Then Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God, out of the fish's belly.
This psalm-prayer is alleged by some to be an addition to the narrative, thus compromising the unity of the Book of Jonah, and leading to the allegation that this chapter is not a part of the original record.  This is false.  As Young pointed out, "If  Jonah 2:2-9 be removed, the symmetry of the book is most certainly destroyed."[14]  Besides that, there is not the slightest historical or textual evidence that the 2chapter of this book is any less original than the rest of it.  All of the objections to this prayer-psalm disappear upon a careful examination of the text itself.