Jonah 2:1-5: Translation and Comments

Jonah 2:1-5*

(*1:17-2:4 in English translations)

1 And YHWH supplied a large fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

2 And Jonah prayed to YHWH his God from the belly of the fish.

3 And he said, “I called from in my distress to YHWH
and he answered me.
From the belly of Sheol I cried for help,
you heard my voice.

4 And you cast me [into] the deep sea
into the heart of the sea
and a river surrounded me,
all of your breaking waves and your surging waves passed over me.

5 And I said, “I was driven away from before your eyes
 however I shall continue to look to the temple of your holiness.”

Comments

Jonah 2:1 is the part of the story which everyone knows. Jonah is swallowed by a fish after being thrown into the sea by the sailors. 

Chapter 2 is interesting because it is almost entirely written in poetry (except for verses 1-2 and 11) whereas the rest of the book is a narrative tale. As a result it is the centre of a scholarly debate concerning whether it fits with the rest of the material and if it belongs in Jonah at all. It is possible to read 2:1-2 and then skip ahead to 2:11 without feeling as though you have missed anything. However, this poem contrasts nicely with events later in Jonah, when he is begrudging towards the forgiveness shown by God to the people of Nineveh (4:1-3), as here he readily accepts God’s forgiveness when he is saved from drowning. What is likely to have happened is that Jonah has learned obedience to God through his near death experience, being saved by the fish and the time he has to spend there. This leads to his obedience to God’s call to him to prophecy in Nineveh (3:3) but he still secretly hopes for their destruction as they are still Israel’s enemies. Thus 2:3-10 should not be removed as it illustrates that Jonah’s perspective begins to change while in the fish, allowing his call to be renewed in 3:1-2.

So while Jonah is in the sea, God sends a fish to swallow him and he remains in the fish three days and nights (2:1). And while in the fish he prays to YHWH (2:2). God’s sovereignty over all the creatures of the sea is demonstrated here, as he is able to summon the fish to carry out his will so that Jonah does not drown. It is not necessary to speculate about what type of fish this may have been, as the text only describes it as a great fish (dal gadol). Any further speculation goes beyond the text and risks undermining the miraculous nature of God’s action.

The prayer pictures the seemingly hopeless situation Jonah was in and his response to God rescue. In verse 3 he states that he called to God in his distress and he was answered. This is referring to God sending the fish to swallow Jonah to save him from the sea. The idea is repeated in the second part of verse 3, where Jonah says that he called for help from the belly of Sheol and God heard him. He is now addressing God directly, unlike in the first part of the verse. Sheol was the home of the dead in the Jewish understanding of the world. It was similar to the Greek Hades, in that it wasn’t a place of torment, but where the spirits of the dead went. It was generally envisioned as being below the ground somewhere. Thus Jonah saw himself as being in danger of dying before the fish swallowed him, and it was from death that YHWH saved him.

The parallelism seen in verse 3, with the same thought repeated in slightly different terms is very typical of Hebrew poetry. Sometimes these parallelisms express the same thought, and sometimes contrasting thoughts. In other cases, the original idea is expanded upon or added to in the parallelisms following it. This allows several metaphors or descriptions to be used to describe an idea or situation.

Jonah then describes what happened to him (2:4). God cast him into the sea, which is an interesting interpretation of what happened in 1:11-16, where it was the sailors that threw Jonah overboard at his own request. However, Jonah is highlighting God’s role in these events, his sovereignty over what has happened to him. The agent behind all these events was God who called up the storm in the first place to stop Jonah running away. He was cast into the heart of the sea, and a river of water surrounded him, with waves surging all around until he was driven under the waves. God’s hand is also behind all these waves.

In verse 5, Jonah highlights how desperate his situation had become. While floundering in the sea, he felt totally driven away from the sight of God, like an outcast is driven from a city. The second half provides a stark contrast. Despite the hopelessness of his situation among the waves, he will continue to look upon the temple of God’s holiness. This could be referring to the actual temple in Jerusalem (despite it being some distance away) or it could be a symbolic expression of some kind, perhaps referring to being back in God’s favour again or his decision to carry out God’s will. 

One thing to note here is that some English translations translate the second half of verse 5 as “how shall I look upon your holy temple?” (NRSV). This is because some of the ancient Greek translations of the Hebrew text translated it in this way. The hopelessness of this translation matches the hopelessness of the first half of the verse. Arguments can be mounted in defence of both translations. I have stuck with the expression of hope because it fits with other such expressions (e.g. 2:6) found in the midst of bleak descriptions of the situation.

The first half of Jonah’s prayer is a mixture of a poetic description of the bleak situation he was in while in the water and his joy and hope at being rescued by the fish. This is only the first half of the poem which continues throughout the remainder of chapter 2.

The next section is Jonah 2:6-11 where Jonah’s prayer continues.