For you had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods surrounded me: all your billows and your waves passed over me.
Read Chapter 2
Cyril of Alexandria
AD 444
Jonah fulfilled a type of our Savior when he prayed from the belly of the fish and said, ‘I cried for help from the belly of Hell.’ He was in fact in the whale, yet he says that he is in Hell. For he manifestly prophesies in the Person of Christ. For he typified Christ, who went down into the heart of the earth (Mt. 12:40).
Jonah only appeared to be dead. Since the whale gulps down its prey fiercely, the belly of Hell is called the belly of the whale. (Catechetical Lecture 14:20)
I cried. These five verses (Haydock) express his thoughts while he was in the sea, (St. Jerome; Calmet) or in the fish. (Haydock)
He doubtless prayed before, when he was cast into the sea, and also in the whale's belly, having then greater confidence that he should arrive safely on dry land, (ver. 5.) and therefore vowing sacrifices of thanks, ver. 10. (Worthington)
Hell; the whale's belly, (Theodoret;) or rather the depth of the sea. It may denote any imminent danger.
he cried with the whole passion of his heart, according to the Apostle who says, "You have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by virtue of which we cry, 'Abba, Father!'"
LXX: similar except: 'from the belly of hell I threw out my cries'. He does not say, "I cry", but "I cried". He does not pray for the future, but gives thanks for the past. That shows us that from the moment he is thrown into the sea and sees the whale, that great bulk, that immense mouth which opened wide to swallow him, he remembered God and cried out, either by the waves giving passage for his cry, or by a feeling from the depths of his heart, according to that which the apostle says: "crying in your hearts": "Abba! Father". He cried to him who alone knew the hearts of men and said to Moses, "why do you cry out to me?", while the Scriptures remember that Moses had never cried out before this speech. This is the text that we read in the first psalm of the steps: "I cried to the Lord in my distress and he replied to me." By the "belly of hell" we understand the stomach of a whale of such great size that it took the place of hell. But this can better be referred to the person of Christ...
