Bible Strands
Jonah 2:4
At this, I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jonah speaks from inside the fish immediately after describing how God cast him into the deep and swept waves over him. He addresses God directly while the surrounding waters continue to close in.
The words — נִגְרַשְׁתִּי (nig.Rash.ti) means "I have been driven away," and אַ֚ךְ ('akh) translates as "nevertheless." The text states a perceived expulsion from divine presence before asserting a deliberate reorientation toward the temple.
The thread — This movement from claimed separation to targeted prayer appears in Psalm 31:22 and Psalm 5:7, where declared cutoff status is met with continued cries toward God's dwelling.
Why it lands — The verse requires a reader to acknowledge felt abandonment without ceasing to direct attention toward God's presence. It demands persistent spiritual focus despite overwhelming environmental opposition.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
Cross-references
- Psalms 31:22 In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help.
- Psalms 5:7 But I will enter Your house by the abundance of Your loving devotion; in reverence I will bow down toward Your holy temple.
- 2 Chronicles 6:38 and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name,
- Isaiah 38:17 Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
- 1 Kings 8:38 then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—
- Jeremiah 7:15 And I will cast you out of My presence, just as I have cast out all your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.
- Daniel 6:10 Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
- 1 Kings 8:42 for they will hear of Your great name and mighty hand and outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple,
- 1 Kings 8:48 and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray to You in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name,
- 1 Kings 9:7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.