Jonah 2:4
in Jonah 2At this, I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.’
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And I said, I am cast out from before thine eyes; Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
KJV
Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
⋯
This verse in Jonah 2
Commentary
9 notes on this verseI am cast out of thy sight - See Psa 31:22. Thy holy temple - Then Jerusalem was not yet destroyed, for the temple was standing.
This site's exposition
For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas
on Jonah 2:3-4
For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas credits the sailors' act to the Lord himself, Jonah naming God rather than the crew as the one who threw him in, since their hands only carried out what his own flight had already earned. The floods compassing him about, and every billow and wave passing over him, describe a drowning already underway, and yet in the middle of it he can still say, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple, hope stated in the same breath as the despair. Keil and Calvin both read the turn from thou hadst cast me to I will look again as the pivot of the whole psalm, judgment owned and hope kept within two verses of each other.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight;" LXX: 'I said, I am cast far from your sight'. Before I cried out from the depths of my distress and before you heard me, me who had taken the position of slave and imitated its weakness, I said, "I am cast out of your sight". When I was with you enjoying your light and you, light, being light, I did not say "I am cast out".
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight,....
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.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Rather, I think, "Though cast out of Thy sight, I will still with the eye of faith once more look in prayer towards Thy temple at Jerusalem, whither, as Thy earthly throne, Thou hast desired Thy worshippers to direct their prayers."
WHAT a complex creature is man! Those who fancy that they can fully describe him, do not understand him. He is a riddle and a contradiction. As says Ralph Erskine— "I'm in my own and others' eyes A labyrinth of mysteries." Here, for instance, is a confession from David. "So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You: You have held me by my right hand" (Psa. 73:22, 23). Paul says, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
WHAT a complex creature is man! Those who fancy that they can fully describe him, do not understand him. He is a riddle and a contradiction. As says Ralph Erskine— "I'm in my own and others' eyes A labyrinth of mysteries." Here, for instance, is a confession from David. "So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You: You have held me by my right hand" (Psa. 73:22, 23). Paul says, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 7:24, 25). He is strengthened with all might by the Spirit of God in the inner man and yet he is weakness itself! In the text before us, Jonah appears to be in a despairing condition—"I am cast out of Your sight," but still he has hope, for he resolves, "Yet I will look again toward Your holy Temple." Everything seems lost and yet, as
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I am cast out of Thy sight - , literally, “from before Thine eyes.” Jonah had willfully withdrawn from standing in God’s presence. Now God had taken him at his word, and, as it seemed, cast him out of it. David had said in his haste, “I am cut off.” Jonah substitutes the stronger word, “I am cast forth,” driven forth, expelled, like the “mire and dirt” Isa 57:20 which the waves drive along, or like the waves themselves in their restless motion Isa 57:20, or the pagan (the word is the same) whom God had driven out before Israel (Exo 34:11, and the Piel often), or as Adam from Paradise Gen 3:24. Yet (Only) I will look again - He was, as it were, a castaway, cast out of God’s sight, unheeded by Him, his prayers unheard; the storm unabated, until he was cast forth. He could no longer look with the physical eye even toward the land where God showed the marvels of His mercy, and the temple where God was worshiped continually. Yet what he could not do in the body, he would do in his soul. This was his only resource. “If I am cast away, this one thing will I do, I will still look to God.” Magnificent faith! Humanly speaking, all hope was gone, for, when that huge vessel could scarcely live in the sea, how should a man? When God had given it no rest, while it contained Jonah, how should tie will that Jonah should escape? Nay, God had hidden His Face from him; yet he did this one, this only thing only this, “once more, still I will add to look to God.” Thitherward would he look, so long as his mind yet remained in him. If his soul parted from him, it should go forth from him in that gaze. God gave him no hope, save that He preserved him alive. For he seemed to himself forsaken of God. Wonderful pattern of faith which gains strength even from God’s seeming desertion! […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
all Your breakers and Your waves —All the breakers of the sea, since it breaks and parts the sea. [from Jonathan ]
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
from the belly of the grave —From the belly of the fish, which is to me as the grave.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַאֲנִ֣י | vaani | and I | H589 → | 874 times |
| אָמַ֔רְתִּי | ʾamarti | I said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| נִגְרַ֖שְׁתִּי | nigrashti | I have been driven away | H1644 → | |
| מִנֶּ֣גֶד | mineged | from before | H5048 → | |
| עֵינֶ֑יךָ | ʾeineikha | eyes your | H5869 → | |
| אַ֚ךְ | ʾakh | nevertheless | H389 → | |
| אוֹסִ֣יף | ʾosif | I will repeat | H3254 → | |
| לְהַבִּ֔יט | lehabit | to look | H5027 → | |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| הֵיכַ֖ל | heikhal | [the] temple of | H1964 → | |
| קָדְשֶֽׁךָ׃ | kodshecha | holiness your | H6944 → |
וַאֲנִ֣יand I
vaaniH589 →874 times
אָמַ֔רְתִּיI said
ʾamartiH559 →5305 times
נִגְרַ֖שְׁתִּיI have been driven away
nigrashtiH1644 →
מִנֶּ֣גֶדfrom before
minegedH5048 →
עֵינֶ֑יךָeyes your
ʾeineikhaH5869 →
אַ֚ךְnevertheless
ʾakhH389 →
אוֹסִ֣יףI will repeat
ʾosifH3254 →
לְהַבִּ֔יטto look
lehabitH5027 →
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
הֵיכַ֖ל[the] temple of
heikhalH1964 →
קָדְשֶֽׁךָ׃holiness your
kodshechaH6944 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 5:7But I will enter Your house by the abundance of Your loving devotion; in reverence I will bow down toward Your holy temple.
it leads to
- Psalms 132:7
Let us go to His dwelling place; let us worship at His footstool.
- Psalms 138:2
I bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your loving devotion and Your faithfulness; You have exalted Your name and Your word above all else.
- Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
- Hebrews 12:28–29
Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.
- Psalms 132:7
Through
Isaiah 38:17Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
it leads to
- Isaiah 43:25
I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
- Jonah 2:6
To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O LORD my God!
- Micah 7:18–19
Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
- Isaiah 43:25
Through
Psalms 31:22In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help.
it leads to
- Psalms 116:11
In my alarm I said, “All men are liars!”
- Psalms 116:11
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Jonah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1813: “Jonah's Resolve—or, 'Look Again!'” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jonah, Chapter 2; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.