Jon D. Levenson on the Strangeness of Jonah

"I cried to the Lord out of my distress, and he heard me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried and Thou didst hear my voice. For Thou didst cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me." This is from the book of Jonah, and in these verses from its second chapter we find the prophet from the Galilee praying from inside a great fish that had swallowed him in the ocean. "The waters compassed me about, to the point of death;" Jonah said, "the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars closed on me forever: yet hast Thou brought up my life from the pit."