Jonah 2 · Verse 8

Jonah 2:8

They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
Jonah 2:8, King James Version

Jonah 2:8 in other translations

BSBThose who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.
WEBThose who regard vain idols forsake their own mercy.
ASVThey that regard lying vanities Forsake their own mercy.
YLTThose observing lying vanities their own mercy forsake.
DARBYThey that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
BBEThe worshippers of false gods have given up their only hope.
WebsterThey that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

What does Jonah 2:8 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
8. 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 worshipped. But now, taught by his own preservation in conscious life in the fish's belly, and by the inability of the mariners' idols to lull the storm (Jon 1:5), estrangement from God seems estrangement from his own happiness (Jr 2:13; 17:13). Prayer has been restrained in Jonah's case, so that he was "fast asleep" in the midst of danger, heretofore; but now prayer is the sure sign of his return to God.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 8 They 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.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Jonah 2:1-9

Observe when Jonah prayed. When he was in trouble, under the tokens of God's displeasure against him for sin: when we are in affliction we must pray. Being kept alive by miracle, he prayed. A sense of God's good-will to us, notwithstanding our offences, opens the lips in prayer, which were closed with the dread of wrath. Also, where he prayed; in the belly of the fish. No place is amiss for prayer. Men may shut us…

Read the full comment on Jonah 2:1-9 →

Jonah 2:8 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

מְשַׁמְּרִ֖יםme.sha.me.Rim[those who] pay regardH8104
הַבְלֵי\־hav.lei-vanities ofH1892
שָׁ֑וְאShav'nothingnessH7723
חַסְדָּ֖םchas.Damloyalty theirH2617
יַעֲזֹֽבוּ\׃ya.'a.Zouthey abandonH5800

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Jonah 2:8

  • Psalms 31:6

    I have hated them that regard lying vanities: 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 hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

  • 2 Kings 17:15

    And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.

  • 1 Samuel 12:21

    And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.

  • Jeremiah 10:8

    But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

  • Habakkuk 2:18-20

    What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

  • Jeremiah 16:19

    O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

  • Jeremiah 10:14-15

    Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 12:21; 2Ki 17:15; Ps 31:6; Jer 2:13; 10:8,14,15; 16:19
Hab 2:18-20

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Jonah 2:7

    When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

  • Jonah 2:8

    They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

  • Jonah 2:9

    But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.

Read all of Jonah 2

Jonah 2:8 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Cuando mi alma desfallecía en mí, acordéme de Jehová; y mi oración entró hasta ti en tu santo templo.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Quand mon âme défaillait en moi, je me suis souvenu de l’ Éternel, et ma prière est venue jusqu’à toi, dans le temple de ta sainteté.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Als meine Seele in mir verschmachtete, gedachte ich Jehovas, und zu dir kam mein Gebet in deinen heiligen Tempel.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Cum angustiaretur in me anima mea, Domini recordatus sum: ut veniat ad te oratio mea, ad templum sanctum tuum.