Jonah's Prayer

2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish,2 saying,

“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
   and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
   and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep,
   into the heart of the seas,
   and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
   passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away
   from your sight;
yet I shall again look
   upon your holy temple.’
5 The waters closed in over me to take my life;
   the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
6    at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
   whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
   O Lord my God.
7 When my life was fainting away,
   I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
   into your holy temple.
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols
   forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
   will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
   Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.