Глава 2

And Jonah, at the behest of God (this was expressed by the Prophet with the words: “the Lord commanded” (Jon. 2:1)) was swallowed up by a great whale, without causing any harm to him with his teeth. And the whale’s belly served as the Prophet’s abode for three days and the same number of nights, and the power of the belly to transform what was contained in it was stopped in its action. The Prophet enjoyed such convenience that he could offer prayer to God. For he says: John 2:3. I cried out in my sorrow to the Lord my God, and when I heard: my cry is from the belly of hell. I, who thought before, says Jonah, that in Jerusalem only God appears to the Prophets, found Him inherent in the belly of a whale, and, having offered prayer, took advantage of His love for mankind. “The belly of hell” he called the whale’s belly; because the beast was deadly, and the Prophet, by the very nature of the matter, was already dead, but remained alive by grace alone. And besides, as the image of the Lord Christ, who was “three days and three nights in the hearts of the earth” (Matthew 12:40), Jonah rightly says about himself that he was in the belly of hell. And what is most amazing of all, the one who actually tasted death said about Himself that he would be three days and three nights in the womb of the earth, and who saw only the shadow of death above him, calls the whale’s belly “the belly of hell.” For Jonah’s life was not in his power; but the Lord Christ had a free death, and a resurrection in His own will. And therefore in the Gospel the place where hell and death is called the heart of the earth, and here the belly of the whale is called hell. “Thou hast heard my voice,” says Jonah; because without this I would not have continued to live to this day. John 2:4. You have cast me away into the depths of the heart of the sea, and the rivers have consumed me. The new mention of the heart shows that the shadow was likened to reality, and the Prophet calls the battles of waves “rivers.” All Your heights and Your waves have come upon me. John 2:5. And I said: I have turned away from Thy sight. Embraced by the excess of disasters, previously carried on top of the waves, and now, as if imprisoned in a whale’s belly, I realized that I was left without your care for me, and therefore I endure all this. Shall I bring some food to Thy holy church? John 2:6. The water poured out on me to the depths of my soul, the last abyss of my life. Surrounded by the abyss itself, and being among so many waters, I come to doubt and fear whether I am not completely deprived of this spectacle that I longed for - to see Your church. Pontre my head in the clefts of the mountains John 2:7. And he sank into the earth, sealing its ropes for eternity. I see that I am surrounded by some high mountains, and enclosed everywhere by some indestructible faiths. And this Prophet makes it clear not only the enormity of the whale, but also the inevitability of the evils that beset it. Probably he also means some mountains hidden in the waters of the sea, on which, sometimes, ships are crushed, and which are well known to seafarers; why do they try to avoid these underwater rocks? And may my belly rise from decay to Thee, O Lord my God. John 2:8. Whenever my soul passed away from me, I remembered the Lord, and may my prayer come to You to Your holy church. Because, being at the very gates of death, I cannot, says the Prophet, give room within myself to forget about You, Master; then, having delivered me from this corruption, return me to life, so that I can again offer the usual prayers in the church dedicated to You. John 2:9. Those who keep vain and false things will abandon their mercy. Those who were taught vain and false things, believing the lot, without mercy, says Jonah, gave me up to the sea. John 2:10. But with a voice of praise and confession I will devour You; I will reward You with the great promise I have made for my salvation, the Lord. And having gotten rid of the evils that beset me, I will offer saving sacrifices to You, and I will tell you both the greatness of Your good deed and the punishment that befell me for fleeing. And blessed Jonah, having promised this, fulfilled it, and committed everything to writing, so that not only his contemporaries, but also people of later times would know what happened to him. And just as blessed David described his own sin, and thus preached God’s love for mankind, and indicated to those who sinned the medicine of repentance: so the wonderful Jonah consigned to history both his flight, and the punishment imposed on him, and the salvation given to him. And the philanthropic Lord, having heeded the prayer, as if from some kind of seclusion, brought the Prophet out of the whale’s belly.