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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
J O N A H.
CHAP. II.
We left Jonah in the belly of the fish, and had reason to think we
should hear no more of him, that if he were not destroyed by the waters
of the sea he would be consumed in the bowels of that leviathan, “out
of whose mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire, and whose breath
kindles coals,”
But God brings his people through fire, and through water
(Ps. lxvi. 12);
and by his power, behold, Jonah the prophet is yet alive, and is heard
of again. In this chapter God hears from him, for we find him praying;
in the next Nineveh hears from him, for we find him preaching. In his
prayer we have,
I. The great distress and danger he was in,
II. The despair he was thereby almost reduced to,
III. The encouragement he took to himself, in this deplorable condition,
IV. The assurance he had of God’s favour to him,
V. The warning and instruction he gives to others,
VI. The praise and glory of all given to God,
In the
we have Jonah’s deliverance out of the belly of the fish, and his
coming safe and sound upon dry land again.
| Jonah’s Prayer; The Prophet in the Fish’s Belly. | B. C. 840. |
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1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s
belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD,
and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou
heardest my voice.
3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the
seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy
waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look
again toward thy holy temple.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth
closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
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.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my
prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of
thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is
of the LORD.
God and his servant Jonah had parted in anger, and the quarrel began on
Jonah’s side; he fled from his country that he might outrun his work;
but we hope to see them both together again, and the reconciliation
begins on God’s side. In the close of the foregoing chapter we found
God returning to Jonah in a way of mercy, delivering him from going
down to the pit, having found a ransom; in this chapter we
find Jonah returning to God in a way of duty; he was called up in the
former chapter to pray to his God, but we are not told that he did so;
however, now at length he is brought to it. Now observe here,
I. When he prayed
(v. 1):
Then Jonah prayed; then when he was in trouble, under the sense
of sin and the tokens of God’s displeasure against him for sin, then he
prayed. Note, When we are in affliction we must pray; then we have
occasion to pray, then we have errands at the throne of grace and
business there; then, if ever, we shall have a disposition to pray,
when the heart is humbled, and softened, and made serious; then God
expects it (in their affliction they will seek me early, seek me
earnestly); and, though we bring our afflictions upon ourselves by our
sins, yet, if we pray in humility and godly sincerity, we shall be
welcome to the throne of grace, as Jonah was. Then when he was in a
hopeful way of deliverance, being preserved alive by miracle, a plain
indication that he was reserved for further mercy, then he prayed. An
apprehension of God’s good-will to us, notwithstanding our offences,
gives us boldness of access to him, and opens the lips in prayer which
were closed with the sense of guilt and dread of wrath.
II. Where he prayed–in the fish’s belly. No place is amiss for
prayer. I will that men pray every where. Wherever God casts us
we may find a way open to heaven-ward, if it be not our own fault.
Undique ad cœlos tantundem est viæ–The heavens are equally
accessible from every part of the earth. He that has Christ
dwelling in his heart by faith, wherever he goes carries the altar
along with him, that sanctifies the gift, and is himself a
living temple. Jonah was here in confinement; the belly of the
fish was his prison, was a close and dark dungeon to him; yet there he
had freedom of access to God, and walked at liberty in communion with
him. Men may shut us out from communion with one another, but not from
communion with God. Jonah was now in the bottom of the sea, yet out
of the depths he cries to God; as Paul and Silas prayed in the
prison, in the stocks.
III. To whom he prayed–to the Lord his God. He had been fleeing
from God, but now he sees the folly of it, and returns to him; by
prayer he draws near to that God whom he had gone aside from, and
engages his heart to approach him. In prayer he has an eye to
him, not only as the Lord, but as his God, a God in
covenant with him; for, thanks be to God, every transgression in the
covenant does not throw us out of covenant. This encourages even
backsliding children to return.
Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God.
IV. What his prayer was. He afterwards recollected the substance of it,
and left it upon record. He reflects upon the workings of his heart
towards God when he was in his distress and danger, and the conflict
that was then in his breast between faith and sense, between hope and
fear.
1. He reflects upon the earnestness of his prayer, and God’s readiness
to hear and answer
(v. 2):
He said, I cried, by reason of my affliction, unto the Lord.
Note, Many that prayed not at all, or did but whisper prayer, when they
were in prosperity, are brought to pray, nay, are brought to cry, by
reason of their affliction; and it is for this end that afflictions
are sent, and they are in vain if this end be not answered. Those
heap up wrath who cry not when God binds them,
Job xxxvi. 13.
