Jonah 2

Jon. 2:6. "The earth with her bars was about me for ever." It alludes to the bars of a prison, he speaks of himself as having as it were been in hell. Verse 2, "Out of the belly of hell cried I;" which in Scripture is often spoken of as being in the bowels of the earth, and under the bottoms or foundations of the mountains. Deuteronomy 32:22, "A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. " So here, " I went down to the bottom of the mountains." So hell is spoken of as being under the bottom of the sea. Job 26:5, "Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering." (See Notes on this place.) Hell and destruction here seems to be synonymous terms. Hell is by a metonomy called destruction. So Psalms 88:11, "Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction?" So Proverbs 15:11, "Hell and destruction are before the Lord;" and Proverbs 27:20, "Hell and destruction are never full;" and in other places. This prayer of Jonah was indited by the Spirit of God, and so is mystical; and the Holy Ghost in it has an eye to Christ, who, as it were, went to hell in our stead. Hell is here represented as a prison in the heart of the earth, that hath the earth with its rocks and other strong and immovable parts for its walls and bars; and therefore it is such a prison as cannot be broken through, but effectually forever confines those that are prisoners there: and therefore it is said, "The earth with her bars were about me for ever;" i.e. it would have been so, were it not for the wonderful power of God's delivering me, which was stronger than the walls and bars of this prison.