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Jonah

About this book
Chapter 2

1 Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish⁠ 2 and said, “I called out to the Lord from my distress, and he answered me; from the belly of Sheol I cried out for help,⁠ and you heard my prayer. 3 You threw me into the deep waters, into the middle of the sea; the ocean current engulfed me; all the mighty waves you sent swept over me.⁠ 4 I thought I had been banished from your sight and that I would never again see your holy temple.⁠ 5 Water engulfed me up to my neck; the deep ocean surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.⁠ 6 I went down to the very bottoms of the mountains; the gates of the netherworld barred me in forever,⁠ but you brought me up from the Pit,⁠ O Lord, my God.⁠ 7 When my life was ebbing away, I called out to the Lord. And my prayer came to you, to your holy temple.⁠ 8 Those who worship worthless idols forfeit the mercy that could be theirs.⁠ 9 But as for me, I promise to offer a sacrifice to you with a public declaration of praise; I will surely do what I have promised.⁠ Salvation belongs to the Lord!”⁠ 10 Then the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah out onto dry land.

Texts in conversation

Compare Jonah 2:4 and LXX Jonah 2:5

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

The Hebrew version of Jonah uses ambiguous language about the temple, which could be despair or confident resolve. The Greek Septuagint translators interpreted it as an anxious question, so Jonah does not know if he will see the sanctuary again.

Passages

Jonah 2:4

Hebrew Bible
3 You threw me into the deep waters, into the middle of the sea; the ocean current engulfed me; all the mighty waves you sent swept over me. 4 I thought I had been banished from your sight and that I would never again see your holy temple. 5 Water engulfed me up to my neck; the deep ocean surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonah

LXX Jonah 2:5

Septuagint
4 You cast me into the depths of the heart of the sea, and the floods surrounded me: all your billows and your waves have passed upon me. 5 And I said, I am cast out of your presence: shall I indeed look again toward your holy temple? 6 Water was poured around me to the soul: the lowest deep surrounded me, my head went down to the clefts of the mountains;
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Jonah

References

“... The verset ʾak ʾōsîp lehabbîṭ ʾel-hêkal qodšekā begins with one of the most contested readings in Jonah. The particle ʾak normally functions in three different ways: temporal (“just as, no sooner”), emphatic/asseverative (“truly, surely”), and restrictive/adversative (“nevertheless, for all that”); see BDB 36. The last two modes are not often mutually compatible, and there are cases in which the choice depends on individual judgment. (The two possibilities are discussed by Muraoka [1985: 130], who also gives a relevant bibliography.) In Jonah’s case, readers choose a meaning to accord with the way they empathize with Jonah’s circumstances. Having just acknowledged his hopeless situation, is Jonah (or the poet) meekly begging God to permit him to achieve that goal (“Truly, I want to continue gazing upon your holy sanctuary”)? Or is he defiantly stating his resolve to seek God’s shrine (“Nevertheless, I continue to gaze upon your holy sanctuary”)? The Renaissance rabbi Sforno is closer to the first interpretation, rendering, “I ask only that I be permitted to gaze upon your holy temple”; quoted in Zlotowitz 1980: 112. The Targum sides with the latter interpretation, using the adversative brm, “nevertheless,” and so does the Septuagint (followed by Arabic) when it frames the sentence as a rhetorical question: “Do you think that I may yet see your holy temple?” ...”
Jack M. Sasson, Jonah: A New Translation with Introduction, Commentary, and Interpretation (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 179.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Jonah 2:4 and LXX Jonah 2:5

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