Text -- Jonah 3:4 (NET)

3:4 When Jonah began to enter the city one day’s walk, he announced, “At the end of forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Jon 3:4

The threat is express. But there was a reserve with God, on condition of repentance.

JFB: Jon 3:4

Not going straight forward without stopping: for the city was but eighteen miles in length; but stopping in his progress from time to time to announce his message to the crowds gathering about him.

JFB: Jon 3:4

The commission, given indefinitely at his setting out, assumes now on his arrival a definite form, and that severer than before. It is no longer a cry against the sins of Nineveh, but an announcement of its ruin in forty days. This number is in Scripture associated often with humiliation. It was forty days that Moses, Elijah, and Christ fasted. Forty years elapsed from the beginning of Christ's ministry (the antitype of Jonah's) to the destruction of Jerusalem. The more definite form of the denunciation implies that Nineveh has now almost filled up the measure of her guilt. The change in the form which the Ninevites would hear from Jonah on anxious inquiry into his history, would alarm them the more, as implying the increasing nearness and certainty of their doom, and would at the same time reprove Jonah for his previous guilt in delaying to warn them. The very solitariness of the one message announced by the stranger thus suddenly appearing among them, would impress them with the more awe. Learning from him, that so far from lightly prophesying evil against them, he had shrunk from announcing a less severe denunciation, and therefore had been east into the deep and only saved by miracle, they felt how imminent was their peril, threatened as they now were by a prophet whose fortunes were so closely bound up with theirs. In Noah's days one hundred twenty years of warning were given to men, yet they repented not till the flood came, and it was too late. But in the case of Nineveh, God granted a double mercy: first, that its people should repent immediately after threatening; second, that pardon should immediately follow their repentance.

Clarke: Jon 3:4

Yet forty days - Both the Septuagint and Arabic read three days. Probably some early copyist of the Septuagint, from whom our modern editions are derived, mistook the Greek numerals μ forty for γ three; or put the three days’ journey in preaching instead of the forty days mentioned in the denunciation. One of Kennicott’ s MSS., instead of ארבעים arbaim , forty, has שלשים sheloshim , thirty: but the Hebrew text is undoubtedly the true reading; and it is followed by all the ancient versions, the Septuagint and Vulgate excepted. thus God gives them time to think, reflect, take counsel, and return to him. Had they only three days’ space, the denunciation would have so completely confounded them, as to excite nothing but terror, and prevent repentance and conversion.

Calvin: Jon 3:4

Jonah here relates what had briefly been said before, — that he went to Nineveh according to the command of God. He shows then how faithfully he executed the duty enjoined on him, and thus obeyed the word of God. Hence Jonah came and began to enter the city and to preach on the first day. This promptness proves clearly how tractable Jonah had become, and how much he endeavored to obey God in discharging his office: for had there been still a timidity in his heart, he would have inspected the city, as careful and timid men are wont to do, who inquire what is the condition of the place, what are the dispositions of the people, and which is the easiest access to them, and what is the best way, and where is the least danger. If Jonah then had been still entangled by carnal thoughts he would have waited two or three days, and then have began to exercise his office as a Prophet. This he did not, but entered the city and I cried. We now then see how prompt he was in his obedience, who had before attempted to pass over the sea: he now takes hardly a moment to breathe, but he begins at the very entrance to testify that he had come in obedience to God.

We hence see with what emphasis these words ought to be read. The narrative is indeed very simple; Jonah uses here no rhetorical ornaments, nor does he set forth his entrance with any fine display of words. Jonah, he says, entered into the city He who is not well versed in Scripture might say that this is frigid: but when we weigh the circumstances, we see that this simple way of speaking possesses more force and power than all the displays of orators.

He entered then the city a day’s journey, and cried and said, etc. By saying that he cried, he again proves the courage of his soul; for he did not creep in privately, as men are wont to do, advancing cautiously when dangers are apprehended. He says that he cried: then this freedom shows that Jonah was divested of all fear, and endued with such boldness of spirit, that he raised himself up above all the hindrances of the world. And we ought, in the meantime, to remember how disliked must have been his message: for he did not gently lead the Ninevites to God, but threatened them with destruction, and seemed to have given them no hope of pardon. Jonah might have thought that his voice, as one says, would have to return to his own throat, “Can I denounce ruin on this populous city, without being instantly crushed? Will not the first man that meets me stone me to death?” Thus might Jonah have thought within himself. No fear was, however, able to prevent him from doing his duty as a faithful servant, for he had been evidently strengthened by the Lord. But it will be better to join the following verse —

Defender: Jon 3:4

Jonah was evidently a powerful and compelling preacher, and the Ninevite Assyrians were not yet as hardened in their wickedness as they would eventually become. Not only the people but the king (possibly governor, since Nineveh was not yet the capital) were brought to repentance. Eventually, Nineveh would, indeed, be "overthrown," but God spared her for a season at this time."

TSK: Jon 3:4

Yet : Jon 3:10; Deu 18:22; 2Ki 20:1, 2Ki 20:6; Jer 18:7-10

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Jon 3:4

And Jonah began to enter the city a day’ s journey - Perhaps the day’ s journey enabled him to traverse the city from end to end, with his one brief, deep cry of woe; "Yet forty days and Nineveh overthrown."He prophesied an utter overthrow, a turning it upside down. He does not speak of it as to happen at a time beyond those days. The close of the forty days and the destruction were to be one. He does not say strictly, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown,"but, "Yet forty days and Nineveh overthrown."The last of those forty days was, ere its sun was set, to see Nineveh as a "thing overthrown."Jonah knew from the first God’ s purpose of mercy to Nineveh; he had a further hint of it in the altered commission which he had received. It is perhaps hinted in the word "Yet". "If God had meant unconditionally to overthrow them, He would have overthrown them without notice. ‘ Yet,’ always denotes some long-suffering of God."But, taught by that severe discipline, he discharges his office strictly.

He cries, what God had commanded him to cry out, without reserve or exception. The sentence, as are all God’ s threatenings until the last, was conditional. But God does not say this. That sentence was now within forty days of its completion; yet even thus it was remitted. Wonderful encouragement, when one Lent sufficed to save some 600,000 souls from perishing! Yet the first visitation of the cholera was checked in its progress in England, upon one day’ s national fast and humiliation; and we have seen how general prayer has often-times at once opened or closed the heavens as we needed. "A few years ago,"relates Augustine, "when Arcadias was Emperor at Constantinople (what I say, some have heard, some of our people were present there,) did not God, willing to terrify the city, and, by terrifying, to amend, convert, cleanse, change it, reveal to a faithful servant of His (a soldier, it is said), that the city should perish by fire from heaven, and warned him to tell the Bishop! It was told. The Bishop despised it not, but addressed the people. The city turned to the mourning of penitence, as that Nineveh of old. Yet lest men should think that he who said this, deceived or was deceived, the day which God had threatened, came. When all were intently expecting the issue with great fears, at the beginning of night as the world was being darkened, a fiery cloud was seen from the East, small at first then, as it approached the city, gradually enlarging, until it hung terribly over the whole city.

All fled to the Church; the place did not hold the people. But after that great tribulation, when God had accredited His word, the cloud began to diminish and at last disappeared. The people, freed from fear for a while, again heard that they must migrate, because the whole city should be destroyed on the next sabbath. The whole people left the city with the Emperor; no one remained in his house. That multitude, having one some miles, when gathered in one spot to pour forth prayer to God, suddenly saw a great smoke, and sent forth a loud cry to God."The city was saved. "What shall we say?"adds Augustine. "Was this the anger of God, or rather His mercy? Who doubts that the most merciful Father willed by terrifying to convert, not to punish by destroying? As the hand is lifted up to strike, and is recalled in pity, when he who was to be struck is terrified, so was it done to that city."Will any of God’ s warnings "now"move our great Babylon to repentance, that it be not ruined?

Poole: Jon 3:4

The former verse gives us intelligence of Jonah’ s arrival at Nineveh; now, so soon as come, he preacheth.

Jonah began to enter into the city a day’ s journey, and he cried, and said to walk through and to preach the dreadful threats of God against Nineveh, and he proclaimed openly and plainly what God commanded; he feared not to tell all what concerned all; he did it with earnestness, as deeply affected with what he spake from God against this mighty city.

Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown a very short time, some might think, for this great city; but it is more time than God was bound to give, or than they could deserve, or than God gave to Sodom and Gomorrah, the sins of which cities were no doubt found in Nineveh now Jonah preached, and grew ripe by that time Nahum came to foretell their ruin; see Nahum. The threat is express and peremptory in its form and words; though there be a reserve with God on condition of repentance, which operated in due time, and manifestly proved that God intended mercy to repenting Nineveh, though he threatened an overthrow to impenitent Nineveh. How it should be overthrown is not expressed; some conjecture by a foreign enemy, which carrieth unlikelihood with it; others guess by fire from heaven: but since it was not destroyed we need not inquire how it should have been, and had they not repented the event would have informed us fully.