“Out of the belly of hell and the grave cried I.” The
fish might well be called a grave, and, as it was a prison to which
Jonah was condemned for his disobedience and in which he lay under the
wrath of God, it might well be called the belly of hell. Thither this
good man was cast, and yet thence he cried to God, and it was not in
vain; God heard him, heard the voice of his affliction, the
voice of his supplication. There is a hell in the other world, out of
which there is no crying to God with any hope of being heard; but,
whatever hell we may be in the belly of in this world, we may
thence cry to God. When Christ lay, as Jonah, three days and
three nights in the grave, though he prayed not, as Jonah did, yet his
very lying there cried to God for poor sinners, and the cry was
heard.
2. He reflects upon the very deplorable condition that he was in when
he was in the belly of hell, which, when he lay there, he was very
sensible of and made particular remarks upon. Note, If we would get
good by our troubles, we must take notice of our troubles, and of the
hand of God in them. Jonah observes here,
(1.) How low he was thrown
(v. 3):
Thou hadst cast me into the deep. The mariners cast him there;
but he looked above them, and saw the hand of God casting him there.
Whatever deeps we are cast into, it is God that casts us into them, and
he it is who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell.
He was cast into the midst of the seas–the heart of the seas
(so the word is), and thence Christ borrows that Hebrew phrase, when he
applies it to his own lying so long in the heart of the earth.
For he that is laid dead in the grave, though it be ever so shallow, is
cut off as effectually from the land of the living as if he were laid
in the heart of the earth.
(2.) How terribly he was beset: The floods compassed me about.
The channels and springs of the waters of the sea surrounded him on
every side; it was always high-water with him. God’s dear saints and
servants are sometimes encompassed with the floods of affliction, with
troubles that are very forcible and violent, that bear down on all
before them, and that run constantly upon them, as the waters of a
river in a continual succession, one trouble upon the neck of another,
as Job’s messengers of evil tidings; they are enclosed by them on all
sides, as the church complains,
He has hedged me about, that I cannot get out, nor see which way
I may flee for safety. All thy billows and they waves passed over
me. Observe, He calls them God’s billows and his waves, not only
because he made them (the sea is his, and he made it), and
because he rules them (for even the winds and the seas obey
him), but because he had now commissioned them against Jonah, and
limited them, and ordered them to afflict and terrify him, but not to
destroy him. These words are plainly quoted by Jonah from
where, though the translations differ a little, in the original David’s
complaint is the same verbatim—word for word, with this
of Jonah’s: All thy billows and thy waves passed over me. What
David spoke figuratively and metaphorically Jonah applied to himself as
literally fulfilled. For the reconciling of ourselves to our
afflictions, it is good to search precedents, that we may find there
has no temptation taken us but such as is common to men. If ever
any man’s case was singular, and not to be paralleled, surely Jonah’s
was, and yet, to his great satisfaction, he finds even the man after
God’s own heart making the same complaint of God’s waves and billows
going over him that he has now occasion to make. When God
performs the thing that is appointed for us we shall find that
many such things are with him, that even our path of trouble is
no untrodden path, and that God deals with us no otherwise than as he
uses to deal with those that love his name. And therefore for
our assistance in our addresses to God, when we are in trouble, it is
good to make use of the complaints and prayers which the saints that
have been before us made use of in the like case. See how good it is to
be ready in the scriptures; Jonah, when he could make no use of his
Bible, by the help of his memory furnished himself from the scripture
with a very proper representation of his case: All thy billows and
thy waves passed over me. To the same purport,
v. 5,
The waters compassed me about even to the soul; they threatened
his life, which was hereby brought into imminent danger; or they made
an impression upon his spirit; he saw them to be tokens of God’s
displeasure, and in them the terrors of the Almighty set themselves
in array against him; this reached to his soul, and put that into
confusion. And this also is borrowed from David’s complaint,
The waters have come in unto my soul. When without are
fightings it is no marvel that within are fears. Jonah, in
the fish’s belly, finds the depths enclosing him round about, so
that if he would get out of his prison, yet he must unavoidably perish
in the waters. He feels the sea-weed (which the fish sucked in
with the water) wrapped about his head, so that he has no way
left him to help himself, nor hope that any one else can help him.
