They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
Parallel translations
- WEB Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
- BSB Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.
- 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 have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD.
- Jer 2:13For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
- 2 Kgs 17:15And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
- 1 Sam 12:21And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.
- Jer 10:8But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
- Hab 2:18–20What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?
- Jer 10:14–15Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
- Jer 16:19O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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.