Haydock: Jon 3:4

Journey. He records what he said the first day, though he seems to have preached many (Theodoret) even during forty days, after which time (Haydock) he expected the city would fall, and therefore retired out of the walls, chap. iv. ---

Forty. Septuagint three. St. Justin Martyr, (Dialogue with Trypho) "three, or forty-three." Theodoret thinks that the mistake was made by some ancient transcriber, and has since prevailed in all the copies of the Septuagint. All the rest have forty. St. Augustine (City of God xviii. 44.) believes the Septuagint placed three for a mysterious reason. Origen (hom. xvi. Num.) suggests that the prophet determined the number, and hence God did not execute the threat. (Calmet) ---

This and many other menaces are conditional. If men repent, God will change his sentence. (St. Chrysostom; St. Gregory, Mor. xvi. 18.) (Worthington)

Gill: Jon 3:4

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey,.... As soon as he came to it, he did not go into an inn, to refresh himself after his wearisome journey; or spend his time in gazing upon the city, and to observe its structure, and the curiosities of it; but immediately sets about his work, and proclaims what he was bid to do; and before he could finish one day's journey, he had no need to proceed any further, the whole city was alarmed with his preaching, was terrified with it, and brought to repentance by it:

and he cried; as he went along; he lifted up his voice like a trumpet, that everyone might hear; he did not mutter it out, as if afraid to deliver his message, but cried aloud in the hearing of all; and very probably now and then made a stop in the streets, where there was a concourse of people, or where more streets met, and there, as a herald, proclaimed what he had to say:

and said, yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown; not by a foreign army besieging and taking it, which was not probable to be done in such a space of time, but by the immediate power of God; either by fire from heaven, as he overthrow Sodom and Gomorrah, their works being like theirs, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe, or by an earthquake; that is, within forty days, or at the end of forty days, as the Targum; not exceeding such a space, which was granted for their repentance, which is implied, though not expressed; and must be understood with this proviso, except it repented, for otherwise why is any time fixed? and why have they warning given them, or the prophet sent to them? and why were they not destroyed at once, as Sodom and Gomorrah, without any notice? doubtless, so it would have been, had not this been the case. The Septuagint version very wrongly reads, "yet three days", &c. and as wrongly does Josephus ^q make Jonah to say, that in a short time they would lose the empire of Asia, when only the destruction of Nineveh is threatened; though, indeed, that loss followed upon it.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jon 3:4

¹ tn Heb “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown!” The adverbial use of עוֹד (’od, “yet”) denotes limited temporal continuation (BDB 728 s.v. עוֹד 1.a; Gen 29:7; Isa 10:32). Tg. Jonah 3:4 rendered it as “at the end of [forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown].”

² tn Heb “be overturned.” The Niphal נֶהְפָּכֶת (nehpakhet, “be overturned”) refers to a city being overthrown and destroyed (BDB 246 s.v. הָפַךְ 2.d). The related Qal form refers to the destruction of a city by military conquest (Judg 7:3; 2 Sam 10:3; 2 Kgs 21:13; Amos 4:11) or divine intervention as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:21, 25, 29; Deut 29:22; Jer 20:16; Lam 4:6; BDB 245 s.v. 1.b). The participle form used here depicts an imminent future action (see IBHS 627-28 §37.6f) which is specified as only “forty days” away.

Geneva Bible: Jon 3:4

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's ^{( c )} journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

^{( c )} He went forward one day in the city and preached, and so he continued until the city was converted.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Jon 3:1-10

1 Jonah, sent again, preaches to the Ninevites.

5 Upon their repentance,

10 God repents.

Maclaren: Jon 3:1-10

Threefold Repentance

And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 2. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. 3. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. 4. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 5. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water: 8. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God; yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not? 10. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.'--Jonah 3:1-10.

THIS passage falls into three parts: Jonah's renewed commission and new obedience (Jonah 3:1-4), the repentance of Nineveh (Jonah 3:5-9), and the acceptance thereof by God (Jonah 3:10). We might almost call these three the repentance of Jonah, of Nineveh, and of God. The evident intention of the narrative is to parallel the Ninevites turning from their sins, and God's turning from His anger and purpose of destruction; and if the word repentance' is not applied to Jonah, his conduct sufficiently shows the thing.

I. Note The Renewed Charge To The Penitent Prophet, And His New Eagerness To Fulfil It.

His deliverance and second commission are put as if all but simultaneous, and his obedience was swift and glad. Jonah did not venture to take for granted that the charge which he had shirked was still continued to him. If God commands to take the trumpet, and we refuse, we dare not assume that we shall still be honoured with the delivery of the message. The punishment of dumb lips is often dumbness. Opportunities of service, slothfully or faintheartedly neglected, are often withdrawn. We can fancy how Jonah, brought back to the better mind which breathes in his psalm, longed to be honoured by the trust of preaching once more, and how rapturously his spirit would address itself to the task. Duties once unwelcome become sweet when we have passed through the experience of the misery that comes from neglecting them. It is God's mercy that gives us the opportunity of effacing past disobedience by new alacrity.

The second charge is possibly distinguishable from the first as being less precise. It may be that the exact nature of the preaching that I bid thee' was not told Jonah till he had to open his mouth in Nineveh; but, more probably, the second charge was identical with the first.

The word rendered preach' is instructive. It means to cry,' and suggests the manner befitting those who bear God's message. They should sound it out loudly, plainly, urgently, with earnestness and marks of emotion in their voice. Languid whispers will not wake sleepers. Unless the messenger is manifestly in earnest, the message will fall flat. Not with bated breath, as if ashamed of it; nor with hesitation, as if not quite sure of it; nor with coldness, as if it were of little urgency, --is God's Word to be pealed in men's ears. The preacher is a crier. The substance of his message, too, is set forth. The preaching which I bid thee '--not his own imaginations, nor any fine things of his own spinning. Suppose Jonah had entertained the Ninevires with dissertations on the evidences of his prophetic authority, or submitted for their consideration a few thoughts tending to Show the agreement of his message with their current opinions in religion, or an argument for the existence of a retributive Governor of the world, he would not have shaken the city. The less the Prophet shows himself, the stronger his influence. The more simply he repeats the stern, plain, short message, the more likely it is to impress. God's Word, faithfully set forth, will prove itself. The preacher or teacher of this day has substantially the same charge as Jonah had; and the more he suppresses himself, and becomes but a voice through which God speaks, the better for himself, his hearers, and his work.

Nineveh, that great aggregate of cities, was full, as Eastern cities are, of open spaces, and might well be a three days' journey in circumference. What a task for that solitary stranger to thunder out his loud cry among all these crowds! But he had learned to do what he was bid; and without wasting a moment, he began to enter into the city a day's journey,' and, no doubt, did not wait till the end of the day to proclaim his message. Let us learn that there is an element of threatening in God's most merciful message, and that the appeal to terror and to the desire for self-preservation is part of the way to preach the Gospel. Plain warnings of coming evil may be spoken tenderly, and reveal love as truly as the most soothing words. The warning comes in time. Forty days' of grace are granted. The gospel warns us in time enough for escape. It warns us because God loves; and they are as untrue messengers of His love as of His justice who slur over the declaration of His wrath.

II. Note The Repentance Of Nineveh (Jonah 3:5-9).

The impression made by Jonah's terrible cry is perfectly credible and natural in the excitable population of an Eastern city, in which even now any appeal to terror, especially if associated with religious and prophetic claims, easily sets the whole in a frenzy. Think of the grim figure of this foreign man, with his piercing voice and half-intelligible speech, dropped from the clouds as it were, and stalking through Nineveh, pealing out his confident message, like that gaunt fanatic who walked Jerusalem in its last agony, crying, Woe! woe unto the bloody city!' or that other, who, with flaming fire on his head and madness in his eyes, affrighted London in the plague. No wonder that alarm was kindled, and, being kindled, spread like wildfire. Apparently the movement was first among the people, who began to fast before the news penetrated to the seclusion of the palace. But the contagion reached the king, and the popular excitement was endorsed and fanned by a royal decree. The specified tokens of repentance are those of ordinary mourning, such as were common all over the East, with only the strange addition, which smacks of heathen ideas, that the animals were made sharers in them.

There is great significance in that believed God' (Jonah 3:5).

The foundation of all true repentance is crediting God's word of threatening, and therefore realising the danger, as well as the disobedience, of our sin. We shall be wise if we pass by the human instrument, and hear God speaking through the Prophet. Never mind about Jonah, believe God.

We learn from the Ninevites what is true repentance. They brought no sacrifices or offerings, but sorrow, self-abasement, and amendment. The characteristic sin of a great military power would be violence,' and that is the specific evil from which they vow to turn. The loftiest lesson which prophets found Israel so slow to learn, A broken and a contrite heart Thou wilt not despise,' was learned by these heathens. We need it no less. Nineveh repented on a peradventure that their repentance might avail. How pathetic that Who can tell?' (Jonah 3:9) is! We know what they hoped. Their doubt might give fervour to their cries, but our certainty should give deeper earnestness and confidence to ours.

The deepest meaning of the whole narrative is set forth in our Lord's use of it, when He holds up the men of Nineveh as a condemnatory instance to the hardened consciences of His hearers. Probably the very purpose of the book was to show Israel that the despised and yet dreaded heathen were more susceptible to the voice of God than they were: I will provoke you to jealousy by them which are no people.' The story was a smiting blow to the proud exclusiveness and self-complacent contempt of prophetic warnings, which marked the entire history of God's people. As Ezekiel was told: Thou are not sent … to many peoples of a strange speech and of an hard language. Surely, if I sent thee to them, they would hearken unto thee. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee.' It is ever true that long familiarity with the solemn thoughts of God's judgment and punishment of sin abates their impression on us. Our Puritan forefathers used to talk about' gospel-hardened sinners,' and there are many such among us. The man who lives by Niagara does not hear its roar as a stranger does. The men of Nineveh will rise in the judgment with other generations than that which was this generation' in Christ's time; and that which is this generation' to-day will, in many of its members, be condemned by them.

But the wave of feeling soon retired, and there is no reason to believe that more than a transient impression was made. It does not seem certain that the Ninevites knew what God' they hoped to appease. Probably their pantheon was undisturbed, and their repentance lasted no longer than their fear. Transient repentance leaves the heart harder than before, as half-melted ice freezes again more dense. Let us beware of frost on the back of a thaw. Repentance which is repented of' is worse than none.

III. We Note The Repentance Of God (Jonah 3:10).

Mark the recurrence of the word turn,' employed in Jonah 3:8-10 in reference to men and to God. Mark the bold use of the word repent,' applied to God, which, though it be not applied to the Ninevites in the previous verses, is implied in every line of them. The same expression is found in Exodus 32:14, which may be taken as the classical passage warranting its use. The great truth involved is one that is too often lost sight of in dealing with prophecy; namely, that all God's promises and threatenings are conditional. Jeremiah learned that lesson in the house of the potter, and we need to keep it well in mind. God threatens, precisely in order that He may not have to perform His threatenings. Jonah was sent to Nineveh to cry, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shah be overthrown,' in order that it might not be overthrown. What would have been the use of proclaiming the decree, if it had been irreversible? There is an implied if' in all God's words. Except ye repent' underlies the most absolute threatenings of evil. If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end,' is presupposed in the brightest and broadest promises of good.

The word repent' is denied and affirmed to have application to God. He is not a son of man, that He should repent,' inasmuch as His immutability and steadfast purpose know no variableness. But just because they cannot change, and He must ever be against them that do evil, and ever bless them that turn to Him with trust, therefore He changes His dealings with us according to our relation to Him, and because He cannot repent, or be other than He was and is, repents of the evil that He had said that He would do' unto sinners when they repent of the evil that they have done against Him, inasmuch as He leaves His threatening unfulfilled, and does it not.'

So we might almost say that the purpose of this book of Jonah is to teach the possibility and efficacy of repentance, and to show how the penitent man, heathen or Jew, ever finds in God changed dealings corresponding to his changed heart. The widest charity, the humbling lesson for people brought up in the blaze of revelation, that dwellers in the twilight or in the darkness are dear to God and may be more susceptible of divine impressions than ourselves, the rebuke of all pluming ourselves on our privileges, the boundlessness of God's mercy, are among the other lessons of this strange book; but none of them is more precious than its truly evangelic teaching of the blessedness of true penitence, whether exemplified in the renegade Prophet returning to his high mission, or the fierce Ninevites humbled and repentant, and finding mercy from the God of the whole earth.

THE END

Micah

MHCC: Jon 3:1-4

God employs Jonah again in his service. His making use of us is an evidence of his being at peace with us. Jonah was not disobedient, as he had been. He neither endeavoured to avoid hearing the command, nor declined to obey it. See here the nature of repentance; it is the change of our mind and way, and a return to our work and duty. Also, the benefit of affliction; it brings those back to their place who had deserted it. See the power of Divine grace, for affliction of itself would rather drive men from God, than draw them to him. God's servants must go where he sends them, come when he calls them, and do what he bids them; we must do whatever the word of the Lord commands. Jonah faithfully and boldly delivered his errand. Whether Jonah said more, to show the anger of God against them, or whether he only repeated these words again and again, is not certain, but this was the purport of his message. Forty days is a long time for a righteous God to delay judgments, yet it is but a little time for an unrighteous people to repent and reform in. And should it not awaken us to get ready for death, to consider that we cannot be so sure that we shall live forty days, as Nineveh then was that it should stand forty days? We should be alarmed if we were sure not to live a month, yet we are careless though we are not sure to live a day.

Matthew Henry: Jon 3:1-4

We have here a further evidence of the reconciliation between God and Jonah, and that it was a thorough reconciliation, though the controversy between them had run high.

I. Jonah's commission is renewed and readily obeyed.

1. By this it appears that God was perfectly reconciled to Jonah, that he employed him again in his service; and the commission anew given him was an evidence of the remission of his former disobedience. Among men, it has been justly pleaded that the giving of a commission to a criminal convicted is equivalent to a pardon, so it was to Jonah. The word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time (Jon 3:1); for, 1. Jonah must be tried, whether he do indeed repent of his former disobedience or no, and whether he have gotten the good designed him both by his strange punishment an by his strange deliverance. He had deserted his work and duty, and had been under arrest for it, had received a sentence of death within himself; but, upon his submission, God had released him, had given him his life, had given him his liberty; but it is upon his good behaviour that he is released, and he must again be put upon the trial whether he will follow the will of God or his own will. After he has been thrown into the sea, and thrown out of it again, God comes and asks him, "Jonah, wilt thou go to Nineveh now?"For when God judges he will overcome, he will gain his point; he will bring the disobedient stubborn child to his foot at last. Note, When God has afflicted us, and delivered us out of affliction, we must hear his voice, saying to us, Now return to the duties which before you neglected, and which by these providences you are called to. God now said, in effect, to Jonah, as Christ said to the impotent man, when he had healed him, "Now go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee (Joh 5:14), a worse thing than lying three days and three nights in the whale's belly."God looks upon men, when he has afflicted them and has delivered them out of their affliction, to see whether they will mend of that fault, particularly, for which they were corrected; and therefore in that thing we are concerned to see to it that we receive not the grace of God in vain, neither in the correction nor in the deliverance, for both are designed to be means of grace. (2.) Jonah shall be trusted, in token of God's favour to him. God might justly have said concerning Jonah, as we should concerning one that had cheated us and dealt treacherously with us, that though we would not proceed to the rigour of the law against him, nor ruin him, yet we would never again repose a confidence in him; justly might the Spirit of prophecy, which Jonah had resisted and rebelled against, depart from him, with a resolution never to return to him any more. One would have expected that though his life was spared, yet he would be laid under a disability and incapacity ever to serve the government again in the character of a prophet. But, behold! the word of the Lord comes to him again, to show that when God forgives he forgets, and whom he forgives he gives a new heart and a new spirit to; he receives those into his family again, and restores them to their former estate, that had been prodigal children and disobedient servants. Note, God's making use of us is the best evidence of his being at peace with us. Hereby it will appear that our sins are pardoned, and we have the good-will of God towards us; does his good word come unto us, and do we experience his good work in us! if so, we have reason to admire the riches of free grace and to own our obligations to the Lord Jesus, who received gifts for men, yea, even for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell even among them, and employ them in his word, Psa 68:18.

2. By this it appears that Jonah was well reconciled to God, that he was not now, as he had been before, disobedient to the heavenly vision, did not flee from the presence of the Lord, as he had done. He neither endeavored to avoid hearing the command, nor did he decline obeying it; he made no objections, as he had done, that the journey was long, the errand invidious, the delivery of it perilous, and, if the threatened judgment did come, he should be reproached as a false prophet, and the impenitence of his own nation would be upbraided, which he had objected, Jon 4:2. But now, without murmuring and disputing, Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord, Jon 3:3. See here, (1.) The nature of repentance; it is the change of our mind and way, and a return to our work and duty, from which we had turned aside; it is doing that good which we had left undone. (2.) The benefit of affliction; it reduces those to their place that had deserted it. Jonah might truly say with David, " Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word; and therefore, though it was dreadful, though it was painful to me, and for the present not joyous, but grievous, yet it was good, very good, for me, that I was afflicted. "(3.) See the power of divine grace working with affliction, for otherwise affliction of itself would rather drive men from God than bring them to him; but God by his grace can turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, and make those willing in the day of his power, freely willing to come under his yoke, whose neck had been as an iron sinew. (4.) See the duty of all those to whom the word of the Lord comes; they must in all points conform themselves to it, and yield a cheerful faithful obedience to the orders God gives them. Jonah arose, and did not sit still in sloth or sullenness; he went directly to Nineveh, though it was a great way off, and a place where, it is likely, he never was before; yet thither he took his journey, according to the word of the Lord. God's servants must go where he sends them, come when he calls them, and do what he bids them; whatever appears to be the word of the Lord we must conscientiously do according to it.

