Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jonah 2:5
even to the soul--that is, threatening to extinguish the animal life. weeds--He felt as if the seaweeds through which he was dragged were wrapped about his head.
The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| waters | מַ֙יִם֙ ma.yim | H4325 | water · noun, common masculine plural absolute |
| about | אֲפָפ֤וּנִי 'a.fa.Fu.ni | H661 | to surround · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural + pronominal suffix |
| soul | נֶ֔פֶשׁ Ne.fesh | H5315 | properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute |
| depth | תְּה֖וֹם te.Hom | H8415 | an abyss (as a surging mass of water) · noun, common feminine singular absolute |
| about | יְסֹבְבֵ֑נִי ye.soe.Ve.ni | H5437 | to revolve · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix |
| weeds | ס֖וּף suf | H5488 | a reed · noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| about | חָב֥וּשׁ cha.Vush | H2280 | to wrap firmly (especially a turban · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute |
| head | לְרֹאשִֽׁי le.ro.Shi | H7218 | the head (as most easily shaken) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
even to the soul--that is, threatening to extinguish the animal life. weeds--He felt as if the seaweeds through which he was dragged were wrapped about his head.
The waters compassed me about even to the soul - So as to seem to deprive me of life. I had no hope left. The weeds were wrapped about my head - This may be understood literally also. He found himself in the fish's stomach, together with sea weeds, and such like marine substances, which the fish had taken for its aliment.
The waters compassed me about, even to the soul,.... Either when he was first cast into the sea, which almost suffocated him, and just ready to take away his life, could not breathe for them, as is the case of a man drowning; or these were the waters the fish drew into its belly, in such large quantities, that they compassed him about, even to the endangering of his life there. So the Targum, "the waters surrounded me unto death.'' In this Jonah was a type of Christ in his afflictions and sorrows, which were so many and heavy, that he is said to be "exceeding sorrowful", or surrounded with sorrow, "even unto death", Matthew 26:38; see also Psalm 69:1; the depth closed me round about; the…
Read the whole note in the consoleJonah 2:5-6 5. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. 5. Obsederunt me aquae usque ad animam, abyssus undique circumdedit me, juncus alligatus fuit capite meo: 6. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. 6. Ad radices (proprie, excisuras; nam qtsv significat excidere; alii vertunt, ad fines extremos; ad radices igitur) montium descendi; terra cum vectibus suis circum me in seculum: et ascendere fecisti vitam meam e sepulchro (est aliud nomen quam s'vl, nempe, sht; alii vertunt, a corruptione, v…
Jonah either says this wishfully, or with a certain trust he promises himself that he will return to Jerusalem and see the temple of the Lord.
If, however, any one imagine it impossible that men should survive for such a length of time, and that Elias was not caught up in the flesh, but that his flesh was consumed in the fiery chariot, let him consider that Jonah, when he had been cast into the deep, and swallowed down into the whale's belly, was by the command of God again thrown out safe upon the land. And then, again, when Ananias, Azarias, and Misael were cast into the furnace of fire sevenfold heated, they sustained no harm whatever, neither was the smell of fire perceived upon them. As, therefore, the hand of God was present with them, working out marvellous things in their case-[things] impossible [to be accomplished] by man's nature-what wonder was it, if also in the case of those who were translated it performed something wonderful, working in obedience to the will of God, even the Father? Now this is the Son of God, as the Scripture represents Nebuchadnezzar the king as having said, "Did not we cast three men bound into the furnace? and, lo, I do see four walking in the midst of the fire, and the fourth is like the Son of God." Neither the nature of any created thing, therefore, nor the weakness of the flesh, can prevail against the will of God. For God is not subject to created things, but created things to God; and all things yield obedience to His will. Wherefore also the Lord declares, "The things which are impossible with men, are possible with God."
"The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about," LXX: 'the water ran about me up to my spirit; the last depth closed around me'. These waters, near to the deep, which cycle and slide about the earth, which drag much mud with them, tend to kill not the body but the soul, for they are friendly to the body and warmed by its desires. This is why, according to that which I have said above, the Lord says in the psalm, "save me, Lord, because the waters have penetrated even to my soul" [Ps. 68:2], and in another passage, "my soul has passed a torrent" [Ps. 123:5], and, "let not the well press its mouth on me" [Ps. 68:16], let hell not imprison me! Let it not refuse me an exit! I freely made the descent; so let me make the ascent back again freely. I became a captive voluntarily, I ought to free the captives so that this verse is fulfilled: "ascending into the higher parts he led the captives" [Eph. 4:8]. For those who were beforehand captives in death, he brought them to life again. We must heed certain wicked forces in the deep, or the specific powers in torture and supplication; demons, in the Gospel, ask not to be forced to go to them [Mt. 8:30; Mk. 5:10; Lk. 8:31]. This is why "the darkness was over the deep" [Gen. 1,2]. Sometimes the deep is taken to mean the sacraments in a deeper sense, the judgements of God: "the judgements of the Lord are a great abyss" [Ps. 35:7], and "the deep cries out to the deep in a cry of your cataracts." [Ps. 41:8]
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
5 Waters surrounded me even to the soul: the flood encompassed me, Sea-grass was wound round my head. 6 I went down to the foundations of the mountains; The earth, its bolts were behind me for ever: Then raisedst Thou my life out of the pit, O Jehovah my God. 7 When my soul fainted within me, I thought of Jehovah; And my prayer came to Thee into Thy holy temple. This strophe opens, like the last, with a description of the peril of death, to set forth still more perfectly the thought of miraculous deliverance which filled the prophet's mind. The first clause of the fifth verse recals to mind Psa 18:5 and Psa 69:2; the words "the waters pressed (בּאוּ) even to the soul" (Psa 69:2) being simply…
Read the whole note in the consoleOn the brink of drowning, Jonah called out for help, for life, and for God’s renewed presence. It is ironic that Jonah spoke of God as driving Jonah from his presence, for that was Jonah’s own aim in fleeing to Tarshish (1:3). • I will look once more: Either Jonah was confident that he would be rescued and thus worship again in the Temple in Jerusalem, or he was calling to the Lord in his Temple from the sea (cp. 2:7).
And I said—when they cast me into the sea, “Behold I am dead, and I have been driven away from before Your eyes.” Instead—I saw that You have kept me alive all these days. I know that I will continue to gaze upon Your Holy Temple.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).