Jonah 2.2-The Lord Answers Jonah's Prayer For Deliverance From Death (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)
Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday February 1, 2026
Jonah Series: Jonah 2:2-The Lord Answers Jonah’s Prayer For Deliverance From Death
Lesson # 21
In Jonah 2:2, Jonah reflects back on his deliverance from drowning and acknowledges that the Lord his God answered his prayer for deliverance from death.
Jonah 2:1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. 3 You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. 4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ 5 The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. 6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God. 7 “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. 8 “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. 9 But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord.” 10 And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (NIV84)
Jonah 2:2 contains the first line in Jonah’s thanksgiving psalm and is a summary of the prophet’s answered prayer or in other words, it presents the reason for his thanksgiving.
It explains the previous clause in verse 1 identifying for the reader specifically the content of Jonah’s thanksgiving prayer to the Lord for delivering him from death.
These two statements, “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry” parallel each other with both referring to the Lord responding to Jonah’s prayer for help.
“In my distress I called to the Lord” is composed of the verb qā∙rā(ʾ) (קָרָא), “I called” and the preposition min (מִן), “in” and the noun ṣā∙rā(h) (צָרָה), “distress” and the preposition le (לְ) and the first person singular pronomial suffix ǎnî (אֲנִי), “my” and the preposition ʾěl (אַל), “to” and the proper noun Yahweh (יהוה), “the Lord.”
The verb qā∙rā(ʾ) (קָרָא) is used with Jonah as its subject and Yahweh as its object and again means “to call out” indicating that while drowning Jonah called out to the Lord to deliver him from death.
The proper noun Yahweh (יהוה), “the Lord” is the covenant-keeping personal name of God used in connection with man’s salvation emphasizing with the reader that Jonah prayed for the Lord to intervene in his life and save him from drowning since it speaks of the immanency of God.
The noun ṣā∙rā(h) (צָרָה) refers to the distress in the form of emotional pain and distress that Jonah experienced while drowning in the Mediterranean Sea and is the object of the preposition min (מִן), which is a marker of reason indicating the reason why Jonah cried out to the Lord for help.
Jonah’s prayer for help while in the stomach of the great fish was an expression of his faith in the Word of God and in particular the Psalms.
David wrote in the tenth century B.C. whereas Jonah lived in the eighth century B.C.
Jonah’s prayer echoes the Word of God and in particular the Psalms of David.
Psalm 18:7, “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried out to my God. From his heavenly temple he heard my voice; he listened to my cry for help.” (NET Bible)
Psalm 30:2, “O Lord my God, I cried out to you and you healed me.” (NET Bible)
Psalm 120, “A song of ascents. 1 In my distress I cried out to the Lord and he answered me.” (NET Bible)
Jonah cries for help in Jonah 2:2 echoes Exodus 15:5-10, Psalm 88, 107:25-32 and 130:1-2 since they possess similar language.
“And He answered me” presents the result of Jonah crying out to the Lord for help in delivering him from drowning to death.
The Lord answered him because the prayer for deliverance was offered up by the prophet in faith and it was the will of God to save Jonah.
Answered prayer requires faith and is thus an expression of confidence in God’s ability to meet one’s need (Matt. 8:10; Luke 7:9; Matt. 9:22; Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Matt. 9:29; 17:20; Luke 17:5; Mark 9:29; Matt. 21:22; Mark 11:24; 1 John 3:21-22; James 1:5-8; 5:15).
The Lord answered his prayer because it was according to His will (1 John 5:14-15).
“From the depths of the grave I called for help” is composed of the verb šā∙wǎʿ (שָׁוַע), “I called for help” and the preposition min (מִן), “from” and the noun bě∙ṭěn (בֶּטֶן), “the depths” and the geographic noun šeʾôl (שְׁאֹול), “of the grave.”
The verb šā∙wǎʿ (שָׁוַע) is used with Jonah as its subject and means “to cry for help,” i.e. “ask or request something, with a focus that the asking is intense or desperate, imploring for aid in a difficult or dangerous situation” (Dictionary of Biblical Languages of Semantic Domains: Hebrew (Old Testament)).
The noun bě∙ṭěn (בֶּטֶן) means “belly” or “stomach” and is personifying Sheol indicating that Jonah is describing his near death experience in the Mediterranean Sea as being eaten by death.
This imagery appears in other places in the Old Testament.
Psalm 49:14, “They will travel to Sheol like sheep, with death as their shepherd. The godly will rule over them when the day of vindication dawns; Sheol will consume their bodies and they will no longer live in impressive houses.” (NET Bible)
In the Old Testament, the geographic noun šeʾôl (שְׁאֹול), “of the grave” often refers to one of four compartments called in Scripture “Paradise,” which prior to the resurrection of Jesus Christ contained the departed souls of believers.
However, in Jonah 2:2, the noun šeʾôl, “Sheol” does not refer to any of the four compartments of Hades but rather it refers to the fact that Jonah was near death or in a life threatening situation.
This is indicated by the parallel expression מִצָּ֥רָה, “in my distress” that appears in the previous verse, which refers to the experience of being close to dying.
Douglas Stuart writes, “The psalm, by employing the phrase ‘belly of Sheol,’ shows its intended use for serious, life-threatening situations.” (Word Biblical Commentary, volume 31: Hosea-Jonah; page 476)
“You listened to my cry” parallels “He answered me” indicating that Jonah is writing rhetorically.
To summarize our findings, the two statements in this verse parallel each other and are thus rhetorical emphasizing the Lord delivering the prophet from certain death.
This solves the problem that some commentators have with this statement because the logical sequence is reversed in this verse where we have God answering Jonah’s plea and then hearing the prophet’s voice when we expect the reverse.
Both statements are saying the same thing because the poet is writing rhetorically and with parallel statements.
So in this verse Jonah reflects back on his deliverance from drowning and acknowledges that the Lord his God answered his prayer for deliverance from death.
