Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.
Parallel translations
- WEB Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
- KJV They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
- NKJV “Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy.
- NASB “Those who are followers of worthless idols Abandon their faithfulness,
- NLT Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies.
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
Jonah declares that those who cling to worthless idols forsake the mercy that could be theirs. It matters because it warns that idolatry abandons the only true source of grace.
Overview
'Lying vanities' are empty idols that promise help but cannot deliver, as the sailors' useless prayers had shown. To pursue them is to forsake 'their own mercy,' the steadfast love available only in the true God. Coming from a man being saved from death, this is a heartfelt testimony that grace is found in Yahweh alone.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 31:6I hate those who cling to worthless idols, but in the LORD I trust.
- Jer 2:13“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
- 2 Kgs 17:15They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and themselves became worthless, going after the surrounding nations that the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.
- 1 Sam 12:21Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.
- Jer 10:8But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
- Hab 2:18–20What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it—or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.
- Jer 10:14–15Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his molten images are a fraud, and there is no breath in them.
- Jer 16:19O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.
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 2:8 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.