translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JON

label: NET study note

text: The eight verses of Jonah’s prayer in Hebrew contain twenty-seven first-person pronominal references to himself. There are fifteen second- or third-person references to the Lord .


text: Sheol was a name for the place of residence of the dead, the underworld (see Job 7:9-10 ; Isa 38:17-18 ). Jonah pictures himself in the belly of Sheol, its very center – in other words he is as good as dead.


text: Verses 3 and 5 multiply terms describing Jonah’s watery plight. The images used in v. 3 appear also in 2 Sam 22:5-6 ; Pss 42:7; 51:11; 69:1-2, 14-15; 88:6-7; 102:10 .


text: Jonah pictures himself as being at the very gates of the netherworld (v. 6 b) and now within the Pit itself (v. 6 c). He is speaking rhetorically, for he had not actually died. His point is that he was as good as dead if God did not intervene immediately. See Pss 7:15; 30:3; 103:4 ; Ezek 19:3-4, 8 .


text: For similar ideas see 2 Chr 30:27 ; Pss 77:3; 142:3; 143:4-5 .