Jonah' s prayer - Death by drowning

At the bottom of the sea
Image abspoel

In the first chapter we learned that Jonah himself asked sailors to throw him overboard into the stormy sea. Yet, in the prayer he says that it was God Himself who did this. The experience of the drowning man is agonizing and claustrophobic under all of God's waters and forever buried under the mountains. Particularly touching - and wet - is the detail: Seaweed was wrapped around my head

You hurled me into the depths,
    into the very heart of the seas,
    and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
    swept over me.
...

The engulfing waters threatened me,
    the deep surrounded me;
    seaweed was wrapped around my head.
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
    the earth beneath barred me in forever.
Jonah 2:3,5-6 NIV

Dispair and hope at the same time
The dying man is not hopeless as God hears his cry


In my distress I called to the Lord,
    and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
    and you listened to my cry.

Jonah 2:1 NIV