Jonah 3:1-7

1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time saying:

2 Arise, and go to Ninive, the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee.

3 And Jonas arose, and went to Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: now Ninive was a great city of three days’ journey.

4 And Jonas began to enter into the city one day’s journey: and he cried and said: Yet forty days and Ninive shall be destroyed.

5 And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.

6 And the word came to the king of Ninive: and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed in sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Ninive, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying: Let neither men nor beasts, oxen, nor sheep taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water.

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.