So the people of Nineveh believed God
Or "in God" F18: in the word of the Lord, as the
Targum; they believed there was a God, and that he, in whose name
Jonah came, was the true God; they believed the word the prophet
spake was not the word of man, but, the word of God; faith came
by hearing the word, which is the spring of true repentance, and
the root of all good works. Kimchi and R. Jeshuah, in Aben Ezra,
suppose that the men of the ship, in which Jonah had been, were
at Nineveh; and these testified that they had cast him into the
sea, and declared the whole affair concerning him; and this
served greatly to engage their attention to him, and believe what
he said: but this is not certain; and, besides, their faith was
the effect of the divine power that went along with the preaching
of Jonah, and not owing to the persuasion of men; and
proclaimed a fast;
not of themselves, but by the order of their king, as follows;
though Kimchi thinks this was before that: and put on
sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least
of
them;
both, with respect to rank and age, so universal were their
fasting and mourning; in token of which they stripped themselves
of their common and rich apparel, and clothed themselves with
sackcloth; as was usual in extraordinary cases of mourning, not
only with the Jews, but other nations. (Jonah would be a quite a
sight to behold. The digestive juices of the fish would have
turned his skin to a most unnatural colour and his hair was most
like all gone. Indeed, anyone looking like that would attract
your attention and give his message more credence, especially
after he told you what had happened to him. A God who creates
storms, prepares large fish to swallow a man and preserves him in
the fish, would not likely have too much trouble destroying your
city. Editor)