Bible Commentary

Jonah 2:3

Jonah 2:3

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public Domain

He describes his danger and distress. Thou hadst cast; rather, thou didst cast, the sailors being the agents of the Divine will. Septuagint, ἀπέῤῥi ψας. The deep; βάθη, "depths"; . In the midst; literally, in the heart; Septuagint, καρδίας θαλάσσης: galore, in corde maris.

This defines more closely the previous expression. The floods; literally, the river. This may mean the current (as in ), which in the Mediterranean Sea sets from west to east, and, impinging on the Syrian coast, turns north; or it may have reference to the notion, familiar to us in Homer.

which regarded the ocean as a river. All thy billows and thy waves; πάντες οἱ μετεωρισμοί σου καὶ τὰ κύματά σου "all thy swellings and waves"; omnes gurgites tui, et fluctus tui (Vulgate). The former are "breakers," the latter "rolling billows."

The clause is from , Jonah transferring what is there said metaphorically to his own literal experience, at the same time acknowledging God's hand in the punishment by speaking of "thy billows" (comp.

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