II. Let us now see what was the command or commission given him, and what he did in prosecution of it.

1. He was sent as a herald at arms, in the name of the God of heaven, to proclaim war with Nineveh (Jon 3:2): "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city,"that metropolis, and preach unto it, preach against it, so the Chaldee. What is against us is preached to us, that we may hear it and take warning; and what is preached to us, if we do not give ear to it, and mix faith with it, will prove to be against us. Jonah is sent to Nineveh, which was at this time the chief city of the Gentile world, as an indication of God's gracious intentions in process of time to make the light of divine revelation to shine in those dark regions. God knew that if Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, had had the means of grace, they would have repented, and yet he denied them those means, Mat 11:21, Mat 11:23. He knew that if Nineveh had now the means of grace they would repent, and he gave them those means, sent Jonah, though not to preach repentance to them expressly (for we find not that he had that in his commission), yet to preach them to repentance, for that was the happy effect of what he had in commission. If God thus in dispensing his favours, in giving the means of grace to some places and not to others, and the spirit of grace to some persons and not to others, acts by prerogative and in a way of sovereignty, who may say unto him, What doest thou? May he not do what he will with his own? He is debtor to no man. Go, and preach (says God) the preaching that I bid thee. That is, (1.) "The preaching that I did bid thee when I first ordered thee to go thither (Jon 1:2); go, and cry against it; denounce divine judgments against it; tell the men of Nineveh that their wickedness has come up to God, and God's vengeance is coming down upon them."This was the message Jonah was then very loth to deliver, and therefore flew off and went to Tarshish; but, when he is brought to it the second time, God does not at all alter the message, to gratify him, or make it the more passable with him; no, he must now preach the very same that he was then ordered to preach and would not. Note, The word of God is an unalterable thing, and will not be made to bend to the humours either of its preachers or of its hearers; it shall never comply with their humours and fancies, but they must comply with its truths and laws. See Jer 15:19. Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them. Or, (2.) "The preaching that I shall bid thee when thou comest thither."This was an encouragement to him in his undertaking, that God would go along with him, that the Spirit of prophecy should abide upon him, and be ready to him, when he was at Nineveh, to give him all the further instructions that were needed for him. This intimated that he should hear from him again, which would be his great support in this hazardous expedition; as, when God sent Abraham to offer up Isaac, he gave him a similar intimation, by telling him he must do it upon one of the mountains which he would afterwards direct him to. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; he leads his people step by step, and so he expects they should follow him. Jonah must go with an implicit faith. Though he knows whither he goes, he shall not know, till he come thither, what message he must deliver, but, whatever it is, he must deliver it, be it pleasing or displeasing. Thus God will keep us in a continual dependence upon himself, and the directions of his word and providence. What he does, and what he will have us do, we know not now, but we shall know hereafter. Admirals, sometimes, when they are sent abroad, are not to open their commission till they have got so many leagues off at sea; so Jonah must go to Nineveh, and, when he comes there, shall be told what to say.

III. He faithfully and boldly delivered his errand. When he came to Nineveh he found his diocese large; it was an exceedingly great city of three days' journey (Jon 3:3); a city great to God, so the Hebrew phrase is, meaning no more than as we render it, exceedingly great; this honour that language does to the great God that great things derive their denomination from him. The greatness of Nineveh consisted chiefly in the extent of it; it was much larger than Babylon, such a city, says Diodorus Siculus, as no man ever after built. It was 150 furlongs long and 90 broad, and 480 in compass; the walls 100 feet high, and so thick that three chariots might go a-breast upon them; on them were 1500 towers, each of them 200 feet high. It is here said to be of three days' journey; for the compass of the walls, as some relate, was 480 furlongs, which, allowing eight furlongs to a mile, makes sixty miles, which may well be reckoned three days' journey for a footman, twenty miles a day. Or, walking slowly and gravely as Jonah must when he went about preaching, it would take him up at least three days to go through all the principal streets and lanes of the city, to proclaim his message, that all might have notice of it. When he came thither he lost no time; he did not come to look about him, but applied closely to his work; and, when he began to enter into the city, he did not retire into an inn, to refresh himself after his journey, but opened his commission immediately, according to his instructions, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. This, no doubt, he had particular warrant and direction to say; whether he enlarged upon this text, as is most probable, showing them the controversy God had with them, and how provoking their wickedness was, and what reason they had to expect destruction and give credit to this warning, or whether he only repeated those words again and again, is not certain, but this was the purport of his message. 1. He must tell them that this great city shall be overthrown; he meant, and they understood him, that it should be overthrown, not by war, but by some immediate stroke from heaven, either by an earthquake or by fire and brimstone as Sodom was. The wickedness of cities ripens them for destruction, and their wealth and greatness cannot protect them from destruction when the measure of their iniquity is full and the measure of their vengeance has come. Great cities are easily overthrown when the great God comes to reckon with them. 2. He must tell them that it shall shortly be overthrown, at the end of forty days. It has a reprieve granted. So long God will wait to see if, upon this alarm given, they will humble themselves and amend their doings, and so prevent the ruin threatened. See how slow God is to wrath; though Nineveh's wickedness cried for vengeance, yet it shall be spared for forty days, that it may have space to repent and meet God in the way of his judgments. But he will wait no longer; if in that time they turn not, they shall know that he has whet his sword, and made it ready. Forty days is a long time for a righteous God to defer his judgments, yet it is but a little time for an unrighteous people to repent and reform in, and so turn away the judgments coming. The fixing of the day thus, with all possible assurance, would help to convince them that it was a message from God, for no man durst be so positive in fixing a time, however he might prognosticate the thing itself; it would also startle them into preparation for it. It may justly awaken secure sinners by a sincere conversion to prevent their own ruin when they see they have but a little time to turn in. And should it not awaken us to get ready for death, to consider that the thing itself is certain, and the time fixed in the counsel of God, but that we are kept in the dark and uncertainty about it in order that we may be always ready? We cannot be so sure that we shall live forty days as Nineveh now was that it should stand forty days; nay, I think it is more probable that we shall die within thirty or forty days than we should live thirty or forty years; and so many years in the day of our security we are apt to promise ourselves.

Fleres, si scires unum tua tempora mensem;

Rides, cum non sit forsitan una dies .

We should be alarmed if we were sure not to live a

month, and yet we are careless, though we are not

sure to live a day.

Keil-Delitzsch: Jon 3:1-4

The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, to go to Nineveh and proclaim to that city what Jehovah would say to him. קריאה : that which is called out, the proclamation, τὸ κήρυγμα (lxx). Jonah now obeyed the word of Jehovah. But Nineveh was a great city to God ( lē'lōhı̄m ), i.e., it was regarded by God as a great city. This remark points to the motive for sparing it (cf. Jon 4:11), in case its inhabitants hearkened to the word of God. Its greatness amounted to "a three days' walk."This is usually supposed to refer to the circumference of the city, by which the size of a city is generally determined. But the statement in Jon 3:4, that "Jonah began to enter into the city the walk of a day,"i.e., a day's journey, is apparently at variance with this. Hence Hitzig has come to the conclusion that the diameter or length of the city is intended, and that, as the walk of a day in Jon 3:4 evidently points to the walk of three days in Jon 3:3, the latter must also be understood as referring to the length of Nineveh. But according to Diod. ii. 3 the length of the city was 150 stadia, and Herodotus (v. 53) gives just this number of stadia as a day's journey. Hence Jonah would not have commenced his preaching till he had reached the opposite end of the city. This line of argument, the intention of which is to prove the absurdity of the narrative, is based upon the perfectly arbitrary assumption that Jonah went through the entire length of the city in a straight line, which is neither probable in itself, nor implied in בּוא בעיר . This simply means to enter, or go into the city, and says nothing about the direction of the course he took within the city. But in a city, the diameter of which was 150 stadia, and the circumference 480 stadia, one might easily walk for a whole day without reaching the other end, by winding about from one street into another. And Jonah would have to do this to find a suitable place for his preaching, since we are not warranted in assuming that it lay exactly in the geographical centre, or at the end of the street which led from the gate into the city. But if Jonah wandered about in different directions, as Theodoret says, "not going straight through the city, but strolling through market-places, streets, etc.,"the distance of a day's journey over which he travelled must not be understood as relating to the diameter or length of the city; so that the objection to the general opinion, that the three days' journey given as the size of the city refers to the circumference, entirely falls to the ground. Moreover, Hitzig has quite overlooked the word ויּחל in his argument. The text does not affirm that Jonah went a day's journey into the city, but that he "began to go into the city a day's journey, and cried out."These words do not affirm that he did not begin to preach till after he had gone a whole day's journey, but simply that he had commenced his day's journey in the city when he found a suitable place and a fitting opportunity for his proclamation. They leave the distance that he had really gone, when he began his preaching, quite indefinite; and by no means necessitate the assumption that he only began to preach in the evening, after his day's journey was ended. All that they distinctly affirm is, that he did not preach directly he entered the city, but only after he had commenced a day's journey, that is to say, had gone some distance into the city. And this is in perfect harmony with all that we know about the size of Nineveh at that time. The circumference of the great city Nineveh, or the length of the boundaries of the city of Nineveh in the broadest sense, was, as Niebuhr says (p. 277), "nearly ninety English miles, not reckoning the smaller windings of the boundary; and this would be just three days' travelling for a good walker on a long journey.""Jonah,"he continues, "begins to go a day's journey into the city, then preaches, and the preaching reaches the ears of the king (cf. Jon 3:6). He therefore came very near to the citadel as he went along on his first day's journey. At that time the citadel was probably in Nimrud ( Calah ). Jonah, who would hardly have travelled through the desert, went by what is now the ordinary caravan road past Amida, and therefore entered the city at Nineveh. And it was on the road from Nineveh to Calah, not far off the city, possibly in the city itself, that he preached. Now the distance between Calah and Nineveh (not reckoning either city), measured in a straight line upon the map, is 18 1/2 English miles."If, then, we add to this, (1) that the road from Nineveh to Calah or Nimrud hardly ran in a perfectly straight line, and therefore would be really longer than the exact distance between the two parts of the city according to the map, and (2) that Jonah had first of all to go through Nineveh, and possibly into Calah, he may very well have walked twenty English miles, or a short day's journey, before he preached. The main point of his preaching is all that is given, viz., the threat that Nineveh would be destroyed, which was the point of chief importance, so far as the object of the book was concerned, and which Jonah of course explained by denouncing the sins and vices of the city. The threat ran thus: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be destroyed." נהפּך , lit., overturned, i.e., destroyed from the very foundations, is the word applied to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The respite granted is fixed at forty days, according to the number which, even as early as the flood, was taken as the measure for determining the delaying of visitations of God.

