Verse 1

Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God a out of the fish's belly,

(a) Being now swallowed up by death, and seeing no remedy to escape, his faith broke out to the Lord, knowing that out of this very hell he was able to deliver him.

Verse 2

And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly b of hell cried I, [and] thou heardest my voice.

(b) For he was now in the fishes belly as in a grave or place of darkness.

Verse 4

Then I said, I am c cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

(c) This declared what his prayer was, and how he laboured between hope and despair, considering the neglect of his vocation, and God's judgments for it: but yet in the end faith gained the victory.

Verse 6

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars [was] about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my d life from corruption, O LORD my God.

(d) You have delivered me from the belly of the fish and all these dangers, as it were raising me from death to life.

Verse 8

They that observe lying e vanities forsake their own f mercy.

(e) Those that depend upon anything except on God alone.

(f) They refuse their own felicity, and that goodness which they would otherwise receive from God.