Jonah 3:4-10

4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.
7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.
8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.
9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

Jonah 3:4-10 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.

Cross References 15

  • 1. S Jeremiah 18:7-10
  • 2. Daniel 9:3; Matthew 11:21; Matthew 12:41; Luke 11:32
  • 3. Esther 4:1-3; S Job 2:8,13; S Ezekiel 27:30-31
  • 4. S 2 Chronicles 20:3; S Ezra 10:6
  • 5. Psalms 130:1; John 1:6
  • 6. Jeremiah 25:5
  • 7. Jeremiah 7:3
  • 8. S Job 16:17
  • 9. 2 Samuel 12:22
  • 10. S Jeremiah 18:8
  • 11. S Joel 2:14
  • 12. S Psalms 85:3
  • 13. S Amos 7:6
  • 14. S Jeremiah 18:8
  • 15. S Exodus 32:14
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