(Note: The lxx, however, τρεῖς ἡμέρας , probably from a peculiar and arbitrary combination, and not merely from an early error of the pen. The other Greek translators (Aquil., Symm., and Theodot.) had, according to Theodoret, the number forty ; and so also had the Syriac.)

Constable: Jon 3:1--4:11

II. The obedience of the prophet chs. 3--4

The second half of this book records Jonah's obedience to the Lord following his initial disobedience (chs. 1-2). However, he was not completely obedient in his attitudes even though he was in his actions.

Constable: Jon 3:1-4

A. Jonah's proclamation to the Ninevites 3:1-4

God gave Jonah a second chance to obey Him as He has many of His servants (e.g., Peter, John Mark, et al.).

3:1 The writer did not clarify exactly when this second commission came to Jonah. It may have been immediately after Jonah reached dry land or it may have been sometime later. The writer's point seems to be that God gave the prophet a second commission, not when it came to him. God does not always give His servants a second chance to obey Him when they refuse to do so initially. Often He simply uses others to accomplish His purposes. In Jonah's case God sovereignly chose to use Jonah for this mission just as He had sovereignly sent the storm and the fish to do His will. The sovereignty of God is a strong revelation in this book.

Nineveh was about 550 miles northeast of Samaria.

3:2 Another evidence of God's sovereignty is the Lord's instruction to proclaim the message that He would give Jonah. Those who speak forth a message from God (i.e., prophets) must communicate the Lord's words, not their own ideas.

Nineveh was a "great" (Heb. gadol) city in several respects. It was the capital of one of the most powerful nations in the world then. It was also a large city (cf. v. 3, 4:11).

3:3 Having learned that he must fulfill the Lord's commission or suffer the most unpleasant consequences Jonah this time obeyed and travelled east to Nineveh rather than west (cf. 1:3).

The writer's description that Nineveh "was" a great city has led some interpreters to conclude that it was not great when the book was written. Some of them take this as evidence for a late date of writing even during the postexilic period. However it seems more likely that the writer was simply describing Nineveh as it was when God sent Jonah to it. Probably "was" implies that Nineveh had already become a great city when Jonah visited it. The Hebrew syntax favors this view. Roland de Vaux has estimated that Israel's largest city, Samaria, had a population of about 30,000 at this time.⁴⁷ Nineveh was at least four times larger (4:11).

The meaning of "a three days' walk" remains somewhat obscure. The Hebrew phrase is literally "a distance of three days," which does not solve the problem. It may mean that it took three days to walk through the city from one extremity to the opposite one. It may also mean that it took three days to walk around the circumference of the city though this seems unlikely (cf. v. 4). Whether the size refers to the area enclosed by the major eight-mile wall, which seems improbable, or includes the outlying suburbs is also unclear. Regardless the description clearly points to Nineveh's geographical size as being very large.⁴⁸

3:4 Apparently after Jonah arrived at the edge of the city he proceeded into it and began announcing his message during his first day there.⁴⁹ The essence of his proclamation was that Nineveh would be overthrown in only 40 days.⁵⁰ As mentioned in the introduction section of these notes, Nineveh's neighbors to the north posed a considerable threat to her security between 782 and 745 B.C. The Septuagint has three instead of 40, but there is no justification for the change in the Hebrew text.

Note that Jonah's message was an announcement of impending doom, not a call to believe in the God of Israel. Physical deliverance rather than spiritual salvation was what the people of Nineveh would have wanted.

The same Hebrew word (haphak, overthrown, destroyed) describes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:25. Possibly Jonah expected God to destroy Nineveh as He had overthrown Sodom and Gomorrah.

The basic simplicity of Jonah's message contrasts with the greatness of Nineveh. The word of the Lord is able to change even a complex and sophisticated urban population.

Guzik: Jon 3:1-10

Jonah 3 - Jonah Preaches Repentance in Nineveh, the City Repents

A. Jonah's ministry in Nineveh.

1. (1-2) The second call to Jonah.

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you."

a. Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time: This shows the amazing love of God to His wayward people. Though Jonah did everything he could to resist the first call of God, after Jonah repented God called him again - though God was under no obligation to do it. He did it out of mercy and grace.

i. "By paralleling here the book's opening remarks, almost word for word, the author skillfully conveys the idea that Jonah is being offered a new beginning." (Alexander)

ii. "How many of us who have been called to deliver the word of Jehovah, would still be doing it, if it were not for this patient and perfecting grace of God? Surely not many! How have we failed Him, and broken down in our ministry; and often not on ground so high as that of Jonah's failure." (Morgan)

iii. God was determined to do the work through Jonah, so He did not give up on the reluctant prophet. God is often just this committed to doing His work through a man. "Suppose that the problem had been given to us to solve - how shall this city be moved to repentance? How shall its vice be forsaken and the God of Israel worshipped by all its inhabitants from the highest to the lowest? If we had not been paralyzed with despair, which is the most probable, we should, nevertheless, have sat down carefully to consider our plans. We should have parcelled it out into missionary districts; we should have needed at least several hundreds, it not thousands, of able ministers; at once, expenses would have to be incurred, and we should have considered ourselves bound to contemplate the erection of innumerable structures in which the Word of God might be preached. Our machinery would necessarily become cumbrous; we should find that we, unless we had the full resources of an empire, could not even begin the work. But what saith the Lord concerning this? Putting aside the judgments of reason, and all the plans and schemes which flesh and blood so naturally do follow, he raises up one man. By a singular providence he qualifies that one man for his mission." (Spurgeon)

b. Preach to it the message that I tell you: Instead of telling Jonah to cry out against Nineveh, this time God simply tells Jonah to go there and wait for further instructions. God often works this way, and our flesh often finds it irritating that He does.

i. The story of Jonah demonstrates why God so often leads us one step at a time without telling us more. When God told Jonah what he would say in Nineveh, Jonah rejected the call. God often only tells us what we can handle at the time.

2. (3-4) Jonah preaches in Nineveh.

So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

a. Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD: Having learned the lesson that resisting the will of God is both futile and counter-productive, Jonah now obeys the call and goes to Nineveh.

b. Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent: The idea behind this statement probably refers to how long it would take to walk around the city of "Greater Nineveh" - the metropolitan area around the city.

c. Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! Jonah emphasized to the people of Nineveh what would happen if they did not repent - the city would be overthrown in judgment. Undoubtedly, this was not Jonah's whole message to the people of Nineveh; but clearly it was his emphasis.

i. "Overthrown" is a word applied to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:25, Lamentations 4:6, and Amos 4:11).

ii. We see that Jonah preached this message with earnestness. "And such earnestness becomes a ministry that has to do with immortal souls, asleep and dead in sin, hanging on the bring of perdition, and insensible of their state. The soft-speaking, gentle-intoned, unmoved preacher, is never likely to awaken souls . . . But this earnestness is widely different from that noisy, blustering, screaming rant, that manifests more of a turbulence of disorderly passions, than of the real inspired influence of the Spirit of God." (Clarke)

B. The response of the people of Nineveh to Jonah's message.

1. (5-9) The response of the people: repentance.

