Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Trapp Complete Commentary - Jonah 2:1 - 2:1
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Jon_2:1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,
Ver. 1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God] i.e. Praised God with this Canticum eucharisticum, this gratulatory song, as Tremellius calleth it. That he prayed in the ship, in the sea, in the whale’s belly, we doubt not; but that he chiefly intendeth to show his thankfulness for the return of prayers and the sweet support he felt in the whale’s belly we do as little doubt, see Jon_2:2; Jon_2:6-7; yea, that this was the substance (though now better methodized) of what he prayed and praised in the bowels of the fish we have cause to believe from this very verse; and therefore also his deliverance is set down, Jon_2:10, after his doxology. The word here rendered prayed signifieth also, sometimes, to give thanks, as 1Sa_2:2; and who knows not that thanksgiving is a special part of prayer? This therefore is prayer. Jonah having prayed, and perceiving that he was heard, and by the goodness of God preserved safe in body and sound in mind, he grows "strong in faith, giving glory to God," Rom_4:20, and being fully persuaded that he should yet walk before him again in the land of the living.
Out of the fish’s belly] Where, though he might seem buried alive, and free among the dead, yet he enjoyed God’s gracious presence, and those strong consolations that made him live in the very mouth of death, and say in effect, as blessed Bradford did, I thank God more for this prison and for this dark dungeon than for any parlour, yea, than of any pleasure that ever I had; for in it I find God my most sweet God always.