Now, for the third time, the psalmist mentions his desperate situation, as he had already done in verse 2 and in verses 3-6a. So once again the reference is to the situation before Jonah had been brought back alive from the underworld. The word life is not the same as that which is used in the previous verse, but is the word translated “neck” by New English Bible in verse 5, and by King James Version, Revised Standard Version, and others as “soul” in this verse. The Hebrew word nephesh has a variety of meanings, as already noted, and here New English Bible has “my senses failed me.”
The translation of nephesh depends to some extent on the way in which the accompanying verb is understood. Good News Translation understands the verb as having the meaning “to faint,” hence When I felt my life slipping away. In much the same way An American Translation has “when I was losing consciousness,” and New Jerusalem Bible “When my life was ebbing away.” A sense of “despair” is another possible meaning of the verb, as can be seen from the passages in the Psalms where it occurs (107.5, where the same expression is used as here in Jonah; 142.3; 143.4).
The figurative expression my life slipping away can only be expressed in some languages as “I was dying.” The entire first clause may then be rendered as “when I felt that I was dying.”
At the time of his greatest despair, the psalmist prayed to the Lord. New English Bible uses here the verb “remembered,” but in contexts of prayer this means more than simply calling to mind. It involves mentioning the Lord by name, as in Jer 20.9 and in Psa 77.3, where the psalmist is no doubt praying to God as well as thinking about him.
In rendering O LORD and you, it may be important to place them together, in which case, O LORD may be a type of attributive or modifier of you; for example, “then I prayed to you, who are my Lord.”
The poet goes on to speak of his prayer achieving its objective by reaching the Lord in his holy Temple. This expression is the same as that which was used in verse 4, though that in itself is no proof that the earthly Temple in Jerusalem is meant here. In Micah 1.2, for instance, the reference may well be to God’s heavenly temple, and that meaning seems most appropriate in this present context, where the speaker is not necessarily thinking in terms of the land of Israel. It is evident from such passages as Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8 that the ideas of the earthly Temple and of its heavenly counterpart were closely related in Israelite thought.
In your holy Temple may be expressed as “in the holy place where you dwell.” When, however, it is combined with the verb heard, it may be important to indicate the place as a source; for example, “you heard me from your holy Temple” or “… from your holy house.”
Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. et al. A Handbook on the Book of Jonah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1982, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .