A Prayer from the Deep

“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 breakers and your waves
    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 To 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.