So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?

a. The word "repentance" isn't in this passage; but repentance isn't really a word, it is something you do - and these people did repentance.

b. The people of Nineveh believed God: Repentance begins with believing God. As we believe Him and His Word, we have the power to transform our lives as He wills. You can do many other things associated with repentance, but if they do not begin with believing on and trusting God, they are all useless works of the flesh.

i. You can't believe God apart from the Word of God. Therefore, any real revival or repentance will begin with faithful preaching and faithful hearing of God's Word, just as it was in Nineveh.

c. The people of Nineveh . . . proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth: Repentance means doing something. The people of Nineveh fasted, mourned as if for the dead, and they did it from the highest to the lowest (from the greatest to the least of them).

i. If repentance is anything, it is not business as usual. When repentance comes, something has to change and something has to be different. In their case, the people of Nineveh took off their normal clothes and put on sackcloth - a thick coarse cloth, normally made from goat's hair. Wearing it displayed the rejection of earthly comforts and pleasures.

ii. Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth: They even repented on behalf of their animals, dressing them as if the animals were in mourning for the dead.

d. But let man and beast . . . cry mightily to God: Repentance means crying mightily to God. It means coming to God with passion and seriousness about your sin and your need for His mercy and forgiveness.

i. So much of modern "repentance," with its claim of excuses and reasons why we sinned, is really not repentance at all. It is only an attempt to justify and excuse our sin. Nevertheless, you sinned or you didn't; if you did, there is no excuse, and if you haven't, there is no need to repent. Repentance and excuses simply don't belong together.

e. Yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands: Repentance means turning from your evil way and from the violence that is in your hands. Repentance means to change your mind and turn from your previous sinful actions.

i. In the Christian life, repentance does not describe what you must do to turn to God; it describes the very process of turning to God. When we truly turn to Him, we turn away from the things that displease Him.

f. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger: Repentance has hope in the mercy and love of God. It hopes that God will relent and that the repentant people will not perish.

g. Jonah could more effectively preach the message of repentance because he knew his own need to repent. Being a repentant sinner didn't disqualify Jonah from preaching repentance; it made his preaching all the more effective.

2. (10) God's response to the people's repentance.

Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.

a. God saw their works . . . and God relented: God honored their repentance, even though their past sin was just reason enough for an outpouring of judgment. The state would never forgive a cold-blooded murderer who vowed to never do it again, but God mercifully relented from judgment against the people of Nineveh.

i. We do not obligate God to forgive us when we repent. Instead, repentance appeals to God's mercy, not His justice.

b. God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it: Did God's relenting make Jonah a false prophet, when he prophesied Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown? Not at all, for two good reasons.

i. First, God acted in total consistency with His Word: The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. (Jeremiah 18:7-8) Jonah's preaching was like all warnings of judgment: it was an invitation to repent and avert the promised judgment. His words had an implied "if you do not repent" in front of them. Remember that we are not told the sum total of Jonah's preaching; though we should assume that the statement in Jonah 3:5 is the central theme of what Jonah said, we should not assume it was all that he said.

ii. Second, God did judge Nineveh (as recorded in the book of Nahum). Nevertheless, in light of their repentance He delayed it another 150 years.

© 2001 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission

Introduction / Outline

JFB: Jonah (Book Introduction)

JONAH was the son of Amittai, of Gath-hepher in Zebulun (called Gittah-hepher in Jos 19:10-13), so that he belonged to the kingdom of the ten tribes, not to Judah. His date is to be gathered from 2Ki 14:25-27, "He (Jeroboam II) restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher. For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And the Lord said not that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash." Now as this prophecy of Jonah was given at a time when Israel was at the lowest point of depression, when "there was not any shut up or left," that is, confined or left at large, none to act as a helper for Israel, it cannot have been given in Jeroboam's reign, which was marked by prosperity, for in it Syria was worsted in fulfilment of the prophecy, and Israel raised to its former "greatness." It must have been, therefore, in the early part of the reign of Joash, Jeroboam's father, who had found Israel in subjection to Syria, but had raised it by victories which were followed up so successfully by Jeroboam. Thus Jonah was the earliest of the prophets, and close upon Elisha, who died in Joash's reign, having just before his death given a token prophetical of the thrice defeat of Syria (2Ki 13:14-21). Hosea and Amos prophesied also in the reign of Jeroboam II, but towards the closing part of his forty-one years' reign. The transactions in the Book of Jonah probably occurred in the latter part of his life; if so, the book is not much older than part of the writings of Hosea and Amos. The use of the third person is no argument against Jonah himself being the writer: for the sacred writers in mentioning themselves do so in the third person (compare Joh 19:26). Nor is the use of the past tense (Jon 3:3, "Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city") a proof that Nineveh's greatness was past when the Book of Jonah was being written; it is simply used to carry on the negative uniformly,--"the word of the Lord came to Jonah . . . so Jonah arose . . . now Nineveh was," &c. (Jon 1:1; Jon 3:3). The mention of its greatness proves rather that the book was written at an early date, before the Israelites had that intimate knowledge of it which they must have had soon afterwards through frequent Assyrian inroads.

As early as JULIAN and PORPHYRY, pagans ridiculed the credulity of Christians in believing the deliverance of Jonah by a fish. Some infidels have derived it from the heathen fable of the deliverance of Andromeda from a sea monster by Perseus [APOLLODORUS, The Library, 2.4,3]; or from that of Arion the musician thrown into the sea by sailors, and carried safe to shore on a dolphin [HERODOTUS, History, 1.24]; or from that of Hercules, who sprang into the jaws of a sea monster, and was three days in its belly, when he undertook to save Hesione [DIODORUS SICULUS, Historical Library, 4.42; HOMER, The Iliad, 20.145; 21.442]. Probably the heathen fables are, vice versa, corruptions of the sacred narrative, if there be any connection. JEROME states that near Joppa lay rocks, pointed out as those to which Andromeda was bound when exposed to the sea monster. This fable implies the likelihood of the story of Jonah having passed through the Phœnicians in a corrupted form to Greece. That the account of Jonah is history, and not parable (as rationalists represent), appears from our Lord's reference to it, in which the personal existence, miraculous fate, and prophetical office of Jonah are explicitly asserted: "No sign shall be given but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for, as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Mat 12:39-40). The Lord recognizes his being in the belly of the fish as a "sign," that is, a real miracle, typical of a similar event in His own history; and assumes the execution of the prophet's commission to Nineveh, "The men of Nineveh . . . repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold, a greater than Jonas is here" (Mat 12:41).

It seemed strange to KIMCHI, a Jew himself, that the Book of Jonah is among the Scriptures, as the only prophecy in it concerns Nineveh, a heathen city, and makes no mention of Israel, which is referred to by every other prophet. The reason seems to be: a tacit reproof of Israel is intended; a heathen people were ready to repent at the first preaching of the prophet, a stranger to them; but Israel, who boasted of being God's elect, repented not, though warned by their own prophets at all seasons. This was an anticipatory streak of light before the dawn of the full "light to lighten the Gentiles" (Luk 2:32). Jonah is himself a strange paradox: a prophet of God, and yet a runaway from God: a man drowned, and yet alive: a preacher of repentance, yet one that repines at repentance. Yet Jonah, saved from the jaws of death himself on repentance, was the fittest to give a hope to Nineveh, doomed though it was, of a merciful respite on its repentance. The patience and pity of God stand in striking contrast with the selfishness and hard-heartedness of man.

Nineveh in particular was chosen to teach Israel these lessons, on account of its being capital of the then world kingdom, and because it was now beginning to make its power felt by Israel. Our Lord (Mat 12:41) makes Nineveh's repentance a reproof of the Jews' impenitence in His day, just as Jonah provoked Israel to jealousy (Deu 32:21) by the same example. Jonah's mission to Nineveh implied that a heathen city afforded as legitimate a field for the prophet's labors as Israel, and with a more successful result (compare Amo 9:7).

The book is prose narrative throughout, except the prayer of thanksgiving in the second chapter (Jon 2:1-9). The Chaldæisms in the original do not prove spuriousness, or a later age, but were natural in the language of one living in Zebulun on the borders of the north, whence Aramaic peculiarities would readily arise; moreover, his message to Nineveh implies acquaintance with Assyrian. Living as Jonah did in a part of Israel exposed to Assyrian invasions, he probably stood in the same relation to Assyria as Elijah and Elisha had stood to Syria. The purity of the language implies the antiquity of the book, and the likelihood of its being Jonah's own writing. Indeed, none but Jonah could have written or dictated such peculiar details, known only to himself.

The tradition that places the tomb of Jonah opposite to Mosul, and names it "Nebbi Junus" (that is, "prophet Jonah"), originated probably in the spot having been occupied by a Christian church or convent dedicated to him [LAYARD]. A more ancient tradition of JEROME'S time placed the tomb in Jonah's native village of Gath-hepher.

JFB: Jonah (Outline)

• JONAH'S COMMISSION TO NINEVEH, FLIGHT, PUNISHMENT, AND PRESERVATION BY MIRACLE. (Jon. 1:1-17)
• JONAH'S PRAYER OF FAITH AND DELIVERANCE. (Jon 2:1-10)
• JONAH'S SECOND COMMISSION TO NINEVEH: THE NINEVITES REPENT OF THEIR EVIL WAY: SO GOD REPENTS OF THE EVIL THREATENED. (Jon 3:1-10)
• JONAH FRETS AT GOD'S MERCY TO NINEVEH: IS REPROVED BY THE TYPE OF A GOURD. (Jon 4:1-11)

TSK: Jonah 3 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Jon 3:1, Jonah, sent again, preaches to the Ninevites; Jon 3:5, Upon their repentance, Jon 3:10. God repents.

Poole: Jonah 3 (Chapter Introduction)

CHAPTER 3

Jonah, being sent again, preacheth the overthrow of Nineveh, Jon 3:1-4 . Upon their repentance, Jon 3:5-9 , God repenteth him of the evil, Joh 3:10 .

MHCC: Jonah (Book Introduction)

Jonah was a native of Galilee, 2Ki 14:25. His miraculous deliverance from out of the fish, rendered him a type of our blessed Lord, who mentions it, so as to show the certain truth of the narrative. All that was done was easy to the almighty power of the Author and Sustainer of life. This book shows us, by the example of the Ninevites, how great are the Divine forbearance and long-suffering towards sinners. It shows a most striking contrast between the goodness and mercy of God, and the rebellion, impatience, and peevishness of his servant; and it will be best understood by those who are most acquainted with their own hearts.

MHCC: Jonah 3 (Chapter Introduction)

(Jon 3:1-4) Jonah sent again to Nineveh, preaches there.

(Jon 3:5-10) Nineveh is spared upon the repentance of the inhabitants.

Matthew Henry: Jonah (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Book of Jonah

This book of Jonah, though it be placed here in the midst of the prophetical books of scripture, is yet rather a history than a prophecy; one line of prediction there is in it, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown; the rest of the book is a narrative of the preface to and the consequences of that prediction. In the midst of the obscure prophecies before and after this book, wherein are many things dark and hard to be understood, which are puzzling to the learned, and are strong meat for strong men, comes in this plain and pleasant story, which is entertaining to the weakest, and milk for babes. Probably Jonah was himself the penman of this book, and he, as Moses and other inspired penmen, records his own faults, which is an evidence that in these writings they designed God's glory and not their own. We read of this same Jonah 2Ki 14:25, where we find that he was of Gath-hepher in Galilee, a city that belonged to the tribe of Zebulun, in a remote corner of the land of Israel; for the Spirit, which like the wind, blows where it listeth, will as easily find out Jonah in Galilee as Isaiah at Jerusalem. We find also that he was a messenger of mercy to Israel in the reign of Jeroboam the second; for the success of his arms, in the restoring of the coast of Israel, is said to be according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servant Jonah the prophet. Those prophecies were not committed to writing, but this against Nineveh was, chiefly for the sake of the story that depends upon it, and that is recorded chiefly for the sake of Christ, of whom Jonah was a type; it contains also very remarkable instances of human infirmity in Jonah, and of God's mercy both in pardoning repenting sinners, witness Nineveh, and in bearing with repining saints, witness Jonah.

Matthew Henry: Jonah 3 (Chapter Introduction)

In this chapter we have, I. Jonah's mission renewed, and the command a second time given him to go preach at Nineveh (Jon 3:1, Jon 3:2). II. Jonah's message to Nineveh faithfully delivered, by which its speedy overthrow was threatened (Jon 3:3, Jon 3:4). III. The repentance, humiliation, and reformation of the Ninevites hereupon (Jon 3:5-9). IV. God's gracious revocation of the sentence passed upon them, and the preventing of the ruin threatened (Jon 3:10).

Constable: Jonah (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Background

Jonah is the fifth of the Minor Prophets (the Book of the Twelve) in our English Bibles. It is unique among the Latter Prophets (Isaiah through Malachi) in that it is almost completely narrative similar to the histories of Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17-19; 2 Kings 2:4-6).¹ The exceptional section, of course, is Jonah's psalm in 2:2-9. Jonah is the only Old Testament prophet on record whom God sent to a heathen nation with a message of repentance.² He was Israel's foreign missionary whereas Hosea was Israel's home missionary. Both of these prophets revealed important characteristics about God: Hosea God's loyal love to Israel, and Jonah His compassion for all people, specifically Gentiles.

Jonah's hometown was Gath-hepher in Galilee (2 Kings 14:25; cf. Josh. 19:13). It stood north of Nazareth in the tribal territory of Zebulun. Jonah prophesied in the Northern Kingdom during the reign of Israel's Jeroboam II (793-753 B.C.; 2 Kings 14:25). Second Kings 14:25 records that Jonah prophesied that Jeroboam II would restore Israel to her former boundaries, which the king did.

It is very probable that God sent Jonah to Nineveh, the capital of the great Assyrian Empire, during the years when that nation was relatively weak. Following the death of King Adad-nirari III in 783 B.C. the nation was not strong again until Tiglath-pileser III seized the throne in 745 B.C.³ During this 37 year period Assyria had difficulty resisting its neighbors to the North, the Urartu mountain tribes who allied with their neighbors, the people of Mannai and Madai. These invaders pushed the northern border of Assyria south to within less than 100 miles of Nineveh. This vulnerable condition evidently made the king and residents of Nineveh receptive to Jonah's prophetic message to them.

Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, stood on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. It had walls 100 feet high and 50 feet thick, and the main one, punctuated by 15 gates, was over seven and one half miles long.⁴ The total population was probably about 600,000 including the people who lived in the suburbs outside the city walls (cf. 4:11). The residents were idolaters and worshipped Asur and Ishtar, the chief male and female deities, as did almost all the Assyrians. Assyria was a threat to Israel's security (cf. Hos. 11:5; Amos 5:27). This is one reason Jonah refused to go to Nineveh. He feared the people might repent and that God would refrain from punishing Israel's enemy.

Date and Writer

Most critical scholars date this prophecy in the postexilic period during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. They base their opinion on the past tense in 3:3, the size of Nineveh according to that verse, and the differences in style between Jonah and Hosea, another northern prophet. Many conservative scholars believe that these arguments do not outweigh the evidence for a pre-exilic date that many features of the book and the traditional Jewish commentaries present.

If the book records events that really happened, the record of them must have come from Jonah himself. However the book nowhere claims that Jonah was its writer. It seems to argue against this possibility by relating the story in the third person rather than in the first. Therefore some unidentified writer appears to have put the book in its final form. The compilers of the Old Testament canon probably placed this book among the minor prophets because they believed that Jonah wrote it.⁵

One conservative scholar has suggested that what we have is a version of the story that someone wrote for the nation of Judah. He supposedly did this to teach its people the lessons that God earlier taught His prophet, the Ninevites, and the residents of Israel.⁶ Such a message would have been appropriate when the weakened Southern Kingdom faced a threat from another formidable power to its north namely Babylonia. However the arguments for the writer being Jonah are quite convincing.⁷

The events recorded in the book probably covered only a few months or years at the most. Jonah lived during Jeroboam II's reign (793-753 B.C.). Probably a date of composition somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 B.C. would not be far from the truth.

Historicity

Since the rise of critical scholarship in the nineteenth century, many writers and teachers now believe that the events recorded in this book were not historical.⁸ They interpret this book as an allegory or as a parable.

The allegorical interpretation views the book as "a complete allegory in which each feature represents an element in the historical and religious experience of the Israelites."⁹ This interpretation may have arisen because "Jonah" means "dove," and the Jews had long regarded the dove as a symbol of their nation (cf. Ps. 74:19; Hos. 11:11).¹⁰ Those who adopt this interpretation see the book as teaching Israel's mission and failure in being God's missionary agent to the Gentiles. Jonah's flight to Tarshish represents Israel's failure before the Exile, and the great fish symbolizes Babylon. The disgorging of Jonah stands for Israel's second chance following her restoration to the land.

The parabolic interpretation also regards the book as not historical. However, its advocates view it as simply a moral story designed to teach a spiritual lesson. Essentially the lesson is that God's people should not be narrow and introverted but outreaching and missionary in their love and concern for those outside their number who are facing God's judgment. The difference in these two interpretations is the amount of detail that its advocates press. The parabolic interpretation argues for one primary lesson in the story whereas the allegorical interpretation finds meaning in its details too.

Jewish and Christian interpreters believed that the Book of Jonah was historical until the rise of critical scholarship. Jesus Christ referred to Jonah as a historical person and to his experience as real (Matt. 12:38-42; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32).¹¹

"If the three days' confinement of Jonah in the belly of the fish really had the typical significance which Christ attributes to it . . ., it can neither be a myth or dream, nor a parable, nor merely a visionary occurrence experienced by the prophet; but must have had as much objective reality as the facts of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ."¹²

It is unlikely that the writer would have given us the name of Jonah's father if he was not a real person. Furthermore the narrator presented Jonah as a real person, not a mythical or fictitious figure.

The main argument against the book being historical is Jonah's surviving three days and nights in the fish's belly (1:17). However various writers have documented many similar miraculous deliverances.¹³ Since such a survival is physically possible, we should not dismiss the historical view especially since Jesus endorsed Jonah's "resurrection."

Some interpreters, including myself, who hold to the historicity of the events also believe that the book contains symbolic and typical teaching.

