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Artwork for Out of the Belly of Hell

Jonah 1:17-2:10

Out of the Belly of Hell

Lyrics · Jonah

Out of the Belly of Hell

Jonah 1:17-2:10

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About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the Jonah collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Jonah
Collection
Jonah
Musical styles
World Music
[Lament I] The deep closed over and weed bound my head, The roots of the mountains received me as dead. Bars of the earth seemed to lock without end, Yet out of corruption my life rose again. [Refrain] Out of the belly of hell I cried, The waves passed over, but my prayer did not die. [Lament II] When my soul fainted I remembered the LORD, My voice crossed the darkness toward the temple. They that hold lying vanities forsake mercy, I will pay what I vowed with thanksgiving. [Hope Turn] Salvation is of the LORD, not the ship, not the sea, Not strength in the body or distance from thee. The appointed fish heard the word and released me, Dry ground under knees like a life given back. [Final Chorus] Out of the belly of hell I cried, The waves passed over, but my prayer did not die. The appointed fish heard the word and released me, Dry ground under knees like a life given back.

About the passage

Jonah 1: A prophet goes down while strangers begin to pray

Jonah 1 begins with almost perfect grammatical obedience and immediate practical refusal: Jonah is told to arise, and he rises, but only to buy passage away from Nineveh. The Book of Jonah marks that choice with repeated descent, from Joppa to the ship's interior and then toward the sea. A storm exposes the absurdity of trying to flee by water from the God Jonah himself identifies as maker of "the sea and the dry land." Meanwhile, the sailors become the chapter's moral surprise. They pray before Jonah does, question him before condemning him, and row hard for shore after he offers himself as the solution. Only then do they cast him overboard, after appealing to the LORD about innocent blood. The calm turns their fear into sacrifice and vows. Jonah's downward movement finally meets an appointed fish, and apparent destruction becomes preservation.

Study Jonah 1 in depth

Jonah 2: Thanksgiving from a place that still looks like confinement

Jonah 2 is a prayer spoken from confinement but shaped by rescue already experienced. Jonah looks back on the waters closing over him, the weeds around his head, and the apparent finality of descent toward Sheol, then speaks of being heard and brought up from corruption. The Book of Jonah does not present the fish as freedom in the ordinary sense, yet its belly is the place from which drowning has been interrupted and thanksgiving can begin. The prayer also turns geography inside out: the man who tried to leave God's presence now expects his prayer to reach the holy temple from beneath the sea. His confession, "Salvation is of the LORD," is clear, and his promised sacrifice and vows echo the sailors' response in chapter 1. What remains unresolved is his refusal of Nineveh, which he never mentions. The fish obeys God's command and deposits him on dry land, but the original commission still waits.

Study Jonah 2 in depth