Jonah 3:2

2 "Set out for the great city of Ninveh, and proclaim to it the message I will give you."

Jonah 3:2 Meaning and Commentary

Jonah 3:2

Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city
So it is called; (See Gill on Jonah 1:2). The order runs in the same words as before; and the same discouragements are presented to Jonah, taken from the greatness of the city, the number of its inhabitants, its being the metropolis of the Assyrian empire, and the seat of the greatest monarch on earth, to try his faith; but these had not the like effect as before; for he had now another spirit given him, not of fear, but of a sound mind; he considered he was sent by a greater King, and that more were they that were on his side than the inhabitants of this place, who might possibly be against him: and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee;
that he had bid him before, declaring and exposing their wickedness, and telling them that in a short time their city would be destroyed. Jonah must not be gratified with any alteration in the message; but he must go with it as it had before been given, or what he now bid, or should bid him; the word of the Lord must be spoken just as it is delivered; nothing must be added to it, or taken from it; the whole counsel of God must be declared; prophets and ministers must preach, not as men bid them, but as God bids them. The Targum is,

``prophesy against it the prophecy which I speak with thee.''

Jonah 3:2 In-Context

1 The word of ADONAI came to Yonah a second time:

2 "Set out for the great city of Ninveh, and proclaim to it the message I will give you."

3 So Yonah set out and went to Ninveh, as ADONAI had said. Now Ninveh was such a large city that it took three days just to cross it.

4 Yonah began his entry into the city and had finished only his first day of proclaiming, 'In forty days Ninveh will be overthrown,'

5 when the people of Ninveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.