sea (also known as the Red Sea). In fact, the Jewish midrashim in Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer 10 states that God showed Jonah the way by which the Israelites had passed through the Red Sea. The MT vocalization tradition is preferred.
tn The noun [Ws (suf) normally refers to “reeds”—freshwater plants that grow in Egyptian rivers and marshes (Exod 2:3,5; Isa 10:19)—but here it refers to “seaweed” (HALOT 747 s.v. [Ws 1). Though the same freshwater plants do not grow in the Mediterranean, the name may be seen to fit similarly long plants growing in seawater.
<sup>22</sup>tn Jonah began going “down” (dr~y`, yarad) in chap. 1 (vv. 3, 5; see also 1:15; 2:2-3).
²³tc The MT <yr]h* yb@x=q!l= (l^eqitsve harim, “to the extremities [i.e., bottoms] of the mountains”) is a bit unusual, appearing only here in the Hebrew Bible. Therefore, the BHS editors suggest a conjectural emendation of the MT’s yb@x=q!l= (“to the extremities”) to yw}x=q^l= (l^eqatswey, “to the ends [of the mountains])” based on orthographic confusion between vav (w) and bet (b). However, the phrase <yrh ybxq does appear in the OT Apocrypha in Sir 16:19; therefore, it is not without precedent. Since Jonah emphasizes that he descended, as it were, to the very gates of the netherworld in the second half of this verse, it would be appropriate for Jonah to say that he went down “to the extremities [i.e., bottoms] of the mountains” (<yr]h* yb@x=q!l=). Therefore, the MT may be retained with confidence.
tn The noun bx#q# (qetseb) is used only three times in the Hebrew Bible, and this is the only usage in which it means “extremity; bottom” (BDB 891 s.v. bx#q# 2). The exact phrase <yrh ybxq (“the extremities [bottoms] of the mountains”) is used in the OT Apocrypha once in Sir 16:19.
²⁴tn Some editions and translations (e.g., NEB, NRSV) have connected the “bottoms of the mountains” with the preceding—“weeds were wrapped around my head at the bottoms of the mountains”—and connect “I went down” with “the earth.” Such a connection between “I went down” and “the earth” is difficult to accept. It would be more normal in Hebrew to express “I went down to the earth” with a directive ending (hx*r+a^, ’artsah) or with a Hebrew preposition before “earth” or without the definite article. The Masoretic accents, in addition, connect “ends of the mountains” with the verb “I went down” and call for a break between the verb and “earth.”
²⁵tn Heb “As for the earth, its bars…” This phrase is a rhetorical nominative construction (also known as casus pendens) in which the noun Jr\a*h* (ha’arets, “the earth”) stands grammatically isolated and in an emphatic position prior to the third feminine singular suffix that picks up on it in h*yj#r]B= (b^erikheha, “its bars”; see IBHS 128-30 §8.3). This construction is used to emphasize the subject, in this case, the “bars of the netherworld.” The word translated “bars” appears elsewhere to speak of bars used in constructing the sides of the tabernacle and often of crossbars (made of wood or metal) associated with the gates of fortified cities (cf. Exod 36:31-34; Judg 16:3; 1 Kgs 4:13; Neh 3:3; Pss 107:16; 147:13; Isa 45:1-2).
²⁶tn Heb “the earth.” The noun Jr\a# (’erets) usually refers to the “earth” but here refers to the “netherworld” (e.g., Job 10:21, 22; Ps 139:15; Isa 26:19; 44:23; BDB 76 s.v. Jr\a# 2.g). This is parallel to the related Akkadian term irsitu used in the phrase “the land of no return,” that is, the netherworld. This refers to the place of the dead (along with “belly of Sheol,” v. 2, and “the grave,” v. 6), which is sometimes described as having “gates” (Job 38:17; Ps 107:18).
²⁷tn Heb “behind me.” The preposition du^B^ (ba’ad) with a pronominal suffix and with the meaning “behind” is found also in Judg 3:23. Jonah pictures himself as closed in and so unable to escape death. Having described how far he had come (totally under water and “to the ends of mountains”), Jonah describes the way back as permanently closed against him. Just as it was impossible for a lone individual to walk through the barred gates of a walled city, so Jonah expected it was impossible for him to escape death.
²⁸tn Heb “As for the earth, its bars [were] against me forever.” This line is a verbless clause. The verb in the translation has been supplied for the sake of clarity and smoothness. The rhetorical nominative construction (see the note on the word “gates” earlier in this verse) has also been smoothed out in the translation.
²⁹tn Heb “my life.” The term yY~j^ (khayyay, “my life”) functions metonymically as a first common singular pronoun (“me”).
³⁰sn Jonah pictures himself as being at the very gates of the netherworld (v. 6b) and now within the Pit itself (v. 6c). He is speaking rhetorically, for he had not actually died. His point is that he was as good as dead if God did not intervene immediately. See Pss 7:15; 30:3; 103:4; Ezek 19:3-4, 8.
³¹tn Heb “my soul.” The term vp#n\ (nefesh, “soul”) is often used as a metonymy for the life and the animating vitality in the body: “my life” (BDB 659 s.v. vp#n\ 3.c).
³²tn Heb “fainting away from me.” The verb [F@u^t=h! (hit’attef, “to faint away”) is used elsewhere to describe (1) the onset of death when a person’s life begins to slip away (Lam 2:12), (2) the loss of one’s senses due to turmoil (Ps 107:5), and (3) the loss of all hope of surviving calamity (Pss 77:4; 142:4; 143:4; BDB 742 s.v. [f@u^). All three options are reflected in various translations: “when my life was ebbing away” (JPS, NJPS), “when my life was slipping away” (CEV), “when I felt my life slipping away” (TEV), “as my senses failed me” (NEB), and “when I had lost all hope” (NLT).
³³tn Heb “remembered.” The verb rk^z` (zakhar) usually means “to remember, to call to mind” but it can also mean “to call out” (e.g., Nah 2:6) as in the related Akkadian verb zikaru, “to name, to mention.” The idiom “to remember the Lord” here encompasses calling to mind his character and past actions and appealing to him for help (Deut 8:18-19; Ps 42:6-8; Isa 64:4-5; Zech 10:9). Tg. Jonah 2:7 glosses the verb as “I remembered the worship of the Lord,” which somewhat misses the point.
<sup>34</sup>sn For similar ideas see 2 Chr 30:27; Pss 77:3; 142:3; 143:4-5.
<sup>35</sup>tn Heb “those who pay regard to.” The verbal root rm^v* (shamar, “to keep, to watch”) appears in the Piel stem only here in biblical Hebrew, meaning “to pay regard to” (BDB 1037 s.v. rm^v*). This is metonymical for the act of worship (e.g., Qal “to observe” = to worship, Ps 31:7).
<sup>36</sup>tn Heb “worthlessnesses of nothingness” or “vanities of emptiness.” The genitive construct aw+v*-yl@b=h^ (havle-shav<sup>e</sup>’) forms an attributive adjective expression: “empty worthlessness” or “worthless vanities.” This ironic reference to false gods is doubly insulting (e.g., Ps 31:7). The noun lb#h# (hevel, “vapor, breath”) is often used figuratively to describe what is insubstantial, empty, and futile (31 times in Eccl; see also, e.g., Pss 39:4-6, 11; 144:4; Prov 13:11; 21:6; Isa 30:7; 49:4). It often refers to idols—the epitome of emptiness, nothingness, and worthlessness (Deut 32:21; 1 Kgs 16:13, 26; Ps 31:7; Jer 8:19; 10:8, 15; 14:22; 16:19; 51:18). The noun aw+v* (“worthlessness, emptiness, nothingness”) describes what is ineffective and lacking reality (BDB 996 s.v. aw+v*; e.g., Exod 20:7; Pss 60:11; 127:1; Ezek 22:28). It is also often used to refer to idols (e.g., Ps 31:7; Jer 18:15; Hos 5:11).
