Jonah 2: A Death Liturgy for the Doomed Prophet

The use of fauna- and flora-based symbolism in ancient lament literature is a well-attested phenomenon. This article focuses on this symbolism in Jonah 2, exploring nature’s ritual agency in preparing Jonah for his entombment in the heart of the sea. In conclusion, the article considers how Jonah 2 can serve as an interpretive lens for Jonah 3 and 4, particularly their views on death and life.

ment nature likewise attains ritual agency-i.e., it solemnly participates in Jonah's descent to the underworld, it prepares him for his entombment in the heart of the sea. 4 Incidentally, the use of fauna-and flora-themed symbolism in ancient lament literature is a frequent rhetorical phenomenon. Thus, for example, in Gilgamesh's iconic dirge over Enkidu's death, the king engages his landscape with its varied elements to mourn for his friend, "May the high [peaks] of hills and mountains mourn you, . . ., may the pastures lament like your mother. May [boxwood,] cypress and cedar mourn you. . ." . 5 Likewise, in biblical prophetic and wisdom texts the downfall of a nation or an individual, as well as their socio-religious misconduct, may be cast as eliciting a violent mournful response from the non-human creation (e.g., Hos 4:1-3; Joel 1:10; Jer 4:23-28, 12:4; Isa 24:19-20, 33:7-9; Qoh 12:1-7). 6 Thus, encoding human tragedy in naturebased terms, these compositions create a comprehensive griefscape for those who find themselves on the receiving end of loss.
Furthermore, as pointed out by many, the psalm in Jonah 2 not only draws its nature-related elements from biblical conceptualization(s) of the cosmos (i.e., heavens, the netherworld, etc.), but it also fuses them with spatial parameters from Israel's cultic topography (i.e., YHWH's Temple). The outcome of this fusion is a rhetorically enhanced picture of Jonah's demise. Hence, fleeing from God, the prophet traverses the land outside Israel finding himself in "the nethermost side of the cosmos," i.e., the underworld, banished from God and his earthly (and heavenly?) abode(s) (cf. ‫עיניך‬ ‫מנגד‬ ; ‫קדשך‬ ‫היכל‬ [Jonah 2:5; MT here and throughout]). 7 Utilizing spatial opposites from Israel's cosmic and cultic realms, the text depicts Jonah's doom by way of a steeply vertical movement to Sheol (Jonah 2:3-7). Relatedly, a number of recent studies have drawn attention to "totalizing description" as a literary device in the literatures of the ancient Near East (ANE) and the Hebrew Bible. 8 Discussing an object 4 The term "ritual" here and throughout is used broadly in reference to mourning and funerary rites. On biblical and ANE mourning, see, among others, G.A. Anderson, A Time to Mourn or a subject in a comprehensive fashion, often from head to toe, this technique serves as a literary congener of the alphabetic acrostic. Thus, exploring this device in Israel's rhetoric, J. Vayntrub observes that it may be applied to the depiction of animate and inanimate subjects, experiences and events, states and circumstances-e.g., creation (Genesis 1), mythical beasts (Job 41), the city of Tyre and its demise (Ezekiel 27), human bodies (Song 4:1-7, 7:2-10), physical conditions (Deut 28:35; Job 2:7). Such descriptions, she explains, usually feature summarizing details signifying the totality or wholeness of the subject under discussion-i.e., lexemes such as ‫"/כל‬all," ‫‪/"to‬כלל‬ complete," etc. 9 Arguably, through the conflation of the aforesaid topographies Jonah 2 exhibits a similar rhetorical move in dealing with Jonah's drowning, albeit in a modified form. Since Jonah 2 describes an event, i.e., a descent to Sheol, its summative element-‫"/לעולם‬forever"-indicates the finality and irrevocability of the experience, i.e., Jonah's imprisonment in the underworld forever (Jonah 2:7). Thus, casting Jonah's death at sea in nature-based terms and encompassing Israel's cosmic and cultic geographies, the text achieves a "totalizing description" of death, a naturethemed "acrostic" of sorrow.
