Jonah 2:5 · Young's Literal Translation
Jonah 2:5 in the Original Hebrew
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Jonah 2:5 in Other Translations
| KJV | The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. |
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| WEB | The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head. |
| ASV | The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; The deep was round about me; The weeds were wrapped about my head. |
| YLT | Compassed me have waters unto the soul, The deep doth compass me, The weed is bound to my head. |
| WBT | The waters encompassed me, [even] to the soul: the depth inclosed me on every side, the weeds were wrapped about my head. |
| DBY | The waters encompassed me, to the soul: The deep was round about me, The weeds were wrapped about my head. |
Commentary on Jonah 2:5
Expositions from classic Bible commentators.
John Gill · Jonah 2:5
I went down to the bottom of the mountains,.... Which are in the midst of the sea, whither the fish carried him, and where the waters are deep; or the bottom of rocks and promontories on the shore of the sea; and such vast rocks hanging over the sea, whose bottoms were in it, it seems are on the shore of Joppa, near to which Jonah was cast into the sea, as Egesippus (f) relates:
the earth with her bars was about me for ever; that is, the earth with its cliffs and rocks on the seashore, which are as bars to the sea, that it cannot overflow it; these were such bars to Jonah, that could he have got clear of the fish's belly, and attempted to swim to shore, he could never get to it, or over these bars, the rocks and cliffs, which were so steep and high:
yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God; notwithstanding these difficulties, which were insuperable by human power, and these seeming impossibilities of, deliverance; yet the Lord brought him out of the fish's belly, as out of a grave, the pit of corruption, and where he must otherwise have lain and rotted, and freed his soul from those terrors which would have destroyed him; and by this also we learn, that this form of words was composed after he came to dry land: herein likewise he was a type of Christ, who, though laid in the grave, was not left there so long as to see corruption, Psa 16:10.
(f) "De excidio", Urb. Hieros. l. 3. c. 20.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Jonah 2:5
even to the soul--that is, threatening to extinguish the animal life.
weeds--He felt as if the seaweeds through which he was dragged were wrapped about his head.
Read Jamieson, Fausset & Brown's full commentary on Jonah 2 →
Cross References for Jonah 2:5
Related passages, ranked by how often readers connect them. Cross-reference data from openbible.info (CC-BY).
Questions about Jonah 2:5
What does Jonah 2:5 say?
Jonah 2:5 in the Young's Literal Translation reads: “Compassed me have waters unto the soul, The deep doth compass me, The weed is bound to my head.” Read it in the full context of Jonah 2, alongside the classic commentary on this page.
Where is Jonah 2:5 found in the Bible?
Jonah 2:5 is in the book of Jonah, chapter 2, verse 5, in the Old Testament.
What Bible translation is Jonah 2:5 shown in?
This is the Young's Literal Translation (YLT), a public-domain translation. You can compare how other translations render Jonah 2:5 in the table on this page.
The waters compassed me about even to the soul - So as to seem to deprive me of life. I had no hope left.
The weeds were wrapped about my head - This may be understood literally also. He found himself in the fish's stomach, together with sea weeds, and such like marine substances, which the fish had taken for its aliment.