Jonah 3:1-9

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,

2 "Arise, go to ¹Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you."

3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now ²Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,^[a] three days' journey in breadth.^[b]

4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

5 ³And the people of Nineveh believed God. ⁴They called for a fast and ⁵put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The People of Nineveh Repent

6 The word reached^[c] the king of Nineveh, and ⁶he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, ⁷and sat in ashes.

7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, ⁸"By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor ⁹beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water,

8 but let man and ¹⁰beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. ¹¹Let everyone turn from his evil way and from ¹²the violence that is in his hands.

9 ¹³Who knows? God may turn and relent ¹⁴and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."

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Jonah 3:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JONAH 3

This chapter gives an account of the renewal of Jonah's message to Nineveh, and of his faithful execution of it, Jon 3:1-4; and of the fruit and effect of it, the conversion of the Ninevites, their faith in God, repentance of their sins, and reformation from them, Jon 3:5-9; and of God's approbation thereof, by revoking the sentence he had pronounced upon them, Jon 3:10.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 14

1. See Jonah 1:2
2. [See ver. 2 above]
3. [Matthew 12:41; Luke 11:32]
4. See 2 Chronicles 20:3
5. See 2 Samuel 3:31
6. [Job 1:20; Ezekiel 26:16]
7. Job 2:8
8. [Daniel 6:26]
9. [Jonah 4:11; Psalms 36:6; Joel 1:18, 20]
10. [See ver. 7 above]
11. Jeremiah 18:11; Jeremiah 36:3
12. Isaiah 59:6
13. 2 Samuel 12:22; Joel 2:14
14. Psalms 85:3

Footnotes 3

[a]. Hebrew a great city to God
[b]. Or a visit was a three days' journey
[c]. Or had reached

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.