Jonah 2:4

“And I said, ‘I am cast out from before your eyes,

Yet I will look again towards your holy temple.”

And his first thoughts as he viewed approaching death was that he had been cast out from before YHWH’s eyes. He was a reject. But his automatic impulse had been to look towards the Temple of YHWH in his mind, even though he had recognised that he was a castaway. It was an instantaneous admission of guilt and a plea for acceptance. He who had refused mercy towards others was now seeking it for himself.