Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,
Parallel translations
- WEB Then Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God, out of the fish’s belly.
- BSB From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the LORD his God,
- NKJV Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly.
- NASB Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish,
- NLT Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
From inside the fish, Jonah prays to the Lord his God. It matters because the runaway prophet, brought low, finally turns back to God in prayer.
Overview
The very place of seeming doom becomes a place of worship as Jonah cries out from the fish's belly. Calling Yahweh 'his God' signals the renewal of a relationship he had been fleeing. The chapter shows that God's discipline aims to restore communion, and that no depth is beyond the reach of believing prayer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Lam 3:53–56They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
- Ps 130:1–2Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.
- Ps 91:15He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
- Job 13:15Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
- Ps 50:15And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
- Isa 26:16LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
- Jas 5:13Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
- Acts 16:24–25Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
- 2 Chr 33:11–13Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
- Hos 5:15I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Three days in the belly of the fish is the sign Jesus gave of his own death and resurrection (Matt 12:40); and God's mercy on pagan Nineveh foreshadows the gospel going to the nations.
How Jonah 2:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.