battery sitting in water?

OK, so this may be a dumb question to those of you who regularly go mudding and such, but I don't so bear with me.

Last week my XJ did one of those "no start, no power" things. I quickly pulled the battery & took it to the store (2 blocks away, faster than finding my meter) to be tested. Turned out it was fine, so I started checking other stuff, found that my cables had corrosion up under the coating - so, more than likely bad cables.

I didn't have much time left 'cos I had to go out of town for the weekend, so rather than reassemble it all to just have to pull it back apart when i got home, I left the battery out of the Jeep and stuck it in one of those plastic outdoor chest things, to keep it away from my kid.

Came home from the weekend to discover that somebody had left the lid open on the chest, and about 4 inches of standing water was inside from the weekend storms...

so, my question is: has this killed my battery? Can a battery sit in water for an extended period, so long as the water didn't reach the side post connectors, and be OK? How will I (safely) be able to tell? It's just a regular battery from Advance Auto, not anything marine rated or whatever, but it was the best store brand one they sell, and not cheap.

Shouldn't be harmed. It might have discharged if there was enough crap on the outside of the case to carry current, but not very likely.

Dry it off and give it a shot.

Clean your ice chest before offering your friends a beer from it.