Catechism of the Catholic Church 627: "Christ's death was a real death in that it put an end to his earthly human existence. But because of the union which the person of the Son retained with his body, his was not a mortal corpse like others, for "it was not possible for death to hold him" and therefore "divine power preserved Christ's body from corruption." Both of these statements can be said of Christ: "He was cut off out of the land of the living," and "My flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption." Jesus' Resurrection "on the third day" was the sign of this also, because bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death"


2:2And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the whale.

Theodoret, Commentary on Jonah 2:1The prophet spent time in such a large spacious place that he even offered a prayer to God:

Ephrem, Hymns on Virginity 42, 31-32 “a pure temple the fish became for him, and the mouth of Jonah became a censer. The smell of incense rose up from within the abyss, to the High One who sits in the highest heaven” (trans. McVey, 440).

Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 2:2 If Jonah is compared to the Lord, and his time of three days and three nights in the belly of the whale is a sign of the suffering of the Saviour, his prayer also ought to be a kind of prayer of the Saviour. Some people, I don't doubt, will find it difficult to believe that a man can spend three days and three nights in the belly of a whale, especially after a shipwreck. These people can either be religious or not. But if they have faith, they will believe this all the more: how three children thrown into a furnace of hot fire were so well protected that their clothes were not even singed[82]; how the sea drew back on itself into two sides and held itself up like a wall to offer a route for the people who wanted to pass[83]; how with all human moderation the anger of a lion that had been increased by hunger was taken by fear at the sight of his prey, and didn't want to touch it[84]; and even other such miracles. If they do not have faith, let them read the fifteen books of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and all Greek and Latin history. Therein they will see Daphne changed into a bay-tree, or the sister of Phaeton changed into poplars; how Jupiter the highest god, was transformed into a swan, flowed in gold and became a raging bull, and other adventures where the ugliness of the stories attest the holiness of the divinity. They believe in these stories and say that everything is possible for one god. And while they believe these ugly stories and defend the absolute power of a god, they do not attribute this same power to honest deeds. With regard to these words: 'then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish and said…' we understand that feeling that he is safe in the belly of the whale he does not despair of divine mercy and concentrates wholly on praying. For God, who had said, "I am with him in his distress"[85], and when he calls to me, I will reply, "I am here."[86], came to his aid and he whose prayer had been answered was then able to say, "in distress you have made me greater"[87].

St. Ambrose The Prayer of Job and David 6:23 “Like Jonah when he was in the belly of the whale, prayed to You on behalf of the people. Similarly, Christ was with God from His mother’s womb, according to what is written, ‘Before the child knew good or evil, he chose the good (Isa. 7:16).’”

Tertullian Prayer Chapter 17 “God is not one who heeds the voice; rather, it is the heart which He hears and beholds. Even the speechless He hears, and the silent petition He will answer. Do the ears of God await a sound? If they did, how could Jonah’s prayer from the depths of the whale’s belly have made its way to Heaven, up through the organs of such a great beast from the very bottom of the sea, up through such a vast amount of water? As for those who pray in such a loud voice, what else will they attain but the annoyance of their neighbors? Let us say, rather, when they thus publicize their petitions, what else are they doing but praying in public.”





2:3And he said, “I have cried in my affliction to the Lord my God, and He has heard me. From the belly of Hades you have heard the cry of my voice.

