John Calvin Commentary Jonah 2:8-9

"They that regard lying vanities Forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation is of Jehovah." — Jonah 2:8-9 (ASV)

Here Jonah says first, that people miserably go astray when they turn aside to vain superstitions, for they rob themselves of the chief good. For he calls whatever help or aid is necessary for salvation 'their own mercy'—the mercy these people forsake. The meaning then is that as soon as people depart from God, they depart from life and salvation, and they retain nothing, for they willfully cast aside whatever good can be hoped for and desired.

Some derive a contrary meaning: that the superstitious, when they return to a sound mind, relinquish their own reproach, for חסד (chesed) sometimes means reproach. They then think that the way of true penitence is described here—that when God restores people from their straying to the right way, He also gives them a sound mind, so that they rid themselves of all their vices.

This is indeed true, but it is too strained a meaning. Others limit this to the sailors who vowed sacrifices to God, as though Jonah had said that they would soon relapse into their own follies and bid farewell to God, who in His mercy had delivered them from shipwreck. Thus, they explain 'their mercy' to mean God; but this is also too forced an explanation.

I do not doubt, therefore, that Jonah here contrasts his own religion with the false contrivances of people, for it immediately follows, But I with the voice of praise will sacrifice to thee. Jonah, then, having previously confessed that he would be thankful to God, now pours contempt on all those inventions which people foolishly contrive for themselves, and through which they withdraw from the only true God and from the sincere worship of Him.

For he calls all those devices by which people deceive themselves the vanities of falsehood, for it is certain that they are mere fallacies which people invent for themselves without the authority of God’s Word. For truth is one and simple, which God has revealed to us in His Word.

Whoever then turns aside in the least, either to one side or the other, seeks, as it were deliberately, some imposture or another, by which he ruins himself. They then who follow such vanities, says Jonah, forsake their own mercy; that is, they reject all happiness, for no aid and no help can be expected from any other source than from the only true God.

But this passage deserves careful notice, for from this we learn what value to attach to all superstitions, to all those opinions of people, when they attempt to establish religion according to their own will. For Jonah calls them lying or fallacious vanities. There is then only one true religion: the religion which God has taught us in His Word.

We must also notice that people weary themselves in vain when they follow their own inventions, for the more strenuously they run, the farther they recede from the right way, as Augustine has well observed.

But Jonah here adopts a higher principle: that God alone possesses in Himself all fullness of blessings. Whoever then truly and sincerely seeks God will find in Him whatever can be wished for salvation. But God is not to be sought except through obedience and faith. Whoever then dares to give themselves free rein, so as to follow this or that without the warrant of God’s Word, recedes from God and, at the same time, deprives themselves of all good things.

The superstitious indeed think that they gain much when they toil in their own inventions, but we see what the Holy Spirit declares by the mouth of Jonah. The Lord says the same by Jeremiah:

They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and cisterns have they digged for themselves (Jeremiah 2:13).

There the Lord complains of His chosen people, who had gone astray after wicked superstitions. Hence, when people wander beyond the Word of God, they, in a way, renounce God or bid farewell to Him, and thus they deprive themselves of all good things, for without God no salvation and no help can be found.

Jonah therefore rightly adds, But I, with the voice of praise, will sacrifice to thee; It is as though he said, "While people, as it were, banish themselves from God by giving themselves up to errors, I will sacrifice to You, and to You alone, O Lord."

And we ought to observe this, for as our minds are prone to falsehood and vanity, any new superstition will easily take hold of us, unless we are restrained by this bond—unless we are fully persuaded that true salvation dwells in God alone, and all aid and help that we can expect comes from Him. But when this conviction is really and thoroughly fixed in our hearts, then true religion cannot easily be lost by us. Though Satan should spread his allurements on every side, we shall still continue in the true and right worship of God.

And it behooves us to consider this passage all the more carefully because Jonah no doubt meant here to strengthen himself in the right path of religion. For he knew that, like all mortals, he was prone to what is false; he therefore encouraged himself to persevere. And this he does when he declares that whatever superstition people devise is a deprivation of the chief good—even of life and salvation.

It will therefore follow that we shall abominate every error when we are fully persuaded that we forsake the true God whenever we do not obey His Word, and that at the same time we cast away salvation and every good thing that can be desired. Then Jonah says, I will sacrifice to thee with the voice of praise.

It must be further noticed here that the worship of God especially consists in praises, as it is said in Psalm 1:1. For there God shows that He regards all sacrifices as nothing, unless they answer this end: to set forth the praise of His name.

It was indeed His will that sacrifices should be offered to Him under the Law, but it was for the purpose just stated. For God does not care for calves and oxen, for goats and lambs; but His will was that He should be acknowledged as the Giver of all blessings.

Hence He says there, Sacrifice to me the sacrifice of praise. So also Jonah now says, I will offer to thee the sacrifice of praise, and he might have said with still more simplicity, "Lord, I ascribe to You my preserved life."

But if this was the case under the shadows of the Law, how much more ought we to attend to this: that is, to strive to worship God, not in a crude manner, but spiritually, and to testify that our life proceeds from Him, that it is in His hand, that we owe all things to Him, and, in a word, that He is the Source and Author of salvation, and not only of salvation, but also of wisdom, of righteousness, and of power?

And he afterwards mentions his vows: I will pay, he says, my vows. We have stated elsewhere how we are to consider vows. The holy Fathers did not vow to God as the Papists of this day are accustomed to do, who seek to pacify God by their frivolous practices. One abstains for a certain time from meat, another puts on sackcloth, another undertakes a pilgrimage, and another imposes some new ceremony on God.

There was nothing of this kind in the vows of the holy Fathers; instead, a vow was merely an act of thanksgiving or a testimony of gratitude. And so Jonah joins his vows here with the sacrifice of praise. From this we learn that they were not two different things, but he repeats the same thing twice. Jonah, then, had declared his vow to God for no other purpose than to testify his gratitude.

And from this he adds, To Jehovah is, or belongs, salvation; that is, to save is the prerogative of God alone. Jehovah is here in the dative case, for prefixed to it is ל (lamed). It is then to Jehovah that salvation belongs; the work of saving belongs to no other than the Supreme God.

Since this is so, we see how absurd and insane people are when they transfer praises to another, as everyone does who invents an idol for himself. Since, then, there is only the one true God who saves, it behooves us to ascribe to Him alone all our praises, so that we do not deprive Him of His right. This is the meaning of the whole passage.