Of further relevance for the discussion at hand is that, unlike the prose sections of the book, the psalm in Jonah 2 demonstrates imprecision in syntax and vocabulary and, according to some, has a non-chronological structure and exhibits no progression of thought. 10 This has been attributed, among other factors, to the composite nature of the text. 11 In addition to the psalm's pre-history, however, it is worth-noting that in ANE literature disordered speech in times of distress is a well-attested phenomenon. 12 Thus, given that Jonah 2 reflects a prayer in the most adverse of situations, at the redactional stage, its "textual messiness" could have been deemed useful-i.e., the disjointedness of Jonah's song gives it an added degree of poignancy.
As indicated above, the primary interest of this discussion lies at the intersection of nature and ritual in Jonah 2. Regarding the hidden artistry of the book, J.E. Robson observes that "[o]n the surface there is a certain artless simplicity [in it]. But swirling amongst the seaweed are turbulent undercurrents, undercurrents onto which the reader is plunged." 13 Exploring these undercurrents and focusing on the ritual agency of other-than-human actors in Jonah 2, the present analysis will demonstrate that intricately locking the prophet and nature together, the text reads as a majestic death liturgy. Having considered this "liturgy," in closing, this discussion will offer some remarks on how Jonah 2 can serve as an interpretive lens for reading Jonah 3 and 4, particularly their views on death and life. Hence, it will argue that in the broader context of the book-a book, that is a microcosm of God's engagement with all of creation-the nature-based liturgy of chapter 2 is an indispensable part in the book's theology.

JONAH'S "UN-CREATION"
As previously stated, to relate Jonah's plight in Jonah 2, the psalm draws on diametrically opposite spatial categories. That is, God and his abode represented by "his eyes" and his Temple are juxtaposed with the underworld signified by a set of more or less synonymous terms ("the belly of Sheol," "the heart of the sea," "the earth," "the pit," etc.). Mapping these categories from mythic and cultic domains onto a vertical axis, 14 the poem 12 On disordered speech in moments of distress in ANE literature, see G. Rendsburg, "Confused Language as a Deliberate Literary Device in Biblical Hebrew Narrative," JHS 2 (1999), article 6 and the bibliography cited there. Regarding the genre of Jonah 2, S.W. Ramp notes that it refuses to be classified, which can only reflect "the disorienting nature of grief." Ramp, "When the Wheels Come Off," 416. Cf. the Epic of Gilgamesh, where Enkidu dreams about his imminent death and in a delirious state of mind speaks to the door of cedar; for this Gilgamesh berates Enkidu calling his speech "profanity" (GE VII 37-64, 70). Cf. a broken Hittite text, in which two wounded soldiers in a mournful song call out to the burial shrouds, to which an unidentified voice responds by suggesting they are singing "monstrosity. 14 For biblical traditions which present Sheol as an extremity in the cosmos in contrast with "heaven(s)," see Isa 7:11, 14:12; Ps 139: 8-12; achieves the "totalizing" effect in re-counting Jonah's drowning and casts it as an event of cosmic magnitude. 15 In using this vertical schema, Jonah 2 not only echoes biblical and ANE distress texts (laments) but also positions itself among compositions with the descent to the underworld motif. 16 Thus, a Sumerian myth, Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld, features a comparable rhetorical technique, whereby the goddess journeys "from up high" or from "the great above," i.e., heaven, to "the great below" or to "the land of no return," i.e., the region of the dead (ETCSL: c.1.4.1). Incidentally, along with the downward vertical orientation of their heroes' journeys, the two compositions share other thematic parallels-both utilize the "three days and three nights" motif while speaking of individuals travelling to chthonic locales and both view the traversed realms as having bolted doors and gates (Jonah 2:7; cf. Isa 38:10; Job 17:16, 38:16ff; Pss 9:13, 107:17-18). 17 Furthermore, contributing to the cosmic event in Jonah 2 is the presence of potent water symbolism. Analyzing this imagery in biblical profiles of the underworld (Pss 69:1-15, 88:4-8; Job 26:5-6), 18 D. Rudman argues that the pairing of the two can be attributed to the appearance of water in traditions related to creation (Genesis 1) or un-creation (Genesis 6-8). Hence, he states that The chaos waters by their very nature are symbolic of the absence of order and creation. In the flood narrative, they denote the reversal of creation. For the writers of the OT, who saw the formation of the individual as part of God's ongoing creative activity (Jer 1,5; 49,5; Zach 12,1), and who likewise saw death as a reversal of creation (Gen 2,7; 3,19; Qoh 12,7), the deep would be an appropriate image to denote the cessation of life. To be alive is to be part of the created world: to be dead is to be uncreated. 