Jonah's Prayer

¹Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, ²saying,

“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,

and he answered me;

out of the belly of Sheol I cried,

and you heard my voice.

³For you cast me into the deep,

into the heart of the seas,

and the flood surrounded me;

all your waves and your billows

passed over me.

⁴Then I said, ‘I am driven away

from your sight;

yet I shall again look

upon your holy temple.’

⁵The waters closed in over me to take my life;

the deep surrounded me;

weeds were wrapped about my head

⁶at the roots of the mountains.

I went down to the land

whose bars closed upon me forever;

yet you brought up my life from the pit,

O Lord my God.

⁷When my life was fainting away,

I remembered the Lord,

and my prayer came to you,

into your holy temple.

⁸Those who pay regard to vain idols

forsake their hope of steadfast love.

⁹But I with the voice of thanksgiving

will sacrifice to you;

what I have vowed I will pay.

Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

¹⁰And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.