Christian Standard Bible
Jonah 2:8
8Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love,
Jonah 2:8 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
- New International Version (NIV)“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
- New King James Version (NKJV)“Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy.
Context of Jonah 2:8
6I sank to the foundations of the mountains, the earth’s gates shut behind me forever! Then you raised my life from the Pit, Lord my God! 7As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple. Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love, 9but as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the Lord. 10Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Read all of Jonah 2Jonah 2:8 word by word
מְשַׁמְּרִ֖ים הַבְלֵי־שָׁ֑וְא חַסְדָּ֖ם יַעֲזֹֽבוּ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Jonah 2:8
- 1 Samuel 12:21Don’t turn away to follow worthless things that can’t profit or rescue you; they are worthless.
- 2 Kings 17:15They rejected his statutes and his covenant he had made with their ancestors and the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves, following the surrounding nations the Lord had commanded them not to imitate.
- Psalms 31:6I hate those who are devoted to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord.
- Jeremiah 2:13For my people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves — cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.
- Jeremiah 10:8They are both stupid and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
- Jeremiah 16:19Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in a time of distress, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our ancestors inherited only lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.”
- Habakkuk 2:18What use is a carved idol after its craftsman carves it? It is only a cast image, a teacher of lies. For the one who crafts its shape trusts in it and makes worthless idols that cannot speak.
Commentaries on Jonah 2:8
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 8They that observe lying vanities - They that trust in idols, follow vain predictions, permit themselves to be influenced with foolish fears, so as to induce them to leave the path of obvious duty, forsake their own mercy. In leaving that God who is the Fountain of mercy, they abandon that measure of mercy which he had treasured up for them.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 8They that observe lying vanities - , i. e., (by the force of the Hebrew form, that diligently watch, pay deference to, court, sue, “vanities of vanities,” vain things, which prove themselves vain at last, failing the hopes which trust in them. Such were actual idols, in which men openly professed that they trusted Such are all things in which men trust, out of God. One is not more vain than another. All have this common principle of vanity, that people…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 8-9The end of Jonah’s psalm-prayer is similar to Jonah 1:16: The sailors also reacted to the Lord’s saving power and mercy with sacrifices and promises.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 88. observe lying vanities--regard or reverence idols, powerless to save (Psa 31:6). mercy--Jehovah, the very idea of whom is identified now in Jonah's mind with mercy and loving-kindness. As the Psalmist (Psa 144:2) styles Him, "my goodness"; God who is to me all beneficence. Compare Psa 59:17, "the God of my mercy," literally, "my kindness-God." Jonah had "forsaken His own mercy," God, to flee to heathen lands where "lying vanities" (idols) were…Read the comment
Topics related to Jonah 2:8
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Jonah 2
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- Darby Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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