Jonah’s Prayer

1And Jonah prayed to YHWH his God from the bowels of the fish, 2and he said:

“I called out from the distress of mine to YHWH,

and He answered me;

from the belly of Sheol I cried out—

You heard my voice.

3And You cast me into the deep,

into the heart of the seas,

and the current surrounded me;

all Your billows and Your waves passed over me.

4And I said,

‘I have been driven out from before Your eyes;

yet I will add to look

toward the temple of Your holiness.’

5The waters surrounded me

up to the soul,

the deep closed around me,

the seaweed wrapped around my head.

6To the bases of the mountains I went down;

the earth with her bars was behind me forever.

And You brought up my life from the pit,

O YHWH my God.

7At the fainting within me of my soul,

I remembered YHWH;

my prayer came in to You,

to the temple of Your holiness.

8Those guarding vanities of worthlessness

leave behind their loving devotion.†

9And I, with a voice of thanksgiving,

will sacrifice to You;

what I have vowed, I will fulfill.

Salvation is of YHWH.”

10And YHWH spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land.