Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
two parts, --- that Jonah in his trouble fled to God, --- and the latter part contains thanksgiving for having been miraculously delivered beyond what flesh could have thought. I cried, he says, in my distress, to Jehovah; I cried out from the bowels of hell, thou hast heard my voice. Jonah, as we shall hereafter see, directed his prayers to God not without great struggle; he contended with many difÏculties; but however great the impediments in his way, he still persevered and ceased not from praying.
He now tells us that he had not prayed in vain; and, that he might amplify the grace of God, he says, from the bowels of the grave He mentioned distress (angustiam --- straitness) in the first clause; but here he more clearly expresses how remarkable and extraordinary had been the kindness of God, that he came forth safe from the bowels of the fish, which were like the bowels of the grave. {,}שאולshaul, derived from corruption, is called the grave by the Hebrews, and the Latin translator has almost everywhere rendered it hell, (infernum;) and {,}שאולshaul, is also sometimes taken for hell, that is, the state of the reprobate, because they know that they are condemned by God: it is, however, taken more frequently for the grave; and I am disposed to retain this sense, --- that the fish was like the grave. But he means that he was so shut up in the grave, that there was no escape open to him.
What are the bowels of the grave? Even the inside or the recess of the grave itself. When Jonah was in this state, he says, that he was heard by the Lord. It may be proper to repeat again what I have already slightly touched, --- that Jonah was not so oppressed, though under the heaviest trial, but that his petitions came forth to God. He prayed as it were from hell, and not simply prayed, for he, at the same time, sets forth his vehemence and ardor by saying, that he cried and cried aloud.
Distress, no doubt, extorted from Jonah these urgent entreaties. However this might have been, he did not howl, as the unbelieving are wont to do, who feel their own evils and bitterly complain; and yet they pour forth vain howlings. Jonah here shows himself to be different from them by saying, that he cried and cried aloud to God. It now follows ---
Jonah 2:3
3. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.
3. Atqui projeceras me in profundum, in cor marium, et fluvius circumdedit me; omnes conflictus tui (sed hac voce intelligit undas quae inter se confligunt; scimus enim esse varias collisiones, ideo vertunt aliqui, contritiones tui, nam {}שחרsignificat proprie confligere et frangere; perinde est igitur ac si diceret, omnes fracturae tuae et collisiones super me transierunt, et explicat quid velit, quum dicit) fluctus tui super me transierunt.
In this verse are set forth his difÏculties: for Jonah, for the sake of amplifying, refers to his condition. It was a great thing that he cried to God from the bowels of my God. 8. When overwhelmed within me was my soul, Jehovah did I remember; And come to thee shall my prayer — To the temple of thy holiness. 9. They who regard idols of vanity, Their own mercy forsake: 10. But I, with the voice of praise, will sacrifice to thee, What I have vowed will I fulfill: Salvation belongs to Jehovah. "The cuttings off," in verse 7, says Parkhurst, were those parts which were cut off from the mountains at the deluge. The Septuagint has {σχισμας}
--- rents-clefts. Roots, bottoms, foundations, have been adopted by some, but not consistently with the meaning of the original word, --- ``The bars or bolts'' of the earth convey the idea of impediments in his way to return to the earth. They were ``around'' him, or literally ``upon'' him, ,{}בעדיthat is, they were, as it were, closed upon him. --- Ed.