19 In a similar vein, and speaking of Jonah 2, J.D. Nogalski asserts that "the sea language in the poem is used with parallel expressions (Sheol, the river, the deep, roots of the mountains) to connote images of death and chaos, not simply a large body of water. . ." 20 Hence, the text's "liquid" vocabulary-‫‪/"the‬מצולה‬ deep," ‫לבב‬ ‫ימים‬ /"the heart of the seas," ‫"/נהר‬the river/currents," ‫וגליך‬ ‫‪/"your‬משבריך‬ breakers and your waves," ‫"/מים‬the waters," ‫‪/"the‬תהום‬ deep"-must be understood as having a dual function, i.e., representing Jonah's deep-sea drowning and casting this experience in terms of his "un-creation." Moreover, Rudman explains that biblical "depictions of the individual swallowed up by the primeval chaos waters (cf. Gen 1, 2) denote the passing of that individual from the realm of creation (life, the earth), to that of non-creation (death, Sheol)." 21 Relatedly, the language of creation from Genesis 1-‫"/ארץ‬earth," ‫‪/"the‬תהום‬ deep" (Gen 1:1, 2)-appears in Jonah 2 to speak of Jonah's undoing elevating his plight to a cosmic level of discourse (cf. Gen 7:11, 8:2). 22 Such presentation of Jonah's demise renders his earlier claim in Jonah 1:9 more poignant-the Creator God, the one who made the heavens, the sea, and the dry land, can also uncreate.

JONAH'S COSMIC "BURIAL": "YOU [GOD] CAST ME INTO THE DEEP"
Of further pertinence for the ritual reading of Jonah's fate is that unlike the first chapter that uses the roots ‫טול‬ (Jonah 1:4, 5, 12, 15) or ‫נפל‬ in Hiphil (Jonah 1:7) for hurling/tossing actions, the second chapter utilizes the root ‫שלך‬ in Hiphil while speaking of Jonah being flung into the sea-"for You [God] cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas"/‫ימים‬ ‫בלבב‬ ‫מצולה‬ ‫ותשליכני‬ (Jonah 2:4). The difference in the "hurling" vocabulary between the chapters is usually attributed to the difference in genre between them-Jonah 1 is prose and Jonah 2 is poetry. 23 However, given that ‫שלך‬ appears in a death-related vignette in Jonah's psalm, it is of significance that in the majority of cases in the Hebrew Bible and in Qumran texts ‫,שלך‬ with human beings as its object, represents violent forms of interment outside the ancestral tomb. Thus, with or without nouns such as ‫"/נבלה‬corpse" or ‫"/פגר‬dead body," it may stand for the dishonourable deposition of the dead into their final place of "rest" (  (2005), 601-16 (606-7); idem, "Was the 'King of Babylon' Buried Before His Corpse Was Exposed? Some Thoughts on Isa sources, he asserts that such handling of dead bodies in ANE was reserved for "vanquished foes, executed adversaries, and others thought to deserve . . . contemptuous treatment." 26 Given Jonah's uncooperative, if not confrontational, stance towards God's call in chapter 1, and given death motifs in chapter 2 (particularly its reference to the grave in v. 7 [‫"/שחת‬the pit"]), 27 the casting of the prophet into "the heart of the sea" should be seen as his penal "burial" with YHWH himself as his "undertaker." 28 An analogous perspective on God, that is of him personally depositing a sufferer in their grave, is found in Psalm 88, where the distressed claims, "You On punitive death entailing the depth and vast waters cast over the one judged by God, as well as their going to "the pit," see Ezek 26:19-21. Interestingly, v. 21 indicates that Tyre will be sought but will never be found. Given ANE mourning practices, to be "buried" in a way that no mourning or visitation of the tomb is possible is unthinkable. So, Tyre's fate, as is Jonah's, is of the worst kind. On penal death in "the heart of the seas"/‫ימים‬ ‫,לבב‬ see Additionally, however, in view of Jonah's flight from God in chapter 1, it is worth-noting that ‫שלך‬ can also stand for God's punitive removal of his people from their land, and their subsequent experience of exile in a foreign land is imaged as a shameful disposal of a dead body (Deut 29:28; 2 Kgs 13:23, 17:20, 24:20; 2 Chr 7:20; Amos 4:3; Jer 7:15, 51:63; Ezek 16:5). In a similar vein, in Jonah 1, the wayward prophet flees from God and the land of Israel and in a tragic turn of events finds himself being flung by God ‫,ותשליכני(‬ Jonah 2:4) into the "land" from which there is no return ‫לעולם(‬ ‫בעדי‬ ‫ברחיה‬ ‫,הארץ‬ Jonah 2:7). 30 Furthermore, given the reading of ‫שלך‬ proposed here, i.e., denoting Jonah's "burial," it must be noted that the water symbolism in this chapter would signal not only Jonah's death as the end of his part in the created order but also his ritual preparation for interment. Assessing ancient Israel's "death and burial" archaeology, M. Suriano notes that the "presence of pitchers, dipper juglets and related vessels [inside or outside tombs] suggests that the body was washed and anointed during the primary burial." 31 Hence, the potent water imagery in Jonah 2 may attain another layer of meaning-i.e., signifying Jonah's ritual ablution before he is entombed in the heart of the sea.

