1From the fish's belly Jonah offered this prayer to the LORD his God:
2“In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me; from deep within Sheol I cried for help, and you heard my voice.
3You cast me into the depths, into the heart of the ocean, and the flood closed around me; all your surging waves swept over me.
4I thought I was banished from your sight and should never again look towards your holy temple.
5“The water about me rose to my neck, for the deep was closing over me; seaweed twined about my head
6at the roots of the mountains; I was sinking into a world whose bars would hold me fast for ever. But you brought me up, LORD my God, alive from the pit.
7As my senses failed I remembered the LORD, and my prayer reached you in your holy temple.
8“Those who cling to false gods may abandon their loyalty,
9but I with hymns of praise shall offer sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I shall fulfil. Victory is the LORD's!”
10The LORD commanded the fish, and it spewed Jonah out on the dry land.
