John Calvin Commentary Jonah 2:5-6

"The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; The deep was round about me; The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The earth with its bars [closed] upon me for ever: Yet hast thou brought up my life from the pit, O Jehovah my God." — Jonah 2:5-6 (ASV)

Here, Jonah relates in many words how many things had happened to him, which were designed to overwhelm his mind with terror, drive him far from God, and take away every desire for prayer. But we must always bear in mind what we have already stated—that he had to do with God; and this we ought to consider well. The case was the same with David, when he says in Psalm 39:9, ‘You have yet done it;’ for, after complaining about his enemies, he turned his mind to God: “What then do I do? What do I gain by these complaints? For men alone do not trouble me; You, God,” he says, “have done this.” So it was with Jonah; he always set before himself the wrath of God, for he knew that such a calamity had not happened to him except on account of his sins.

He therefore says that he was beset by waters, and then, that he was surrounded by the deep; but finally he adds, that God made his life to ascend, etc. All these circumstances tend to show that Jonah could not have lifted his mind to God except through an extraordinary miracle, as his life was oppressed in so many ways.

When he says that ‘he was beset with waters even to the soul,’ I understand this to mean to the peril of his life; for other explanations seem cold and forced. And the Hebrews say that to be pressed to the soul is to be in danger of one’s life; just as the Latins, meaning the same thing, say that the heart, or the inner parts, or the bowels, are wounded.

So also in this place the same thing is meant: ‘The waters beset me even to the soul,’ and then, ‘the abyss surrounds me.’ Some render סוף (suph) as sedge, others as seaweed, others as bulrush; but the sense amounts to the same thing. No doubt סוף (suph) is a species of sedge, and some think that the Red Sea was so named because it is full of sedges or bulrushes. They also think that bulrushes are so named because they soon putrefy.

But what Jonah means is certain: that weed enveloped his head, or that weed grew around his head. To refer this to the head of the fish, as some do, is improper. Jonah speaks metaphorically when he says that he was entangled in the sedge, since there is no hope when anyone is rolled in the sedge at the bottom of the sea. Indeed, how can he escape from drowning who is thus held, as it were, tied up? It is then to be understood metaphorically, for Jonah meant that he was so sunk that he could not swim, except through the ineffable power of God.

In the same sense he says, ‘I descended to the roots of the mountains.’ But he speaks of promontories, which were near the sea; as though he had said that he was not cast into the middle of the sea, but that he had sunk so as to be fixed in the deep under the roots of mountains. All these things have the same design, which was to show that no deliverance could be hoped for, unless God stretched forth his hand from heaven, and indeed in a new and incredible manner.

He says that ‘the earth with its bars was around him.’ By this kind of speaking, he means that he was so shut up, as if the whole earth had been like a door. We know what sort of bars those of the earth are when we ascribe bars to it; for when any door is fastened with bolts, we know how small a portion it is. But when we suppose the earth itself to be like a door, what kind of things must the bolts be? It is then the same as if Jonah had said that he was so hindered from the vital light, as if the earth had been set against him to prevent his coming out to behold the sun—the earth, then, ‘was set against me, and that forever.’

He afterwards comes to thanksgiving: ‘And You, Jehovah, my God, have made my life ascend from the grave.’ Jonah, after giving a long description to show that he was not put to death just once, but that he had been overwhelmed with many and various deaths, now adds his gratitude to the Lord for having delivered him: ‘You,’ he says, ‘have made my life ascend from the grave, O Jehovah.’

He again confirms what I have said before—that he did not pour out empty prayers, but that he prayed with earnest feeling and in faith; for he would not have called him his God unless he was persuaded of his paternal love, so as to be able to expect from him a certain salvation.

‘You, then, Jehovah, my God,’ he says. He does not say, ‘You have delivered me,’ but, ‘You have brought forth my life from the grave.’ Then Jonah, brought to life again, testifies here that he was not only delivered by God’s aid from the greatest danger, but that he had, by a kind of resurrection, been raised from the dead. This is the meaning of this way of speaking, when he says that his life had been brought forth from the grave, or from corruption itself.