FUNERARY DANCES FOR JONAH: "THE FLOODS SURROUNDED ME . . . THE DEEP CLOSED AROUND ME"
As suggested above, Jonah's deep-sea drowning in chapter 2 is poetically cast as a cosmic burial of a strong-willed prophet.
Since the book as a whole habitually personifies inanimate objects, 32 it would not be implausible for Jonah's psalm to also mobilize and agentivize creation for a ritual purpose, i.e., to supplement Jonah's interment with mourning rites. Thus, of interest YHWH's service, the prophet is now being interred by his God. On the assertion that YHWH "kills and makes alive," see  for the discussion at hand are the two claims made by Jonah in vv. 4 and 6-the floods surrounded ‫יסבבני/‪him‬‬ ‫ונהר‬ and the watery deep closed around ‫יסבבני/‪him‬‬ ‫.תהום‬ According to some, the root ‫‪/"to‬סבב‬ surround" featured in these statements should be read in terms of protection that is extended to the prophet in danger (cf. Deut 32:10; Ps 32:10). 33 Others, however, see in the encircling verbs ‫סבב‬ and ‫אפף‬ the idea of "mighty masses of water" imprisoning Jonah. 34 In view of death-and burial-related terms in this passage, however, another reading of the encircling acts is possible. In fact, it could be argued that each of these formulations functions as a double entendre-on the one hand they contribute to the depiction of Jonah's drowning experience, but on the other they add to the overall funerary symbolism.
Of pertinence for Jonah 2:4, 6 is that in the ancient world it was customary for mourners to perform funerary dances for the deceased and in the Hebrew Bible this rite, among other verbs, is represented by the root ‫סבב.‬ 35 Thus, for example, the poem in Qoheleth 12 addresses the end of life and speaks of a person going to their eternal home, while being surrounded by mourners circling the streets-‫כי-הלך‬ ‫וסבבו‬ ‫עולמו‬ ‫אל-בית‬ ‫האדם‬ ‫הספדים‬ ‫בשוק‬ (v. 5).3 5 F 36 Seeing this text as describing a last rite for the dead, M. Gruber states that "perhaps the Mishnaic and Modern Hebrew term for a funeral l e wāyāh derives from the common Semitic root l-w-y and refers to the circumambulation of the bier."3 6 F 37 Of relevance here is that dealing with the issue of death, Qoheleth 12 and Jonah 2 contain a number of comparable ideas. First, the cessation of life in both texts is related by means of explicit and implicit references to "creation" and "un-creation." Thus, Qoheleth 12 images death as a cataclysmic event and 33 Sasson, Jonah, 176. 34  speaks of the need for humanity to remember their Creator ‫‪/"your‬בוראיך(‬ Creator," Qoh 12:1). The latter in turn sounds as ‫"/בורך‬your grave" anticipating a mention of the pit/grave in v. 7 (cf. Jonah 2:7 ‫משחת[‬ ‫)]ותעל‬ and the claim that "the dust returns to the ground it came from and the spirit returns to God who gave it" (Qoh 12:7). 38 The book of Jonah in turn presents YHWH as a creator of the cosmos (Jonah 1:9) and then exposes the prophet to the elements within it to subsume and uncreate him (Jonah 2:3-7). Secondly, both texts envisage death in terms of irrevocability and speak of humanity's final destination as a place of no return-Qoh 12:5 describes the deceased going to their eternal home ‫עולמו(‬ ‫3)בית‬ 8 F 42 Given that the reference to encircling acts/circumambulations in Jonah appears in conjunction with its remark that the prophet was in the belly of the fish "three days and three nights" (Jonah 2:1), the aforementioned myth, Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld is of interest as well. In it, prior to her perilous journey, which would require the exact amount of time, the goddess instructs her servant to make a lament for her on the ruin mounds, to beat the šem drum for her in the sanctuary, and to circumambulate/make the rounds of the houses of the gods on her behalf (ETCSL: c.1.4.1.34-35). 