As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD. My prayer went up to You, to Your holy temple.
Parallel translations
- WEB “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Yahweh. My prayer came in to you, into your holy temple.
- KJV When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
- NKJV “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple.
- NASB “While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple.
- NLT As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to you in 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
As his life ebbed away, Jonah remembered the Lord, and his prayer reached God's temple. It matters because in his fainting he turns to God, and God receives his prayer.
Overview
At the point of collapse, memory of the Lord awakens prayer, showing that even feeble faith finds God. His prayer entering God's 'holy temple' assures him that worship offered in distress is heard in heaven. The verse encourages believers that when strength fails, remembering and calling on God is never in vain.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- Ps 18:6In my distress I called upon the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for His help reached His ears.
- 2 Chr 30:27Then the priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard their voice, and their prayer came into His holy dwelling place in heaven.
- 1 Sam 30:6And David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of every man grieved for his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
- Ps 143:5I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works; I consider the work of Your hands.
- Ps 11:4The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD is on His heavenly throne. His eyes are watching closely; they examine the sons of men.
- Ps 27:13Still I am certain to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
- Ps 77:10–11So I said, “I am grieved that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”
- Ps 20:7Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
- Ps 65:4Blessed is the one You choose and bring near to dwell in Your courts! We are filled with the goodness of Your house, the holiness of Your temple.
- Ps 42:11Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.
- Lam 3:21–26Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:
- 2 Cor 1:9–10Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.
- Ps 42:5Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him for the salvation of His presence.
- Jonah 2:4At this, I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.’
- Mic 1:2Hear, O peoples, all of you; listen, O earth, and everyone in it! May the Lord GOD bear witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple.
- Hab 2:20But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.
- Heb 12:3Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
- Ps 43:5Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.
- Ps 119:81–83My soul faints for Your salvation; I wait for Your word.
- Ps 22:14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
- Isa 50:10Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of His Servant? Who among you walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD; let him lean on his God.
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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 2:7 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.