Jonah 2:6
“I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Sinking to the roots of the mountains as if locked in forever, Jonah marvels that God brought his life up from the pit.
What Does Jonah 2:6 Mean?
Jonah reaches the very floor of his descent: down to the bottoms of the mountains, with the earth's bars closing behind him as if forever. He pictures himself shut in like a prisoner behind eternal gates, with no way back. This is the lowest point in the whole book, the prophet as good as buried in the deep. And then comes the great reversal, marked by another decisive yet.
Thou hast brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. The bars that seemed eternal could not hold him, because God reached down and lifted him out. This is resurrection language, the bringing up of a life from the pit, and it is no wonder the church has long heard in it an echo of Christ's own rising. No prison of death is stronger than God's saving hand. However locked-in our situation feels, the Lord is able to bring us up. The God of Jonah is the God who opens graves.
In the Original Language
shachat (שַׁחַת), 'corruption' -- means a pit or the grave, the place of decay; God brings Jonah's life up from it, language of rescue from death itself.