Theodoret, Commentary on Jonah 2:3 “For I cried out,” it says, “to the Lord in my affliction, and he heard me. From the belly of Hades my cry.” For I, he says, formerly thinking that he appears to prophets only in Jerusalem, also found him present in the belly of the whale. And offering supplication, I benefited from84 his beneficence. He called the belly of the whale, “the belly of Hades”{S 1468}. Both the beast is capable of bringing death, and he was a dead man by virtue of what had happened to him, but he lived by God’s grace alone._ Above all, as a type of the Lord Christ, who spent three days and nights in the heart of the earth (Matt 12:40),89 he states reasonably that he had been in the belly of Hades. And the most amazing thing of all is that the one who truly tasted death said he would be in the belly90 of the earth three days and three nights, but the one who was under the shadow of death calls the belly of the whale “belly of Hades.” For Jonah, life was not in his control; but for the Lord Christ, both his death was voluntary and his resurrection was willed. On account of this, in the text where there is “Hades” and death, it is designated “the heart of the earth;” but here in the text, where there is Hades, it is designated “the belly of the whale.” “You heard my voice,” he says, “since I would not have continued to live even up to the present.”

Theodore, Commentary on Jonah Prologue: “Then after remarkable keeping him safe inside the sea monster for three days and nights, he brought him to the city that was full of countless vices, and caused him to preach repentance, and become a source of salvation for all in that place, so that from the comparison we might not lack faith in Christ the Lord’s being kept incorrupt for the same number of days, rising from the dead and providing all nations in general with salvation by way of repentance and enjoying immortal life. Hence the Lord also said at one time, ‘As Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so must the Son of Man spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth’” …. Fleeing your service, you caused me to fall into the sea and experience a mighty storm; in the course of it the sea was whipped up, and like rivers, its watery billows crashed upon me” (Sprenger 183.12-15; trans. Hill, 199)
Theodore, Commentary on Jonah 2:3 “As if to say it had grown to a great size thanks to divine providence” (Sprenger 185.19-21; trans. Hill, 201). Theodore, Commentary on Jonah 2:3 “Meaning not that its breadth was of these dimensions, but that anyone wishing to have a clear grasp of its character would need this number of days to go right around it” (Sprenger, 185.23-25; trans. Hill, 201).

Cyril, Commentary on Jonah 2:3-4 Jonah only appeared to be dead. Since the whale gulps down its prey fiercely, the belly of Hades is called the belly of the whale.

Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 2:3 “'from the belly of hell I threw out my cries'. He does not say, "I cry", but "I cried". He does not pray for the future, but gives thanks for the past. That shows us that from the moment he is thrown into the sea and sees the whale, that great bulk, that immense mouth which opened wide to swallow him, he remembered God and cried out, either by the waves giving passage for his cry, or by a feeling from the depths of his heart, according to that which the apostle says: "crying in your hearts"[88]: "Abba! Father"[89]. He cried to him who alone knew the hearts of men and said to Moses, "why do you cry out to me?"[90], while the Scriptures remember that Moses had never cried out before this speech. This is the text that we read in the first psalm of the steps: "I cried to the Lord in my distress and he replied to me."[91] By the "belly of hell" we understand the stomach of a whale of such great size that it took the place of hell. But this can better be referred to the person of Christ, who under the name of David, sings in the psalm: "you will not leave my spirit in hell, and you will not allow your saint to see putrefaction"[92], living in hell free among the dead. St.

Augustine Exposition on the Psalms LXVI, 5 “Hades was to the Lord what the whale’s belly was to Jonah.”

St. Cyril of Jerusalem Catechetical Lecture 14:20 “Jonah fulfilled a type of our Savior when he prayed from the belly of the fish and said, ‘I cried for help from the belly of Hades.’ He was in fact in the whale, yet he says that he is in Hades. In a later verse he manifestly prophesies in the Person of Christ. For he typified Christ, who went down into the heart of the earth.”





2:4You have thrown me into the depths of the heart of the sea, and rivers encircled me; all your billows and your waves have passed upon me.”

Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 2:4 'you cast me into the deep of the heart from the sea, and the waves surrounded me'. The interpretation of the person of Jonah is not difficult: from the moment when he was closed in the stomach of the whale and found himself at the deepest and middle of the sea, he was surrounded by waves. For the Lord, the Saviour, prefiguring psalm 68 in which he says, "I am enshrouded in the deep mud where there is no ground. I have come to the deepest part of the sea and the storm engulfs me"[93]. It is said of him in another psalm: "but you, you have rejected, despised and disquieted your Christ; you have cursed the covenant of your master, you have dishonoured his sacred place on earth, you have destroyed all its walls"[94], and so on. For in this comparison of divine blessing and that place about which is written, "his home is in sacred peace"[95], all habitation on earth is full of waves, full of storms. And the "heart of the sea" means hell, for which we read in the Gospel, "in the heart of the earth"[96]. For just as the heart is at the middle of animal, so we say that hell is in the middle of the earth. Or according to anagoge he recalls that he is "in the heart of the sea", that is in the middle of temptations. However, although he has been among the bitter waters and been tempted by all things without sin, he has not felt the bitter waters, but has been surrounded by the waves about which we read elsewhere, "an impetuous wave rejoices in the city of God"[97]. Others drank the salty waves; myself, surrounded by temptation, I endured sweeter currents. And do not think what the Lord says now is impious: "you have cast me into the deep", who says in the psalm, "for they have followed him that you smote"[98], according to the phrase which in Zechariah is spoken by the Father: "I will smite the shepherd, and the flocks will be scattered"[99]. All thy billows and thy waves passed over me. LXX: 'all your whirlwinds and your waves passed over me'. No one can doubt that the swelling waves of the sea encompassed Jonah, that there was fierce thunder in the storm. But we ask how all the whirlwinds, billows and the waves of God encompassed the Saviour. "The life of men on earth is temptation"[100], or as there is in the Hebrew, "a military service", for we serve here to be crowned elsewhere. There is no man who can sustain all the temptations, except him who has been tempted by all, in our image, except sin[101]. This is why it is said in Corinthians, "no temptation will take you, I hope, unless it is human. God is faithful, he will not let you try beyond your ability, but he will produce an exit that you may hold on to."[102] And like all persecutions and all wicked things that happen to us they do not happen without the will of God, we speak of whirlwinds and waves of God, which have not crushed Jesus, but have come down upon him with a simple threat of shipwreck which does not happen. Thus all persecutions and whirlwinds which tortured mankind and broke all the ships have passed thundering on my head. And myself, I have sustained storms and broken whirlwinds which were raging, to allow others to sail more easily.

Theodoret, Commentary on Jonah 2:5“You cast me into the heart of the sea, and rivers encircled me.” Again, the mention {M 81.1732} of “heart” indicates that the shadow is similar to the truth.91 But, he calls the assault of the waves “rivers.”92 “All your swells and your waves passed over me.

Theodore, Commentary on Jonah 2:4 “ With the ineluctable force of the calamity, I thought myself rejected from your providence, he is saying, and had no hope any longer of being in your holy temple to perform the worship due to you, finding myself far from it and confined by severe calamities” (Sprenger 183.18-22; trans. Hill, 199)

Oecumenius Commentary on Revelation The divine Scripture means allegorically by the river as temptation or trail.

St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica Supp. 97, 7“‘You have thrown me into the depths of the heart of the sea’ means into Hades, and in the Gospel of St. Matthew 12:40 the words ‘in the heart of the earth’ have the same sense, for as the heart is in the middle of an animal, so is Hades supposed to be in the middle of the earth.”

St. Augustine On the Psalms CXXX, 1 “Those waves and that body did not prevent his prayer from reaching God, and the beast’s belly could not contain the voice of his prayer. It penetrated all things, it burst through all things, it reached God. For where is not God present to those whose voice is faithful? Nevertheless, we also ought to understand from what ‘depths’ we cry to the Lord. For this mortal life is our ‘depths’. Whoever has understood himself to be in the depths, cries out, groans, sighs, until he is delivered from the depths. And come to Him who sits above all the depths.”

