Moby Dick

1:17 The Lord prepared a fish (i.e. to send, to appoint)

2:1. Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly. Jonah is moved to pray to God from the stomach of the fish. God has finally put His prophet in the place where he would seek His face and submit himself to Him.

In His faithfulness, God has brought His prophet to the point where he can do nothing other than to submit to the will of God in prayer.

1. The Rebellious Prophet (ch. 1).

2. The Repentant Prophet (ch. 2).

A. The Servant Speaks (vv. 1–9).

The first verse of the prayer in chapter 2 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.

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

He knew the words but didn’t personalize them until he was forced to.

These verses record Jonah’s

1. supplication (v. 1), prayed unto the LORD

2–4. Jonah’s prayer is poetic in form and has three movements, each beginning with a rehearsal of the prophet’s impossible situation and culminating in an expression of his faith in spite of his impossible circumstances.

2. suffering (v. 2), I cried by reason of my affliction

Sheol was a name for the place of residence of the dead, the underworld Jonah pictures himself in the belly of Sheol, its very center—in other words he is as good as dead.

3. statement (vv. 3–6), a. You cast me here

b. Your billows & waves roll over me

c. Your holy temple

v4-5 I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. This is the prophet’s first expression of faith, even though he is in a hopeless situation. —he will once again be in the presence of the Lord.

In all of this Jonah recognized the fact that he had experienced direct divine judgment. He also, by faith, expects to experience direct divine mercy and restoration.

v5–6. This is the second movement of Jonah’s prayer. Once again, he begins by rehearsing his situation (vss. 5–6a). The waters compassed me about … the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. The great fish descended to the depths of the sea, and everything that found its way into the fish’s stomach also entwined itself around Jonah. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption.

The second movement ends with this expression of faith (2:6b), in which the prophet recognizes that Jehovah delivered him safely from corruption, the corruption that his body would have experienced had Jehovah not delivered him.

v7–9. When my soul fainted within me. The third movement begins again with a reminder of the prophet’s impossible conditions

4. submission (vv. 7–8), a. fainted (When my life was ebbing away)