Thus are the people of God sometimes perplexed and entangled, that they
may learn not to trust in themselves, but in God that raises the
dead,
2 Cor. i. 8, 9.
(3.) How fast he was held
(v. 6):
He went down to the bottom of the mountains, to the rocks in the
sea, upon which the hills and promontories by the seaside seem to be
bottomed; he lay among them, nay, he lay under them; the earth with
her bars was about him, so close about him that it was likely to be
about him for ever. The earth was so shut and locked, so barred and
bolted, against him, that he was quite cut off from any hope of ever
returning to it. Thus helpless, thus hopeless, did Jonah’s case seem to
be. Those whom God contends with the whole creation is at war with.
3. He reflects upon the very black and melancholy conclusion he was
then ready to make concerning himself, and the relief he obtained
against it,
(1.) He began to sink into despair, and to give up himself for gone and
undone to all intents and purposes. When the waters compassed him
about even to the soul no marvel that his soul fainted within
him, fainted away, so that he had not any comfortable enjoyments or
expectations; his spirits quite failed, and he looked upon himself as a
dead man. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, and the
apprehension of that was the thing that made his spirit faint within
him. He thought God had quite forsaken him, would never return in mercy
to him, nor show him any token for good again. He had no example
before him of any that were brought alive out of a fish’s belly; if he
thought of Job upon the dunghill, Joseph in the pit, David in the cave,
yet these did not come up to his case. Nor was there any visible way of
escape open for him but by miracle; and what reason had he to expect
that a miracle of mercy should be wrought for him who was now made a
monument of justice? How own conscience told him that he had wickedly
fled from the presence of the Lord, and therefore he might
justly cast him away from his presence, and, in token of that,
take away his Holy Spirit from him, never to visit him more.
What hopes could he have of deliverance out of a trouble which his
own ways and doings had procured to himself? Observe,
When Jonah would say the worst he could of his case he says this, I
am cast out of thy sight; those, and those only, are miserable,
whom God has cast out of his sight, whom he will no longer own and
favour. What is the misery of the damned in hell but this, that they
are cast out of God’s sight? For what is the happiness of heaven but
the vision and fruition of God? Sometimes the condition of God’s people
may be such in this world that they may think themselves quite excluded
from God’s presence, so as no more to see him, or to be regarded by
him. Jacob and Israel said, My way is hidden from the Lord, and my
judgment is passed over from my God,
Isa. xl. 27.
Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me, my God has forgotten me,
Isa. xlix. 14.
But it is only the surmise of unbelief, for God has not cast away
his people whom he has chosen.
(2.) Yet he recovered himself from sinking into despair, with some
comfortable prospects of deliverance. Faith corrected and controlled
the surmises of fear and distrust. Here was a fierce struggle between
sense and faith, but faith had the last word and came off a conqueror.
In trying times, the issue will be good at last, providing our faith do
not fail; it was therefore the continuance of that in its vigour that
Christ secured to Peter. I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail
not,
Luke xxii. 32.
David would have fainted if he had not believed,
Ps. xxvii. 13.
Jonah’s faith said, Yet I will look again towards thy holy
temple. Thus, though he was perplexed, yet not in
despair; in the depth of the sea he had this hope in him, as an
anchor of the soul, sure and stedfast. That which he supports
himself with the hope of is that he shall yet look again towards
God’s holy temple.
[1.] That he shall live; he shall look again heaven-ward, shall again
see the light of the sun, though now he seems to be cast into utter
darkness. Thus against hope he believed in hope.
[2.] That he shall live, and praise God; and a good man does not
desire to live for any other purpose,
That he shall enjoy communion with God again in holy ordinances, shall
look towards, and go up to, the holy temple, there to
enquire, there to behold the beauty of the Lord. When
Hezekiah desired that he might be assured of his recovery, he asked,
What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?