Prudentius A Hymn For the Times of Fasting “The victim swiftly passing through the monster’s jaws, Escapes the futile sharpress of the teeth, and flies Unharmed across the bloodless tongue. The molars moist Are powerless to hold and crush the trembling frame That journeys through the mouth below the palate’s roof. “While in the course of three long days and nights the seer Removed engulfed within the belly of the whale, He wandered through the shadows of the dark recess, And as he blindly threaded lebryrin your ways, He panted from the heat inside his prison house.”






2:5And I said, “I have been driven away from your eyes. Surely I will *again look to your holy temple.

Cyril, Commentary on Jonah 2:5a (Pusey 1.581.9-12). Exclusion from God’s presence is one of the most horrible things a person can endure.

Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 2:5 'I said, I am cast far from your sight'. Before I cried out from the depths of my distress and before you heard me, me who had taken the position of slave and imitated its weakness, I said, "I am cast out of your sight". When I was with you enjoying your light and you, light, being light, I did not say "I am cast out". But once at the bottom of the sea and surrounded by the flesh of a man, I say: "I am cast out of your sight". I said this as a man. And as God being in that condition I did not think of my equality with you, because I wanted to raise mankind to you, so that wherever I am with you they are there as well and those who have believed in me and in you, I say: yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. LXX: 'do you not think I will be able to see your holy temple again?'. To express the Greek ara, the Vulgate edition's 'do you think' can be interpreted as 'therefore', like the last conclusion of the proposition, of the assumption and of the confirmation and syllogism, not in the uncertainty of someone who hesitates but in the confidence of someone who affirms. This has been translated by, "yet I will look again on your holy temple", according to that which is said in another psalm by the spokesperson of Christ: "Lord, I have loved beauty of your house and the tabernacle where your glory lives"[103], and the passage of the Gospel in which it says, "Father, glorify me with you by that glory which I had before the world existed"[104]. And the Father replied to heaven: "I have glorified him, and I shall glorify him"[105]. Or even because he says, "the Father is in me, and I am in Him"[106], for the temple of the Father is the Son, thus the temple of the Son is the Father. He Himself said, "I left my Father and have come"[107], and "the word was with God and the word was God"[108]. Or even the Saviour, the one and the same, asks as man and promises as God, and he is sure of the right that was always his. For the person of Jonah you can clearly see that with a feeling of desire and confidence, at the bottom of the sea, he wished to see the temple of the Lord, and with a prophetic spirit he found himself elsewhere and thought of other things.

Theodoret, Commentary on Jonah 2:5 And I said, ‘I have been cast away from your eyes.’” When I was caught by the unpredictable nature of calamities, formerly being borne above the high sea by the waves, and now being confined in the belly of the whale, I knew that I was stripped bare of your providence. And because of this, I endure each of these things. “Will I gaze again on your holy temple?

St. Irenaeus Against Heresies Bk. 5.2;2 “Therefore, the hand of God was present with Jonah, working out a marvelous thing, a thing impossible by mans nature, nor the weakness of flesh can prevail against the will of God. For God is not subject to created things, but created things are subject to God; and things yield obedience to His will. Wherefore also the Lord declares, “The things which are impossible with men, are possible with God (Luke 18:27).”




2:6Water encompassed me to the soul. The lowest abyss enclosed me*. My head went down into a division of mountains.

Theodore, Commentary on Jonah 2:6 “I was swallowed up in the bottom of the abyss. “I seemed no different from someone caught in the deepest mountain crevices, and then the mountains falling down on him, leaving no further hope of escape” (Sprenger 183.27-29; trans. Hill, 199).

Cyril, Commentary on Jonah 2:6 (Pusey 1.582.9-11). Jonah reaches the end of the abyss when the whale plunges down to the bottom of the sea. The eternal bars which are holding Jonah down represent his troubles.

Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 2:6 'the water ran about me up to my spirit; the last depth closed around me'. These waters, near to the deep, which cycle and slide about the earth, which drag much mud with them, tend to kill not the body but the soul, for they are friendly to the body and warmed by its desires. This is why, according to that which I have said above, the Lord says in the psalm, "save me, Lord, because the waters have penetrated even to my soul"[109], and in another passage, "my soul has passed a torrent"[110], and, "let not the well press its mouth on me"[111], let hell not imprison me! Let it not refuse me an exit! I freely made the descent; so let me make the ascent back again freely. I became a captive voluntarily, I ought to free the captives so that this verse is fulfilled: "ascending into the higher parts he led the captives"[112]. For those who were beforehand captives in death, he brought them to life again. We must heed certain wicked forces in the deep, or the specific powers in torture and supplication; demons, in the Gospel, ask not to be forced to go to them[113]. This is why "the darkness was over the deep"[114]. Sometimes the deep is taken to mean the sacraments in a deeper sense, the judgements of God: "the judgements of the Lord are a great abyss"[115], and "the deep cries out to the deep in a cry of your cataracts."[116]

Theodoret, Commmentary on Jonah 2: 6 Water surrounded me up to my soul, the deepest abyss encircled me.” For being encircled by the abyss itself, having been in the middle of such great waters, I am wavering, and I fear that {S 1469} I will be completely deprived of the beloved sight of your temple.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem Catechetical Lecture 14:20 “The ‘mountains’ that his head went down to was a figure of the tomb cut out in the rock that Jesus was put into after His death.”



2:7I descended into the earth, in which its bars hold forever. And *let my life ascend from corruption, O Lord my God

Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 2:7'my head has penetrated to the base of mountains; I descended to into the earth whose bars are eternal bonds'. No one doubts that the ocean covered Jonah's head, that he went down to the roots of mountains and came to the depths of the earth by which as bars and columns by the will of God the earthly sphere is supported. This earth about which is said elsewhere, "I consolidated her columns"[117]. With regard to the Lord Saviour, according to the two editions, this seems to me to be what is meant. His heart and his head, that is the spirit that he thought worthy to take with a body for our safety, went down to the base of the mountains which were covered by waves; they were restrained by the will of God, the deep covered them, they were parted by the majesty of God. His spirit then went down into hell, into those places to which in the last of the mud, the spirits of sinners were held, so too the psalmist says: "they will go down to the depths of the earth, they will be the lot of wolves"[118]. These are the bars of the earth and like the locks of a final prison and tortures, which do not let the captive spirits out of hell. This is why the Septuagint has translated this is a pertinent way: "eternal bonds", that is, wanting to keep in all those whom it had once captured. But our Lord, about which we read these lines of Cyrus in Isaiah: "I will break the bronze bars, I will crack the iron bars"[119], He went down to the roots of the mountains, and was enclosed by eternal bars to free all the prisoners. yet have you brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. LXX: 'and from corruption my life comes up to me, O Lord my God.' He says rightly "you have brought up" or "let my life come up from corruption", because it had descended to corruption in hell. This is what the apostles interpret in the fifteenth psalm as prophetic speech of the Lord: "for you will not leave my spirit in hell, and you will not permit your holiness to see the corruption"[120], given that David is dead and has been buried, but the Saviour's flesh has not known corruption. Others understand that compared to celestial blessing and to the Word of God the body of man is corruption itself, for "it is sown in corruption"[121], and in the psalm one hundred and two, the meaning is applied to a righteous man: "he who cures all illnesses, who has brought his life back from death"[122]. This is why the Apostle says, "O wicked man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"[123]. It is called "the body of death", or "body of misery". These people take the text in the sense of their heresy, to see an Antichrist in the place of Christ, and to take the Churches in order to feed a fat stomach and discuss contrary to the flesh living in the flesh. But we, we know that the body taken from the pure Virgin was not the corruption of Christ, but his temple. If we pass then to the thought of the Apostle in Corinthians, where there is the question of a spiritual body, we would say, in removing any appearance of chicanery, that the same body, the same flesh rises again, which has been buried and placed in the soil; but the only thing that changes is the glory, not nature. "for this corruptible being must cover incorruptibility, this mortal being must clothe immortality."[124] When he says "this being" it is almost as if one showed the body by pinching it between two fingers: in which we are born, in which we die, that those who are guilty fear to receive as punishment, that virginity awaits in recompense, that the adulterer fears in punishment. For Jonah, this is how we can understand it: he who would have had to corrupt himself physiologically in the belly of the whale, and get by on the food of beasts and survive by drinking from the veins and arteries, still managed to remain safe and sound. And when he says, "Lord my God", this is a feeling of flattery: he thinks that God, who is common to all, is also common to him, and feels he is his own because of the greatness of his benevolence.

Theodoret, Commentary on Jonah 2:7 “My head sunk down into the clefts of the mountains, and I went down to the earth, whose everlasting bars are holding it down.” For I see myself being encircled by some great mountains and being hemmed in from all directions by some unbroken bars. And he hints98 through this not only at the magnitude of the whale, but also at the inescapability of the troubles which are confining him. But it is also reasonable that he calls the things hidden under the sea waters “mountains,” against which boats are sometimes dashed and destroyed. The sailors clearly know these things hidden under the sea, and are eager to flee the underwater rocks 99 “And let my life ascend to you from corruption, O Lord my God

Theodore, Commentary on Jonah 2:7 “It is within your power alone to liberate my life from the corruption holding it fast there” (Sprenger 184.6-7; trans. Hill, 200).

Cyril, Commentary on Jonah 2:6-7 (Pusey 1.582.23-26). Jonah wishes to be carried up from the belly of the whale into the light.

St. John of the Cross The Dark Night Chapter 6:2 “‘in which its bars hold forever’, When this purgative contemplation oppresses a man, he feels very vividly indeed the shadow of death, the sighs of death, and the sorrows of Hell, all of which reflect the feeling of God’s absence, of being chastised and rejected by Him, and of being unworthy of Him, as well as the object of His anger. The soul experiences all this and even more, for now it seems that this affliction will last forever.”





2:8In the leaving of my soul from me, I remembered the Lord. And may my prayer come to you, into your holy temple

Theodoret, Commentary on Jonah 2:8 “When my life was leaving me, I remembered the Lord, that my prayer may come to your holy temple.” Since, he says, I did not allow myself to forget about you while being at the very gates of death, Lord, free me from this corruption and bring me back to life again, so that I might offer the customary prayers to you in your hallowed temple.”

Theodore, Commentary on Jonah 2:8 “You will personally receive my prayer from your place in your holy temple, the distance being no obstacle in your helping me” (Sprenger 184.14-15; trans. Hill, 200).

Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 2:8 'when my spirit failed in me, I remembered the Lord'. Although I hoped for no aid, he says, the memory of the Lord saved me, according to this passage: "I remembered the Lord and I rejoiced"[125], and in another passage, "I remembered former days and I remembered the days of eternity"[126]. I had lost all hope of finding a way out: my body was so frail in the intestines of the whale that I could not hope for my life. And so, everything that seemed impossible I found to be surpassed by the thought of the Lord. I saw myself imprisoned in the intestines of the whale, and all my hope was the Lord. From this we can learn that, according to the Septuagint, at the time when our spirit fails us, it is wrenched from its union with the body, and we ought not to turn our thoughts from Him who inside and outside our body is the Lord. For the Saviour the interpretation is not very difficult because he said, "my spirit is sad to die"[127], and "My Father, if it is possible let this cup pass me by"[128], and, "I place my spirit in your hands"[129], and other passages which are similar to this. And my prayer came in unto you, into thine holy temple. LXX: similar. In my distress I remembered the Lord so and my prayer came in to heaven from the depths of the sea and from the roots of the mountains, and came to your holy temple where you reside in eternal beatitude. This new kind of speech should be noted here: a prayer made for a prayer. Jonah asks that his prayer rise up to the temple of God. He wishes like the Pope that in his body the people should be freed.