43 Accompanied by these mourning rites, the sojourn of the strong-willed Inanna in the realm of the dead is reminiscent of Jonah's descent to Sheol-fleeing from God, he finds himself en route to the netherworld while the floods and the watery deep swirl around him in a ritual frenzy. In view of Jonah's fractured relationship with YHWH in the book and some of the narrative details suggestive of God's penal or disciplinary actions towards his servant, the dances performed by the currents and the deep could read, to a degree, as a parody on proper mourning rites. 44 As previously stated, "to be alive is to be part of the created world; to be dead is to be uncreated." 45 Thus, in ancient distress literature individuals on the brink of death or in mourning urged the world around them to share in the experience. Hence, in the aforesaid dirge over Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh appeals to his surrounding landscape including the rivers Ulāy and Euphrates to lament for his friend . Similarly, other-thanhuman agents from the world of nature, particularly watercourses, are personified to mourn the death of a loved one in a funerary inscription of an Assyrian king. 46 As indicated above, comparable tendencies are likewise attested in biblical prophetic texts which utilize the phrase "the earth mourns"/ ‫תאבל‬ ‫הארץ‬ rhetoric, the ritual reading of the swirling, encircling acts in Jonah's nature-themed funeral is not implausible. Additionally, according to death and mourning practices from the Second Temple Period, a funerary procession was supposed to disrupt the community's activities causing those who encounter it to "join in the lamentation." 48 Arguably, a similar principle of the totality of mourning could be detected in ancient laments, whereby human grief is superimposed on the created order. 49 As suggested here, this principle could be at work in Jonah 2 as well, but more needs to be said about the role of nature in this text.

JONAH'S BURIAL SHROUD: "SEAWEEDS WERE WRAPPED AROUND MY HEAD"
However, even though the text is replete with terms from Israel's mythic repertoire, it is highly unlikely that YHWH's confrontation with Jonah could be seen as his battle against chaos-in his suicidal state (Jonah 1:12, 4:3, 8), the prophet was already an easy target! 55 Furthermore, and as will be argued below, seeing ‫סוף‬ as a type of plant can still complement the images of non-existence in the text; 56 in fact, some scholars have already gestured towards this reading. Thus, J. Bewer, for instance, observes that in this macabre poem seaweeds are "wound around the psalmist's head, [creating] a gruesome turban with which he was about to enter the land from which no wanderer returns." 57 As the verb ‫חבש‬ appears with cultic headgear elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible (Exod 29:9; Lev 8:13), this reading is certainly attractive. Yet, in the light of the discussion at hand, this phrase could be nuanced a little bit further.
Considering the saturation of Jonah 2 with death symbolism, it is noteworthy that ‫‪/"to‬חבש‬ wrap" is featured in another death-related text-"hide them in the dust together; bind their faces in the hidden place"/‫בטמון‬ ‫חבש‬ ‫פניהם‬ ‫יחד‬ ‫בעפר‬ ‫טמנם‬ (Job 40:13). Regarding this line, D. Clines asserts that here, "Job is ironically being exhorted to drive the wicked into the underworld, hiding them in the dust of death, imprisoning them in the Dungeon ‫,טמון(‬ lit. 'the hidden place,' an otherwise unattested term for the underworld. . .)." 58 Understanding the verb ‫חבש‬ as "to bind," he notes that the verse may allude to "the trope of the chaining of creatures in the underworld (cf. 1 Enoch 10:5; Jude 6)." 59 Taking into account biblical profiles of Sheol as a fortified city or a prison and that ‫חבש‬ and its cognates may connote the idea of captivity, Clines' reading is certainly plausible. Yet, in Job the verb is linked to the reprobates' faces, which is an unusual body part to put in shackles (cf. 2 Sam 3:34; Ps 105:18). Incidentally, earlier in this passage, when God challenges Job to take his place and execute judgement on the wicked, he instructs him to adorn himself with glory and splendour and to clothe himself in honour and majesty (Job 40:10). In v. 13, however, he speaks of casting the wicked into the grave and makes a reference to some manipulation of their faces. If "to wrap" is the preferred meaning of ‫,חבש‬ then vv. 10 and 13 create a nice thematic parallelism-having taken God's place as a judge, Job is adorned/‫עדה‬ and clothed/‫לבש‬ with glory, whereas the wicked judged by him are thrown into the underworld wrapped/‫חבש‬ in funeral garbs; the latter would be represented here by a burial shroud for the face as the "part for the whole" principle. 60 This reading is already reflected in J. Hartley's commentary on Job, where he states, When unleashing his fury against the arrogant wicked, Job would put them to death for their evil deeds. With their proud faces shrouded they would be given a common burial in the grave, an infernal crypt (baṭṭāmûn). Such treatment would be the final, humiliating blow to a proud person for whom the height of glory was to receive a stately funeral followed by interment in his own majestic monument (cf. 3:14, 15; 21:32, 33). 61 Given the fate of the arrogant in Job 40:13, the sea with its growth in Jonah 2 could likewise be seen as donning the prophet in preparation for his entombment; 62 this in turn could be sup-ported by textual and archaeological evidence for the use of burial clothes in ANE. 63 Of pertinence here is that in traditional societies (both ancient and modern) funerary laments preserve a concern for the deceased to be properly attired and adequately equipped for their way to the afterlife. This, for example, is seen in a Hittite lament from the so-called Puḫanu chronicle, which is sung by two soldiers in anticipation of their defeat and subsequent death in the Hurrian invasion of Hatti 64 -"shrouds of Nesa, shrouds of Nesa, bind me, bind; take me down to my mother, bind me, bind. . ." (KBo 3.40 obv. 13'-14'). 65 According to M. Weeden, "the place-name Nesa [in this song] is the Hittite name for ancient Kaneš, modern Kültepe near Kayseri, a location the Hittites regarded to a degree as their ancestral home," 66 and the "shrouds of Nesa" represent clothes for the dead. 67 Commenting on this mournful song, C. Watkins in turn notes that "the ample documentation of the Hittite rituals for the dead, . . . fully confirms the importance of the dressing of the corpse and bier in Hittite culture." 68 Similarly, in the Assyrian Elegy to a woman who died in childbirth an unknown speaker, possibly her husband, describes the dead parturient journeying to the netherworld and remarks on her solemn attire, "abandoned like a boat adrift midstream, . . . why cross the City's river, veiled in a shroud?" (K 890, ll.1-3). 69 Since in these sorrowful songs, the fatally wounded and the bereft spouse (?) are calling for or referencing burial shrouds, in a composition of a comparable genre, i.e., Jonah 2, a veiled poetic nod to an analogous item of clothing is not inconceivable.
Furthermore, given the mythic veneer of Jonah's psalm and the specifics of God's instruction to Job ( ‫פניהם‬ ‫חבש‬ ‫"/בטמון‬shroud their faces in the grave," Job 40:13), the Epic of Gilgamesh is of interest as well. In it, having gone to the underworld and having succumbed to death, Enkidu is lovingly prepared for burial by Gilgamesh. One of the acts performed by the king for his dead friend is covering his face with a veil as a bride (GE VIII 59). 70 Another composition worthy of note here is the Akkadian version of the aforementioned myth, Ishtar's Descent to the Netherworld. Discussing ritual preparations of Dumuzi to take the goddess's place in the realm of the dead, the text makes a reference to his burial clothes: "Wash (him) with pure water, anoint him with sweet oil, clothe him in a red robe." S. Dalley explains this line by saying that "[c]orpses were wrapped in red cloth for burial; traces [of which] have occasionally been recovered by excavations." 71 Concerning biblical evidence for an ideal burial entailing proper attire of the deceased, it must be recognized that it is very scarce. However, texts that do speak of people coming from the underworld or residing in it make mention of their clothes-hence, 1 For an Egyptian tale of Setme and his son Si-Osiris, first observing two funerals-that of a rich man buried in "sumptuous clothing" and that of a poor man interred unceremoniously-and subsequently traveling to the world of the dead to learn of the reversal of the deceased's fortune, see Bauckham, The Fate of the Dead, 13-14 and the bibliography cited there. 72 Alternatively, the phrase could mean that the dead king was "clothed" with the slain (cf. NIV).
represent God's punishment on Shebna by means of unwrapping (or rewrapping?) his mummified corpse and casting it out of its tomb. 73 Archaeological evidence on the subject at hand is richer indicating that burial clothes were used for the deceased since time immemorial. 74 Regarding eighth-century BCE Judahite burial and mortuary practices, E. Bloch-Smith asserts that the "body was dressed and adorned with jewellery including rings, earrings, necklaces and bangles. Select individuals, including women, were then wrapped in a cloak, as evidenced by . . . the presence of toggle pins and fibulae in burials." The body was then transported to the tomb, where a set of mourning rites were performed by those assembled for the funeral. 75 Discussing Jewish burial practices from the Second Temple Period, R. Hachlili writes that him descending to the depths (Jonah 2:4) and being driven from YHWH's gaze (Jonah 2:5; cf. Ps 88:15). The notions of darkness, hiddenness (from God?) and restricted vision in the grave are likewise present in Job 40:13. Relatedly, in ANE the underworld in general was viewed as a place of gloom and darkness (cf. Pss 88:7, where "depths" parallels "darkness" [cf. Jonah 2:4], 12, 139:8-12, 143:3; Lam 3:5; Job 10:21-22, 17:13, 18:18; Sir 22:11), 77 and some traditions from the Second Temple Period not only describe the region of the dead as a place of darkness, but also mention the covering of a face in it: "cover him [Azael] with darkness, . . ., cover his face that he may not see light" (1 Enoch 10:4, 5; cf. 109:2). Considering the punitive overtones of Job 40:13 and the ANE ideas around the loss of sight, or eyes functioning in a diminished capacity, in death, the psalm in Jonah 2 could read as a layered text-with marine growth creating a funerary shroud for Jonah and at the same time restricting his vision, which could be suggestive of God's judgement on the prophet. 78

CONCLUSION
Focussing on the intersection of nature and ritual in the death vignettes of Jonah 2, the foregoing analysis has shown that despite its "textual messiness" the psalm speaks of the prophet's downfall as a fully developed funeral scene. In view of such reading, this discussion can now offer some remarks on the psalm's usage in service of the book's overall theological message. That is, Jonah 2 with its cosmic burial should serve as an interpretive lens through which Jonah 3 and 4 are to be read-i.e., the poem's cataclysmic event should be seen as casting its "dead-ly" shadow on the remaining sections of the book. Assessing the role of the non-human creation in the book and in chapter 4 in particular, 77 Bar, I Deal Death and Give Life, 176-79. Cf. Ps 13:3 which indicates that if God does not light up the eyes of the sufferer he will sleep "the sleep of death" (cf. Ps 38:10); cf. Prov 29:13, where God is the giver of light to the eyes (cf. Prov 20:12; Ps 94:9; cf. Matt 6:22-23). 78 Interestingly, in the aforementioned K 890, not only was the woman who died in childbirth veiled in a shroud on her way to the netherworld (l. 3), but also the goddess who turned away from the dying parturient, did so by veiling her own face (ll. 10-11). George, "Assyrian Elegy," 206, 209. Cf. The Babylonian Poem of the Righteous Sufferer, where the afflicted experiences relief brought about by Marduk and states, "My beclouded eyes, which were wrapped in the shroud of death. He drove (the cloud) a thousand leagues away, he brightened [my] vision." B.R. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature (Bethesda, MD: CDL, 2005), 404. Given the aforesaid elasticity of Jonah's rhetoric, and in the light of the mention of Jonah's burial garbs (Jonah 2:6), the phrase "the deep surrounded me"/ ‫יסבבני‬ ‫תהום‬ (cf. Jonah 2:4) may assume another layer of meaning. In later Jewish burial rites ‫סובב‬ is a swaddling sheet for the dead. Thus, the currents resulting from the deep/abyss encircling Jonah would produce a "liquid shroud" for him. Cf. Ps 104:6, where the deep/‫,תהום‬ at creation, covers the earth as a garment.