22 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Jonah 2 This chapter contains the prayer of Jonah, when in the fish's belly; the time when he prayed, the person he prayed unto, and the place where, are suggested in Jonah 2:1; and the latter described as a place of great straitness and distress, and even as hell itself, Jonah 2:2; The condition he was in, when cast into the sea,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. Though Jonah had been a praying man, being a good man, and a prophet of the Lord, yet it seems he had not prayed for some time; being disobedient to the will of God, he restrained prayer before him; all the while he was going to Joppa he prayed not; and how indeed could he have the...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
We left Jonah in the belly of the fish, and had reason to think we should hear no more of him, that if he were not destroyed by the waters of the sea he would be consumed in the bowels of that leviathan, "out of whose mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire, and whose breath kindles coals," Job xli. 19, 21. But God brings his people through...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly. What a strange place for prayer! Surely then is the only prayer that ever went up to God out of a fish’s belly. Jonah found himself alive;-that was the surprising thing, that he was alive in the belly of a fish;-and because he was alive, he began to pray. It is such a wonder that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And said,.... Not unto the Lord in prayer, but to others, to whom he communicated what passed between God and him in this time of distress; how he prayed to him, and was heard by him; what a condition he had been in, and how he was delivered out of it; what was his frame of mind while in it, sometimes despairing, and sometimes hoping; and how...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me;- You see that this is not praying, it is telling the Lord what he had done for his disobedient servant. Jonah had prayed, and the Lord had heard him, yet he was still in the fish’s belly. Unbelief would have said, “You have lived so long; Jonah; but you cannot expect to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas,.... Though the mariners did this, yet Jonah ascribes it to the Lord; he knew it was he, whom he had sinned against and offended; that he was he that sent the storm after him into the sea; that determined the lot to fall upon him; that it was not only by his permission, but according...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; The word Jonah used implies that God had violently cast him away into the deep. “Cast me not off,” prayed David, but here is a man who says that God did cast him out like a thing flung overboard into the vast deep: “Thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas;” —...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight,.... Or, "from before thine eyes" (d); the Targum, from before thy Word; as David also said in his distress, Psalms 31:22; not but that he knew he was in the reach and under the eye of his omniscience, which saw him in the fish's belly, in the depths of the sea, for nothing can hide from that; but he thought...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. What grand faith Job displayed when he said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him;” and here is another splendid manifestation of faith, “’I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.’ If God does not look at me, I...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The waters compassed me about, [even] to the soul,.... Either when he was first cast into the sea, which almost suffocated him, and just ready to take away his life, could not breathe for them, as is the case of a man drowning; or these were the waters the fish drew into its belly, in such large quantities, that they compassed him about, even to...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
The waters compassed me about, even to the soul:- They seemed to get right into his spirit; his heart became waterlogged: “The waters compassed me about, even to the soul:” — Jon_2:5. The depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. Like his winding-sheet,-as if the cerements of the grave were wrapped about his mouth, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I went down to the bottom of the mountains,.... Which are in the midst of the sea, whither the fish carried him, and where the waters are deep; or the bottom of rocks and promontories on the shore of the sea; and such vast rocks hanging over the sea, whose bottoms were in it, it seems are on the shore of Joppa, near to which Jonah was cast into...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains;- To the very roots and foundations of the mountains, where the big jagged rocks made huge buttresses for the hills above: “I went down to the bottom of the mountains;” — Jon_2:6. The earth with her bars was about me for ever: Down went the fish, as deep as he could go: and, of course, down went Jonah...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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 forsaken by him: I remembered the Lord; his covenant and promises, his former mercies and lovingkindness, the gracious experiences he had had of these in...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: It is a blessed memory that serves us faithfully in a fainting fit. Mostly, when the heart faints, the memory fails; but Jonah remembered the Lord when his soul fainted within him. Jon_2:7. And my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. Think of Jonah’s prayer going right within the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. They that worship idols, who are nothing, mere vanity and lies, and deceive those that serve them, these forsake the God of their lives, and of their mercies; and so do all such who serve divers lusts and pleasures, and pursue the vanities of this life; and also those who follow the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. If you trust anywhere but in God, you will run away from your own mercy. God is the only really merciful One who can always help you; but if you trust in your own righteousness, if you trust in priest craft, if you trust in any superstition, you are observing lying vanities, and forsaking...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving,.... Not only offer up a legal sacrifice in a ceremonial way, when he came to Jerusalem; but along with it the spiritual sacrifice of praise, which he knew was more acceptable unto God; and thus Christ, his antitype, upon his deliverance from his enemies, Psalms 22:22; I will pay [that]...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But I will sacrifice unto thee-“ I long to do so. I cannot do it just now, but I would if I could; and I will do it when thou shalt grant me deliverance from my present peril.” Jon_2:9. With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. That is one of the grandest utterances that any man ever made:...