Skip to Content
intertextual.bible
Go to Related Reading
About this book

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 2:9 and LXX Jonah 2:10

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

Share:

Summary

In the Hebrew version of Jonah, the prayer ends with a declaration that rescue belongs to God alone. The Greek Septuagint translators read the same words as part of Jonah’s vow, so a statement about God becomes a promise about what Jonah will do.

Passages

Jonah 2:9

Hebrew Bible
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.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonah

LXX Jonah 2:10

Septuagint
9 They that observe vanities and lies have forsaken their own mercy. 10 But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of praise and thanksgiving: all that I have vowed I will pay to you, the Lord of my salvation. 11 And the sea monster was commanded, and it cast up Jonah on the dry land.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Jonah

References

“... The last example is in vs 10b. Two changes are made here. First, καὶ ἐξομολογήσεως (“and of thanksgiving”) is inserted after αἰνέσεως (“of praise”) creating the hendiadys αἰνέσεως καὶ ἐξομολογήσεως which commonly occurs in the Greek Psalter. Its addition does not substantially alter the meaning, but adds a pious note to Jonah’s affirmation. The second change is more dramatic. In the Masoretic Text the last two words of the Psalm are a nominal clause pronouncing that “salvation belongs to Yahweh” (יְשׁוּעָתָה לַיהוָה). The translator apparently did not observe this syntactical relationship and has made τῷ κυρίῳ (לַיהוָה) the indirect object of ἀποδώσω (אֲשַׁלֵּמָה “I will pay”) and (יְשׁוּעָתָה) an adverbial modifier: ὅσα ηὐξάμην ἀποδώσω εἰς σωτηρίαν μου τῷ κυρίῳ = “What I have vowed, I will repay for my salvation to the Lord.” In the Septuagint version, Jonah promises that he will obey the Lord because he now realizes that such obedience is the only route through which rescue will be achieved. A theological dictum is transformed into the personal promise of Jonah to the Lord and the basis for his hope. Jonah realizes (in verse 9) that “those who preserve vain things and deceits lose their mercy.” ...”
Larry J. Perkins, The Septuagint of Jonah: Aspects of Literary Analysis Applied to Biblical Translation (International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, 1987), 50.

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

Your feedback

Jonah 2:9 and LXX Jonah 2:10

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library