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He said:

“I called out to the Lord from the midst of affliction directed at me,[a]
    and he answered me.
From the depths[b] of death[c] I cried out for help;
    and you heard my cry.[d]
You cast me into the deep—
    into the heart of the sea.
Flood waters engulfed me.
    All your breakers and your waves swirled over me.
So I told myself,[e] ‘I have been driven away from you.[f]
    How[g] will I again gaze on your holy Temple?’
Flood waters encompassed me,
    the deep surrounded me
        while seaweed wrapped around my head.
I sank to the roots of the mountains;
    the earth’s prison[h] bars closed[i] around me forever.
        Yet you resurrect the dead[j] from the Pit,[k] Lord my God!

“As my life was fading away,
    I remembered the Lord;
        and my prayer came to you in your holy Temple.
Those who cling to vain idols
    leave behind the gracious love that could have been theirs.[l]
But as for me, with a voice of thanksgiving I will sacrifice to you;
    what I have vowed I will pay.
Deliverance[m] is the Lord’s!”

10 Then the Lord spoke to the sea creature, and it spewed Jonah onto the dry land.

The Lord Again Calls Jonah to Go to Nineveh

This message from the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh to do what the Lord had ordered.

Now Nineveh was a very large city,[n] requiring[o] a three-day journey to cross through it.[p]

Footnotes

  1. Jonah 2:2 Lit. affliction to me
  2. Jonah 2:2 Lit. belly
  3. Jonah 2:2 Heb. Sheol; i.e. the realm of the dead
  4. Jonah 2:2 Or voice
  5. Jonah 2:4 Or I thought
  6. Jonah 2:4 Lit. from your attention
  7. Jonah 2:4 Lit. Indeed, surely
  8. Jonah 2:6 The Heb. lacks prison
  9. Jonah 2:6 The Heb. lacks closed
  10. Jonah 2:6 Lit. you bring life up
  11. Jonah 2:6 I.e. the place of punishment in the afterlife
  12. Jonah 2:8 Or leave behind their gracious love
  13. Jonah 2:9 Or Salvation
  14. Jonah 3:3 Lit. a great city of God; i.e. a city of enormous size
  15. Jonah 3:3 The Heb. lacks requiring
  16. Jonah 3:3 The Heb. lacks to cross through it