New International Version
Jonah 2:8
8“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.
Jonah 2:8 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
- 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.
- New Living Translation (NLT)Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies.
Context of Jonah 2:8
6To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. 7“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. 9But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’ ” 10And 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 12:21Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless.
- 2 Kings 17:15They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”
- Psalms 31:6I hate those who cling to worthless idols; as for me, I trust in the Lord.
- Jeremiah 2:13“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
- Jeremiah 10:8They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols.
- Jeremiah 16:19Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good.
- Habakkuk 2:18“Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes 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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