Pseudo Philo, Homily on Jonah 18, (trans. Siegert, 20).The speed of Jonah’s prayer and the contriteness of his heart. Jonah prays without hesitation, once he realizes his sins. His prayer resounds through the mouth of the whale like a trumpet.

Cassiodorus Exposition on Psalms 129:1 “Jonah said, ‘And may my prayer come to you, into your holy temple’, for those who have buried themselves in the bowels of holy humility are all the closer to he Highest.”





2:9Those guarding vanities and false things have abandoned their mercy.

Theodoret, Commentary on Jonah 2:9 “Because the ones who have been instructed in vain and false things, he says, were obedient to the casting of lots, they surrendered me to the sea without clemency” (PG 81.1732.39-41).

Theodore, Commentary on Jonah 2:9 “Those working as sailors, although attached to idols and devoted to that false believe, wanted to spare me; but overcome by calamities, they abandoned that view, realizing they had no chance for life unless they were rid of my company. “Protected on all sides by your grace alone, and receiving reprieve from death, I shall repay you with hymns of thanksgiving for being saved by your providence” (Sprenger 184.26-28; trans. Hill, 200).

Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 2:9 “'those that keep mistaken vanities lose their mercy'. By nature God is merciful and ready by his mildness to save those whom he can't save by justice. But because of our vices we lose the mercy which is reserved for us and is offered to us. Jonah did not say, "those who make vanities", for "vanity of vanities, all is vanity"[130], not to have an air of condemning everyone, and of refusing mercy to all mankind, but "those who keep vanities" or the lie "those who have come to love their heart"[131], who are not happy with doing, but who keep their vanities as if they cherished them, thinking they have found some kind of treasure. Note too the greatness of the prophet's spirit: at the bottom of the sea, surrounded by an eternal night in the intestines of a great beast he is not thoughtful of his danger, but philosophises on the question of nature. "they will lose" he says "their mercy". Although mercy is offended and we can understand that it is God Himself: for "God is merciful and good, patient and full of pity"[132], yet mercy does not abandon those who keep their vanities, she does not curse them, but waits for them to return, while they intentionally abandon the mercy which is before them, offered to them. This can also be prophesised for the Lord on the subject of the infidelity of the Jews, who think themselves to observe the precepts of mankind[133] and the commandments of the Pharisees, this is vanity and a lie, and they have abandoned God who always had pity for them.

Targum Jonathan Jonah 2:9 “Not as the nations who worship idols, who do not understand the source of their well-being” ( trans. Levine, 79).

Cyril, Commentary on Jonah 2:9-10 Individuals who worship vain and false things and do not understand God’s compassionate nature will give up the mercy which God has in store for them.





2:10But I, with a voice of praise and confession, will sacrifice to you. All that I have vowed to you I will deliver to the Lord of my salvation.

Theodoret, Commentary on Jonah 2:10 “Having been freed from the terrible things holding me down, I will bring before you sacrifices of salvation, recounting both the greatness of your beneficence {S 1470} and the penalty for my flight. And promising these things, the blessed Jonah fulfilled them and transmitted them all in writing, so that not only the people of that time might learn about the events which happened to him, but also the ones who came after him. The blessed David has made a written record of his sin, proclaiming the mercy of God and indicating the cure for sinners by repentance. {M 81.1733} So also the revered Jonah has written down in a narrative his flight, the punishment which was laid upon him, and the salvation freely granted
Theodore, Commentary on Jonah 2:10 “It would, in fact, be a mark of extreme folly, after such extraordinary things happened to him, and most of all his deliverance from the sea monster, to pry into the prophet’s egress from the sea monster, and to think that one could grasp it by human reasoning and explain how it happened in our terms” (Sprenger 184.31-185.4; trans. Hill, 200).