as if that were the only thing for the sake of which he wished for
health; so Jonah here hopes he shall look again towards the
temple; that way he had looked many a time with pleasure, rejoicing
when he was called to go up to the house of the Lord; and the
remembrance of it was his comfort, that, when he had opportunity, he
was no stranger to the holy temple. But now he could not so much as
look towards it; in the fish’s belly he could not tell which way it
lay, but he hopes he shall be again able to look towards it, to look on
it, to look into it. Observe, How modestly Jonah expresses himself; as
one conscious to himself of guilt and unworthiness, he dares not speak
of dwelling in God’s house, as David, knowing that he is no more
worthy to be called a son, but he hopes that he may be admitted to
look towards it. He calls it the holy temple, for the holiness
of it was, in his eye, the beauty of it, and that for the sake of which
he loved and looked towards it. The temple was a type of heaven; and
he promises himself that though being now a captive exile, he
should never be loosed, but die in the pit, yet he should
look towards the heavenly temple, and be brought safely thither. Though
he die in the fish’s belly, in the bottom of the sea, yet thence he
hopes his soul shall be carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom. Or
these words may be taken as Jonah’s vow when he was in distress, and he
speaks
(v. 9)
of paying what he vowed; his vow is that if God deliver him he will
praise him in the gates of the daughter of Zion,
Ps. ix. 13, 14.
His sin for which God pursued him was fleeing from the presence of
the Lord, the folly of which he is now convinced of, and promises
not only that he will never again look towards Tarshish, but that he
will again look towards the temple, and will go from strength to
strength till he appear before God there. And thus we see how faith
and hope were his relief in his desponding condition. To these he added
prayer to God
(v. 7):
“When my soul fainted within me, then I remembered the
Lord, I betook myself to that cordial.” He remembered what he is, how
nigh to those that seem to be thrown at the greatest distance by
trouble, how merciful to those that seem to have thrown themselves at a
distance from him by sin. He remembered what he had done for him, what
he had done for others, what he could do, what he had promised to do;
and this kept him from fainting. Remembering God, he made his addresses
to him: “My prayer came in unto thee; I sent it in, and expected
to receive an answer to it.” Note, Our afflictions should put us in
mind of God, and thereby put us upon prayer to him. When our souls
faint we must remember God; and, when we remember God, we must send up
a prayer to him, a pious ejaculation at least; when we think on his
name we should call on his name.
4. He reflects upon the favour of God to him when thus in his distress
he sought to God and trusted him.
(1.) He graciously accepted his prayer, and gave admission and audience
to it
(v. 7):
My prayer, being sent to him, came in unto him, even
into his holy temple; it was heard in the highest heavens,
though it was prayed in the lowest deeps.
(2.) He wonderfully wrought deliverance for him, and, when he was in
the depth of his misery, gave him the earnest and assurance of it
(v. 6):
Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God!
Some think he said this when he was vomited up on dry ground; and then
it is the language of thankfulness, and he sets it over-against the
great difficulty of his case, that the power of God might be the more
magnified in his deliverance: The earth with her bars was about me
for ever, and yet thou hast brought up my life from the pit,
from the bars of the pit. Or, rather, we may suppose it spoken
while he was yet in the fish’s belly, and then it is the language of
his faith: “Thou hast kept me alive here, in the pit, and therefore
thou canst, thou wilt, bring up my life from the pit;” and he
speaks of it with as much assurance as if it were done already: Thou
has brought up my life. Though he has not an express promise of
deliverance, he has an earnest of it, and on that he depends: he has
life, and therefore believes his life shall be brought up from
corruption; and this assurance he addresses to God: Thou has
done it, O Lord my God! Thou art the Lord, and therefore
canst do it for me, my God, and therefore wilt do it. Note, If
the Lord be our God, he will be to us the resurrection and the
life, will redeem our lives from destruction, from the power of the
grave.
5. He gives warning to others, and instructs them to keep close to God
(v. 8):
Those that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, that
is,
(1.) Those that worship other gods, as the heathen mariners did, and
call upon them, and expect relief and comfort from them, forsake
their own mercy; they stand in their own light; they turn their
back upon their own happiness, and go quite out of the way of all good.
Note, Idols are lying vanities, and those that pay that homage
to them which is due to God only act as contrarily to their interests
as to their duty. Or,
(2.) Those that follow their own inventions, as Jonah himself had done
when he fled from the presence of the Lord to go to Tarshish,
forsake their own mercy, that mercy which they might find in
God, and might have such a covenant-right and title to it as to be able
to call it their own, if they would but keep close to God and their
duty. Those that think to go any where to be from under the eye of God,
as Jonah did–that think to better themselves by deserting his service,
as Jonah did–and that grudge his mercy to any poor sinners, and
pretend to be wiser than he in judging who are fit to have prophets
sent them and who are not, as Jonah did–they observe lying
vanities, are led away by foolish groundless fancies, and, like
him, they forsake their own mercy, and no good can come of it.