<sup>37</sup>tn Heb “abandon their mercy/loyalty.” The meaning of Wbz{u&y~ <D`s=j^ (khasdam ya’azovu, “forsake their mercy/loyalty”) is greatly debated. There are two exegetical issues that are mutually related. First, does the noun ds#j# (khesed) here mean (1) “mercy, kindness” that man receives from God, or (2) “loyalty, faithfulness” that man must give to God (see BDB 338-39 s.v ds#j#; HALOT 336-37 s.v. ds#j#)? Second, the third masculine plural suffix on <D`s=j^ (“their loyalty/mercy”) has been taken as (1) subjective genitive, referring to the loyal allegiance they ought to display to the true God: “they abandon the loyalty they should show.” Examples of subjective genitives are: “This is your kindness (ED}s=j^, khasdek) which you must do for me: every place to which we come, say of me, ‘He is my brother’” (Gen 20:13; also cf. Gen 40:14; 1 Sam 20:14-15). Several translations take this approach: “forsake their faithfulness” (NASV), “abandon their faithful love” (NJB), “abandon their loyalty” (NEB, REB), “forsake their true loyalty” (RSV, NRSV), “turn their backs on all God’s mercies” (NLT), “have abandoned their loyalty to You” (TEV). (2) This has also been taken as objective genitive, referring to the mercy they might have received from God: “they forfeit the mercy that could be theirs.” The versions interpret <D`s=j^ in this sense: “they do not know the source of their welfare” (Tg. Jonah 2:8), “forsake the source of their welfare” (Vulgate), and “abandon their own mercy” (LXX). Several translations follow this approach: “forsake their source of mercy” (NAB); “forfeit the grace that could be theirs” (NIV), “give up the grace that could be theirs” (NBV), “forsake their own welfare” (JPS, NJPS), “forsake their own mercy” (KJV, ASV), “forsake their own Mercy” (NKJV), “turn from the God who offers them mercy” (CEV). This is a difficult lexical/syntactical problem. On the one hand, the next line contrasts their failure with Jonah’s boast of loyalty to the true God—demonstrating that he, unlike pagan idolaters, deserves to be delivered. On the other hand, the only other use of ds#j# in the book refers to “mercy” God bestows —something that Jonah did not believe that the (repentant) pagan idolaters had a right to receive. BDB 339 s.v. I ds#j# II takes this approach—“He is <D*s=j^ their goodness, favour Jonah 2:9”—and cites other examples of ds#j# with suffixes referring to God: yD]s=j^ (khasdi) “my kindness” = he shows kindness to me (Ps 144:2); and yD]s=j^ yh@Oa$ (’elohe khasdi) “the God of my kindness” = the God who shows kindness to me (Ps 59:18).
³⁸tn Heb “voice” or “sound.”
³⁹tc The MT reads hd*oT loqB= (b^eqol todah, “with a voice of thanksgiving”). Some mss of Tg. Jonah read “with the sound of hymns of thanksgiving” here in 2:9—the longer reading probably reflects an editorial gloss, explaining hd*oT (“thanksgiving”) as “hymns of thanksgiving.”
tn Heb “voice/sound of thanksgiving.” The genitive hd*oT (todah, “thanksgiving”) specifies the kind of public statement that will accompany the sacrifice. The construct noun loq (qol, “voice, sound”) functions as a metonymy of cause for effect, referring to the content of what the voice/sound produces: hymns of praise or declarative praise testimony.
⁴⁰tn The verbs translated “I will sacrifice” and “I will pay” are Hebrew cohortatives, expressing Jonah’s resolve and firm intention.
⁴¹tn Heb “what I have vowed I will pay.” Jonah promises to offer a sacrifice and publicly announce why he is thankful. For similar pledges, see Pss 22:25-26; 50:14-15; 56:12; 69:29-33; 71:14-16, 22-24; 86:12-13; 116:12-19.
⁴²tn Or “Salvation comes from the Lord.” For similar uses of the preposition lamed (l=, l^e) to convey a sort of ownership in which the owner does or may by right do something, see Lev 25:48; Deut 1:17; 1 Sam 17:47; Jer 32:7-8.
⁴³tn Heb “spoke to.” The fish functions as a literary foil to highlight Jonah’s hesitancy to obey God up to this point. In contrast to Jonah who immediately fled when God commanded him, the fish immediately obeyed.