Jonah 3:1-7

Nineveh Repents

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

2 "Arise, go to ¹Nineveh the great city and ²proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you."

3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an ³exceedingly great city, a three days' walk.

4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk; and he ⁴cried out and said, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown."

5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a ⁵fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, ⁶covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.

7 He issued a ⁷proclamation and it said, "In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water.

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Jonah 3:1-7 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 7

1. Zephaniah 2:13
2. Jeremiah 1:17; Ezekiel 2:7
3. Jonah 1:2; Jonah 4:11
4. Matthew 12:41; Luke 11:32
5. Daniel 9:3; Joel 1:14
6. Esther 4:1-4; Jeremiah 6:26; Ezekiel 27:30, 31
7. 2 Chronicles 20:3; Ezra 8:21; Jonah 3:5

Footnotes 2

[a]. Lit "a great city to God"
[b]. Or "dust"