Cyril, Commentary on Jonah 2:9-10 “I will give thanks to you with a voice of petition, and just as an offering of fragrant incense, I will offer you songs, and I will certainly offer you thanksgiving and spiritual sacrifices, the ascription of glory and praises of worship” (Pusey 1.584.6-10).

Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 2:10 “'but I will sacrifice to you with the voice of praise and the action of thanksgiving. I will pay all that I have vowed to you, Lord, in salutation.' Those who keep their vanities have abandoned their mercy. But I who have been eaten for the sake of the safety of the multitude, will offer you sacrifices with the voice of praise and thanksgiving, offering myself. For "Christ, our Easter, has been sacrificed"[134]. A as a true Pope and lamb he offers himself for us. And I will give thanks to you, saying, "I bless you Father, lord of heaven and earth"[135], and I will keep those vows to the Lord that I made for the safety of others, so that all that " you have given me never dies"[136]. We see what the Lord promised in his suffering for our safety: let us not make Jesus a liar[137], and let us be pure, delivered from all the uncleanness of sins so that he offers us to God the Father as the victims he had promised.

Targum Jonathan 2:10 “And I with the praise of thanksgiving will offer my sacrifice before you. That which I vowed I will pay. The redemption of my life, in prayer, before the Lord” (trans. Levine, 81).





2:11And from the Lord it was commanded to the whale, and it cast Jonah out upon the dry land.

Theodoret, Commentary on Jonah 2:11 And the benevolent master, after he received the prayer, led forth the prophet from the belly of the whale, as from some sort of prison. _

Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 2:11 'and he ordered the whale to vomit Jonah out onto the dry land'. That which we read above as being about Jonah, the Lord prayed for in the stomach of the whale about which Job speaks in an unclear way: "let he who curses this day curse him, he who will capture the great whale"[138]. The great whale, the deep and hell are then ordered to give back the Lord to the dry earth; thus he who had died to free those detained by the chains of death, can lead with him many others towards life. With regard to the expression 'vomited' we must take this to be said in a very emphatic way, to mean that triumphant life has emerged from the deepest and most impenetrable parts of death.

Tertullian On the Resurrection of the Body 3:591 “Jonah was swallowed by the whale of the deep, in whose belly whole ships have been devoured, and after three days he was vomited out again safe and sound. Things like this are written so that we may believe that the Lord is more powerful than all natural laws.”

St. Irenaeus Against Heresies Chapter 20:1 “For when strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9), it shows the kindness and transcendent power of God. For He patiently suffered Jonah to be allowed to be swallowed by the whale, not that he should perish altogether, but that, having been cast out again, he might glorify Him all the more.”

St. Irenaeus Against Heresies Bk. 5;5:2 “Jonah came forth from the whale’s belly unhurt, he was led forth by the hand of God, for the purpose of declaring His power.”

Sulpicious Severus Letter to Eusebius “Almost all the saints have especially distinguished themselves by miracles worked when they were in danger. I see Peter, powerful in faith, overcoming the force of nature by walking upon the sea, impressing his footprints upon the unstable waters (Matthew 14:29). Jonah was swallowed up and spent three days and three nights in the deep before being cast out. Yet, I do not consider him inferior to Peter on that account; perhaps it is even a greater thing to have lived in the deep then to have passed over it upon the surface.”

Flavius Josephus Antiquities of the Jews Chapter X. 2 “The Whale vomited Jonah out upon the Euxine Sea (Black Sea), and this alive, and without any hurt upon his body.”

Prudentius A Hymn For the Times of Fasting “But when the third night rolls around, from thence unharmed The monster whale casts him forth with mighty throbs; Where sounding billows break upon the narrow shore, And beat against the cliffs with whitening spray,

Disgorged he stands, astonished at his safety.”

3-10: Catechism of the Catholic Church 2585: From the time of David to the coming of the Messiah texts appearing in these sacred books show a deepening in prayer for oneself and in prayer for others. Thus the psalms were gradually collected into the five books of the Psalter (or "Praises"), the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament.