Explain death in the Old Testament?

[glen smith]

Psalm 115:17 NIV
It is not the dead who praise the Lord (YAH), those who go down to the place of silence;

Psalm 146:4 NIV
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Acts 2:29 NIV
²⁹ “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.

[Lou Newton]

Jonah 2 (NIV)

2 ¹ From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. ² He said:

“In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and you listened to my cry.
³ You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
swept over me.
⁴I said, ‘I have been banished
from your sight;
yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’
⁵ The engulfing waters threatened me,
the deep surrounded me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
⁶To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
brought my life up from the pit.

⁷ “When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.

⁸ “Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.
⁹ But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

¹⁰ And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Matthew 12

The Sign of Jonah

³⁸ Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

³⁹ He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.

[glen smith]

Thank you for these relevant passages.
Question:
Does Jonah's words "ebbing away" carry enough weight to state that what he said was before death?
⁷ “When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.
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The sign of Jonah used by the Lord Jesus does not require an exact correspondence of the tomb with the fish because it is an analogy as are most of the Old Testament prophesies of the Messiah - as with King David is analogous to the Messiah.
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Regardless of what is made of the two points above the following passages you highlighted must be reconciled.

From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
and
To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
brought my life up from the pit.
------------------
Jonah believes
"the earth beneath barred me in forever" (This has to be figurative language since he was inside the great fish.)
(The word earth might be a poor translation of the Hebrew?)
But do the "barred me forever" words of Jonah carry a similar idea of silence and nothing?
Psalm 115:17 the place of silence
Psalm 146:4 the plans come to nothing.
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Other relevant passages and comments are encouraged.

[Lou Newton]

These articles on death should help anyone understand what is meant by death in the Bible.

https://forum.lounewton.com/forum/lo...of-death/page4

https://forum.lounewton.com/forum/inner-court/things-of-the-lord/298-death-brings-forth-life