Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin
Jonah 2
Jonah 2:1-2
1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,
1. Et oravit Jonas ad Jehovam Deum suum e ventre piscis;
2. And said, I cried by reason of mine afÒiction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
2. Et dixit clamavi in angustia mea ad Jehovam, et exaudit me (vel, respondit mihi;) e ventre sepulchri vociferatus sum, audivisti vocem meam. 111
When Jonah says that he prayed from the bowels of the fish, he shows first with what courage of mind he was endued. He had then put on a new heart; for when he was at liberty he thought that he could in a manner escape from God, he became a fugitive from the Lord: but now while inclosed within narrow bounds, he begins to pray, and of his own accord sets himself in God's presence.
This is a change worthy of being noticed: and hence we may learn how much it profits us to be drawn back often as it were by cords, or to be held tied up with fetters because when we are free we go astray here and there beyond all limits.
Jonah, when he was at liberty, became, as we have seen, wanton; but now finding himself restrained by the mighty hand of God, he receives a new mind, and prays from the bowels of the fish 112 . But how was it that he directed his petitions then 111It is remarkable that several sentences in this prayer, as it has been observed by Marchius and Henderson, are exactly the same, not only in sense, but also, in most instances, in words, with passages in the Psalms. The first clause of this verse is found in Psalm 120:1, only the words are differently arranged. The last clause of the third verse, both in words and order, is the same with a distich in Psalm 42:7. The beginning of the fourth verse agrees nearly with Psalm 31:22; and so does the fifth verse with a line in Psalm 69:1, one word being different. The first clause of the seventh verse is found in the very same words in Psalm 142:3; and the first line in the eighth verse is Psalm 31:6, with the exception of one letter; and the last words of the ninth verse are to be met within Psalm 3:8, only the order is reversed. "On the supposition," says Henderson, "that Jonah was familiar with the Psalms, it was very natural for him to incorporate sentences taken from them with his own language." — Ed.
112"No place amiss for prayer, I will that men pray everywhere; where ever God casts us we may find a way open heavenwards, if it be now our own fault. Jonah was now in the bottom