New King James Version
Jonah 2:8
8“Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy.
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 Living Translation (NLT)Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies.
Context of Jonah 2:8
6I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. 7“When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. “Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy. 9But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” 10So the Lord spoke to 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 12:21And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.
- 2 Kings 17:15And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them.
- Psalms 31:6I have hated those who regard useless idols; But I trust in the Lord.
- Jeremiah 2:13“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.
- Jeremiah 10:8But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine.
- Jeremiah 16:19O Lord, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”
- Habakkuk 2:18“What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, The molded image, a teacher of lies, That the maker of its mold should trust in it, To make mute idols?
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
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries