Jonah 2:5

“The waters compassed me about, [even] to the soul, etc.] Either when he was first cast into the sea, which almost suffocated him, and just ready to take away his life, could not breathe for them, as is the case of a man drowning; or these were the waters the fish drew into its belly, in such large quantities, that they compassed him about, even to the endangering of his life there. So the Targum, “the waters surrounded me unto death.” In this Jonah was a type of Christ in his afflictions and sorrows, which were so many and heavy, that he is said to be “exceeding sorrowful”, or surrounded with sorrow, “even unto death”, (<402638>Matthew 26:38); see also (<196901>Psalm 69:1); the depth closed…”

“even to the soul--that is, threatening to extinguish the animal life. weeds--He felt as if the seaweeds through which he was dragged were wrapped about his head.”

“The waters compassed me about even to the soul - Words which to others were figures of distress (Psalms 69:2. See the introduction to Jonah), “the waters have come even to the soul,” were to Jonah realities. Sunk in the deep seas, the water strove to penetrate at every opening. To draw breath, which sustains life, to him would have been death. There was but a breath between him and death. “The deep encompassed me,” encircling, meeting him wherever he turned, holding him imprisoned on every side, so that there was no escape, and, if there otherwise had been, he was bound motionless, “the weed was wrapped around my head, like a grave-band.” “The weed” was the well known seaweed, which, even…”

“The weeds - It seems to mean, my case was as hopeless as that of a man wrapt about with weeds in the depth of the sea. Jonah 2:6”

“Psa 40:2, Psa 69:1, Psa 69:2; Lam 3:54 Jonah 2:6”

“5 Waters surrounded me even to the soul: the flood encompassed me, Sea-grass was wound round my head. 6 I went down to the foundations of the mountains; The earth, its bolts were behind me for ever: Then raisedst Thou my life out of the pit, O Jehovah my God. 7 When my soul fainted within me, I thought of Jehovah; And my prayer came to Thee into Thy holy temple. This strophe opens, like the last, with a description of the peril of death, to set forth still more perfectly the thought of miraculous deliverance which filled the prophet's mind. The first clause of the fifth verse recals to mind Psa 18:5 and Psa 69:2; the words "the waters pressed (בּאוּ) even to the soul" ( Psa 69:2) being…”