26:6 The underworld 1 is naked before God; 2
the place of destruction lies uncovered. 3
34:21 For his eyes are on the ways of an individual,
he observes all a person’s 4 steps.
34:22 There is no darkness, and no deep darkness,
where evildoers can hide themselves. 5
15:11 Death and Destruction 6 are before the Lord –
how much more 7 the hearts of humans! 8
“I 9 called out to the Lord from my distress,
and he answered me; 10
from the belly of Sheol 11 I cried out for help,
and you heard my prayer. 12
1 tn Heb “Sheol.”
2 tn Heb “before him.”
3 tn The line has “and there is no covering for destruction.” “Destruction” here is another name for Sheol: אֲבַדּוֹן (’avaddon, “Abaddon”).
4 tn Heb “his”; the referent (a person) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn The construction of this colon uses the Niphal infinitive construct from סָתַר (satar, “to be hidden; to hide”). The resumptive adverb makes this a relative clause in its usage: “where the evildoers can hide themselves.”
10 tn Heb “Sheol and Abaddon” (שְׁאוֹל וַאֲבַדּוֹן (shÿ’ol va’adon); so ASV, NASB, NRSV; cf. KJV “Hell and destruction”; NAB “the nether world and the abyss.” These terms represent the remote underworld and all the mighty powers that reside there (e.g., Prov 27:20; Job 26:6; Ps 139:8; Amos 9:2; Rev 9:11). The
11 tn The construction אַף כִּי (’af ki, “how much more!”) introduces an argument from the lesser to the greater: If all this is open before the
12 tn Heb “the hearts of the sons of man,” although here “sons of man” simply means “men” or “human beings.”
13 sn The eight verses of Jonah’s prayer in Hebrew contain twenty-seven first-person pronominal references to himself. There are fifteen second- or third-person references to the
14 tn Tg. Jonah 2:2 renders this interpretively: “and he heard my prayer.”
15 sn Sheol was a name for the place of residence of the dead, the underworld (see Job 7:9-10; Isa 38:17-18). Jonah pictures himself in the belly of Sheol, its very center – in other words he is as good as dead.
16 tn Heb “voice” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “my cry.” The term קוֹל (qol, “voice”) functions as a metonymy for the content of what is uttered: cry for help in prayer.