Jonah 3:1-5

The People of Nineveh Repent at Jonah’s Proclamation

1 And the word of Yahweh came to Jonah a second [time], saying,

2 "Get up! Go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the message that I [am] telling you."

3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was {an extraordinarily great city}--a journey of three days [across].

4 And Jonah began to go into the city a journey of one day, and he cried out and said, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be demolished!"

5 And the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth--from the greatest of them {to the least important}.

Jonah 3:1-5 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "set out"
• [b]. Literally "a great city to God" or "a great city to [the] gods," a disputed phrase which may refer to God's estimate or ownership of Nineveh, to the presence of many idols, or an idiom referring to the size of Nineveh (this translation takes the last view)
• [c]. This phrase may also refer to a journey on which business was done, so that "three days" is the total elapsed time
• [d]. Or "overthrown"
• [e]. Literally "to the smallest of them"