Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish,
Parallel translations
- WEB Then Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God, out of the fish’s belly.
- KJV Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD 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.
- 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 have cast a stone on me.
- Ps 130:1–2A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths I have cried to you, Yahweh.
- Ps 91:15He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him, and honor him.
- Job 13:15Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.
- Ps 50:15Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
- Isa 26:16Yahweh, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.
- Jas 5:13Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises.
- Acts 16:24–25who, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison, and secured their feet in the stocks.
- 2 Chr 33:11–13Therefore Yahweh brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
- Hos 5:15I will go and return to my place, until they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me earnestly.”
Resources, by level
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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.