At this, I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.’
Parallel translations
- WEB I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’
- KJV Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
- NKJV Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
- NASB “So I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
- NLT Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence. Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’
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
Feeling banished from God's sight, Jonah resolves to look again toward the temple. It matters because faith reaches out toward God even when judgment seems to have shut Him out.
Overview
Jonah fears he has been driven from God's presence, the very presence he had fled, yet hope rekindles. Looking 'toward your holy temple' expresses faith that God's mercy is found where He has promised to meet His people, ultimately fulfilled in Christ, the true temple. Even from the depths, Jonah models turning the eyes of faith back to the God of grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 31:22In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help.
- Ps 5:7But I will enter Your house by the abundance of Your loving devotion; in reverence I will bow down toward Your holy temple.
- Isa 38:17Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
- 2 Chr 6:38and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name,
- Jer 7:15And I will cast you out of My presence, just as I have cast out all your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.
- 1 Kgs 8:38–39then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—
- Dan 6:10Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
- Isa 49:14But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; the Lord has forgotten me!”
- 1 Kgs 9:7then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.
- Isa 38:10–14I said, “In the prime of my life I must go through the gates of Sheol and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”
- Jer 15:1Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go.
- Ezek 37:11Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
- Ps 77:1–7For the choirmaster. According to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph. I cried out to God; I cried aloud to God to hear me.
- 1 Kgs 8:48and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray to You in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name,
- 1 Kgs 8:42for they will hear of Your great name and mighty hand and outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 2:4 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.