A Great Fish Swims Toward the Sinking JonahBible World
2:5Jonah 2:5
The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
The verse portrays Jonah as utterly engulfed by the sea, with water pressing in upon him to the point of threatening his very life. The deep closed around him on every side, leaving him surrounded with no way of escape in himself. Seaweed became entangled about his head, marking how completely the ocean had taken hold of him.
This condition was part of severe affliction by which God instructed him in obedience and made him ready to fulfill his commission to Nineveh. Those trials also restored his trust that God was able to deliver him, and rekindled his resolve to obey though obedience might demand personal sacrifice.
The verse portrays Jonah as utterly engulfed by the sea, with water pressing in upon him to the point of threatening his very life. The deep closed around him on every side, leaving him surrounded with no way of escape in himself. Seaweed became entangled about his head, marking how completely the ocean had taken hold of him.
This condition was part of severe affliction by which God instructed him in obedience and made him ready to fulfill his commission to Nineveh. Those trials also restored his trust that God was able to deliver him, and rekindled his resolve to obey though obedience might demand personal sacrifice.