Jonah 2:2

"I called by reason of my affliction unto Jehovah,

And he answered me;

Out of the belly of Sheol cried I,

And thou heardest my voice."

This marvelous prayer which God heard and answered was not offered from any formal position such as kneeling, standing, etc. "The Bible shows by example that men may pray in any posture."[15] The Scriptures show that men prayed kneeling (1 Kings 8:54), standing (Nehemiah 9:5; Luke 18:13), bowing down on the earth with face between the knees (1 Kings 18:42), lying in a sickbed and turning the face to the wall (2 Kings 20:2), failing prostrate upon the ground (Matthew 26:39), and walking along or standing in public (John 11:41,42; 12:28f).

This prayer is totally unsuitable for an allegory, "And, as no one could have known its substance except Jonah, we have here an argument for his authorship of the book."[16]

"Out of the belly of Sheol ..." "Sheol means netherworld, or underworld, and is equivalent to Hades in the New Testament."[17] "It is the regular word in Semitic literature for the realm of the dead."[18] De Haan made a strong argument from this that Jonah actually died, basing it upon the contrast between the belly of the fish and the belly of Sheol, in which different words were used by the Holy Spirit;[19] but it may very well be that Jonah meant, "That the Lord had snatched him from the Jaws of death, delivering him before the gates of Sheol closed upon him."[20] We remain uncertain whether or not Jonah actually died and was raised up from death. There was no problem at all for the Lord either way. It appears to this writer that the argument from the antitype to the effect that since Christ actually died, the type, Jonah, also, in all likelihood died, is more convincing than the argument from the use of Sheol in this passage; but as Banks pointed out "A type should never be unduly pressed; and there is no one else in the Bible who, having been brought to life again, gives a detailed account of his experience in death."[21]