Note, Those that forsake their own duty forsake their own mercy; those
that run away from the work of their place and day run away from the
comfort of it.
6. He solemnly binds his soul with a bond that, if God work deliverance
for him, the God of his mercies shall be the God of his praises,
v. 9.
He covenants with God,
(1.) That he will honour him in his devotions with the sacrifice of
thanksgiving; and God has said, for the encouragement of those that
do so, that those that offer praise glorify him. He will,
according to the law of Moses, bring a sacrifice of
thanksgiving, and will offer that according to the law of nature,
with the voice of thanksgiving. The love and thankfulness of the
heart to God are the life and soul of this duty; without these neither
the sacrifice of thanksgiving nor the voice of thanksgiving will avail
any thing. But gratitude was then, by a divine appointment, to be
expressed by a sacrifice, in which the offerer presented the beast
slain to God, not in lieu of himself, but in token of himself; and it
is now to be expressed by the voice of thanksgiving, the
calves of our lips
(Hos. xiv. 2),
the fruit of our lips
speaking forth, singing forth, the high praises of our God. This Jonah
here promises, that with the sacrifice of thanksgiving he will
mention the lovingkindness of the Lord, to his glory, and the
encouragement of others.
(2.) That he will honour him in his conversation by a punctual
performance of his vows, which he made in the fish’s belly. Some think
it was some work of charity that he vowed, or such a vow as Jacob’s
was, Of all that thou hast given me I will give the tenth unto
thee. More probably his vow was that if God would deliver him he
would readily go wherever he should please to send him, though it were
to Nineveh. When we smart for deserting our duty it is time to promise
that we will adhere to it, and abound in it. Or, perhaps, the sacrifice
of thanksgiving is the thing he vowed, and that is it which he will
pay, as David,
7. He concludes with an acknowledgment of God as the Saviour of his
people: Salvation is of the Lord; it belongs to the Lord,
Ps. iii. 8.
He is the God of salvation,
Ps. lxviii. 19, 20.
He only can work salvation, and he can do it be the danger and distress
ever so great; he has promised salvation to his people that trust in
him. All the salvations of his church in general, and of particular
saints, were wrought by him; he is the Saviour of those that
believe,
1 Tim. iv. 10.
Salvation is still of him, as it has always been; from him alone it is
to be expected, and on him we are to depend for it. Jonah’s experience
shall encourage others, in all ages, to trust in God as the God of
their salvation; all that read this story shall say with assurance, say
with admiration, that salvation is of the Lord, and is sure to
all that belongs to him.
| Jonah’s Deliverance. | B. C. 840. |
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10 And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah
upon the dry land.
We have here Jonah’s discharge from his imprisonment, and his
deliverance from that death which there he was threatened with–his
return, though not to life, for he lived in the fish’s belly, yet to
the land of the living, for from that he seemed to be quite cut
off–his resurrection, though not from death, yet from the grave, for
surely never man was so buried alive as Jonah was in the fish’s belly.
His enlargement may be considered,
1. As an instance of God’s power over all the creatures. God spoke
to the fish, gave him orders to return him, as before he had given
him orders to receive him. God speaks to other creatures, and it is
done; they are all his ready obedient servants. But to man he
speaks once, yea, twice, and he perceives it not, regards it
not, but turns a deaf ear to what he says. Note, God has all creatures
at his command, makes what use he pleases of them, and serves his own
purposes by them.
2. As an instance of God’s mercy to a poor penitent, that in his
distress prays to him. Jonah had sinned, and had done foolishly, very
foolishly; his own backslidings did not correct him, and it appears by
his after-conduct that his foolishness was not quite driven from him,
no, not by the rod of this correction; and yet, upon his praying, and
humbling himself before God, here is a miracle in nature wrought for
his deliverance, to intimate what a miracle of grace, free grace, God’s
reception and entertainment of returning sinners are. When God had him
at his mercy he showed him mercy, and did not contend for ever.
3. As a type and figure of Christ’s resurrection. He died and was
buried, to lay in the grave, as Jonah did, three days and three nights,
a prisoner for our debt; but the third day he came forth, as Jonah did,
by his messengers to preach repentance, and remission of sins, even to
the Gentiles. And thus was another scripture fulfilled, After two
days he will receive us, and the third day he will raise us up,
Hos. vi. 2.
The earth trembled as if full of her burden, as the fish was of
Jonah.
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