"Whereas other prophets proclaimed in words the position of the Gentiles with regard to Israel in the nearer and more remote future, and predicted not only the surrender of Israel to the power of the Gentiles, but also the future conversion of the heathen to the living God, and their reception into the kingdom of God, the prophet Jonah was entrusted with the commission to proclaim the position of Israel in relation to the Gentile world in a symbolico-typical manner, and to exhibit both figuratively and typically not only the susceptibility of the heathen for divine grace, but also the conduct of Israel with regard to the design of God to show favour to the Gentiles, and the consequences of their conduct."¹⁴

The book is probably a prophetic narrative in its literary genre.¹⁵

"The concern of a number of OT prophetic narratives is to trace the process whereby a divine oracle was fulfilled. This book, on the contrary, breaks the pattern surprisingly by showing how and why a divine oracle, concerning the destruction of Nineveh, was not fulfilled."¹⁶

Many commentators who deny the historicity of the book regard it as a parable with certain allegorical features and its literary tone as parody or satire.¹⁷

Purpose

The book is a revelation to God's people of His sovereign power and loving care for all His creatures, even cattle. This revelation came first to Jonah personally and then through him to the Jews. It was not a revelation to the Ninevites. Their responsibility was simply to repent and humble themselves. This revelation should have moved the Israelites to respond as the Assyrians did namely with repentance and humility. They faced similar threats first from the Assyrians and then from the Babylonians. Jonah's lack of concern for the Ninevites contrasts with God's concern for them that was to be the pattern for His people.

Canonicity

The earliest extrabiblical reference to this book is in Ecclesiasticus 49:10. There Ben Sira, who lived not later than 190 B.C., referred to "the twelve prophets" namely the writers of the Minor Prophets books, which include Jonah. The Jewish rabbis never challenged the canonicity of this book.

Message¹⁸

The Book of Jonah does not contain the record of a prophet's message as much as the record of a prophet's experience. That feature makes Jonah distinctive among the prophetic books. This prophet's experiences are what we need to look at to learn the message of this book. That is also true of the former prophets books: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. They too teach by recording selected experiences more than prophetic oracles.

There are many incidental features of this story such as the ship, the storm, the fish, the gourd, the worm, the hot wind, and even Nineveh. They are important parts of the revelation, but they do not give us the message of the book. It is the major features of the story that do this. The major features are God and Jonah.

God's dealings with Jonah are even more important than His dealings with the Ninevites from the standpoint of the book's revelation. These dealings reveal God's attitude and activity toward the nations and toward His own people for the nations' sake. We have here a revelation of Yahweh and a revelation of the responsibility of Yahweh's representatives.

One of the characteristics that marked the Israelites was their exclusivity. During the reign of Jeroboam II, when Jonah ministered, Israel was expanding geographically. She was forming alliances with her neighbor nations. However at the same time she was more exclusive religiously than she had ever been. The Israelites believed that their privileged relationship with God needed guarding so the Gentiles would not take it from her as they had taken so many other things. The Israelites projected their hostile attitude toward the Gentiles onto Yahweh. They thought of Him as hostile to their enemies too. Jonah epitomized that attitude. God gave His people this book to teach them that His attitude toward those outside the covenants and promises was quite different from theirs, and theirs should be different too.

The major revelation of Yahweh in this book comes through in His dealings with Nineveh and in His dealings with Jonah. Let's note first what this book reveals about the Lord from His dealings with Nineveh.

Rather than having a superior, exclusive attitude toward the Ninevites, God's attitude was compassion. We can see this attitude at the beginning of the book when God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh. We see it again in God's patient persistence as He brings His prodigal prophet to repentance. We see it again when He sends Jonah there a second time. The clearest revelation of God's attitude toward Nineveh, however, comes through in the last two verses of the book (4:10-11). Amos reveals the sovereignty of God, and Obadiah reveals the judgment of God. Jonah reveals the compassion of God. It is an important balancing revelation among these prophetic messages.

The Hebrew word translated "have compassion" in 4:10 and 11 (Heb. hus) means "to spare by sheltering." The idea is that of covering and so shielding from danger. Jesus said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling" (Matt. 23:37). Jesus expressed the same attitude toward Jerusalem that God did toward Nineveh. We see God's attitude toward sinning cities, great groups of people. This is the attitude that has driven missionaries throughout the ages. It is God's attitude of compassion.

All God's activities in this book proceeded from this basic attitude. We might conclude that God sent Jonah to cry against Nineveh only because He was angry with it because of its sin. Certainly it was under His judgment for its sins, but the last verse reveals the underlying motive of God, His compassion.

Seen in this light the troublesome statement that God changed His mind in 3:10 becomes less problematic. The Hebrew word used here (nacham) carries the connotation of being relieved and comforted. We should hear God sighing in relief when we read this verse. When Nineveh repented, God saw that judgment would not be necessary, and this made Him very glad. When people turn from their sin, God turns from their judgment. Of course, God's judgment of sin is a manifestation of His love, but we do not normally appreciate that fact.

Turning to what this book reveals about God's dealings with Jonah we see two things.

First, God needs messengers. In one sense God needs no one and nothing because He is self-sufficient. However in another sense He has chosen to limit His freedom by sending His messages through people. The New Testament expression of this truth is, "How shall they hear without a preacher?" (Rom. 10:14). God has chosen to use human messengers to carry His messages.

The second thing we see as we examine God's dealings with Jonah is that because God needs messengers He is persistent and patient with the messengers He selects. We see this in God's not abandoning Jonah when he boarded the ship to Tarshish. We see it in God's preparing a fish to preserve and transport him back to dry land. We see it in God recommissioning Jonah. We see it in His providing a gourd to shelter the prophet. We see it in God's patient teaching when Jonah was burning up with heat and anger. We see it in God's attempts to bring Jonah into sympathy with His merciful purpose. In all these instances we see God lovingly persuading the prophet to share His fellowship by sharing His attitude.

What about the revelation of the responsibility of God's representatives in this book?

Positively it is to represent God. Jonah did not rebel against God and become angry with God because He failed to appreciate God. He knew God quite well, as 4:2 makes perfectly clear. God sends people to represent Him who know Him. Jonah rebelled and became angry because he hated Nineveh. We should be able to appreciate this because all of us hate violence and cruelty when the wicked misdirect their wrath against people who do not deserve it.

To represent God His servants must be obedient. His orders must have priority over their desires. God's purposes must override our prejudices and our preferences. If that is not the case, then the messenger experiences estrangement from God. However there must be shared attitudes as well as obedient actions for true fellowship to exist. Jonah was not an acceptable representative until his attitude mirrored God's even though he had acquiesced to do God's will.

Jonah gives us the negative example in his attitude toward Nineveh. Jesus gives us the positive one in His attitude toward Jerusalem. Think of all the teeming cities of the world, where cruelty and corruption reign, and then remember that God has compassion on their inhabitants. Do we have more concern for plants than for people? We shall never have a missionary heart until we come into close fellowship with the God of compassion. When we not only know about Him but walk with Him, then we will share His concern. When Jesus looked on Jerusalem, He wept over it.

This book teaches us how God feels about His people as well as how He feels about the teeming masses who do not know Him. He needs us to take His message of compassion to the lost. God is always in need of messengers to stand in the gap. His word must become incarnate before it becomes impressive. That was true in Jesus' case, and it is true in ours. It is good to send Bibles all over the world, but God's primary method always has been to send a preacher with His Word. When people receive the witness of someone whose life God has persuaded to obey him the message of repentance becomes persuasive.

God still needs us, and He sends us (Matt. 28:19-20). Every Christian man, woman, boy, and girl can identify with God's call to Jonah to go to Nineveh. Why must we lift up our voices and cry against the Ninevehs of our day? Their wickedness has come up before the Lord. It is damning them. God wants to save them. Judgment is forever God's unusual (strange) act. What is usual for God is compassion, deliverance, and salvation. Therefore we must announce God's judgment so people have an opportunity to repent.

Notice that when Jonah was disobedient to God there was still much about him that was commendable. This is often true of us in our disobedience, and it often encourages us in our disobedience. Jonah went down to Joppa and found a ship waiting. Often when we disobey God we find that circumstances seem to accommodate us and cooperate with us. Jonah evidently paid his own fare. That was commendable responsibility. Nevertheless all these circumstances that Jonah could have viewed as indications that he was doing right clearly were not indicating that. He never reached Tarshish. God did not allow him to go that far. God gave him some freedom, but He eventually brought him up short. Likewise God does not remind us at every turn that we are disobedient, but He will bring us to the point of acknowledging our disobedience (cf. 1:7). He will not take His hand off us.

The church's failure in evangelism and missions is not due to our failure to know God and His compassion. We do know Him. We have even experienced His compassion in our own lives. Our failure is due to our hatred for those under God's judgment, our Ninevites. Let's admit it. We really do not want to see the world saved. We are much happier enjoying the spiritual comforts of being God's chosen people than we are reaching out to the lost. Let's admit it. We hate the lost just as Jonah did. Why don't we reach out to the city in which we now live? We don't like the people who live there.

How can we overcome this problem? We will not overcome it by trying to love those we hate. That is humanly impossible. What we must do is what Jonah did. We must begin by simply obeying God, by doing what He has told us to do namely go to them with the message of deliverance. In other words we should love our Lord even though we may not love the lost. When we obey Him, as Jonah did, God will begin to deal with our attitude toward those under His judgment.

The Book of Jonah deals with the problem of exclusivism, the sin of concluding that if we have received God's compassion it is for ourselves alone. What we need to do is begin obeying the commission that God has given us. Hopefully our obedience will arise out of love for Him, but it may arise out of our learning that disregarding that commission can result in much pain for us. In any case we need to obey. Then God will begin to teach us love for the unlovely. That too may be a painful learning process, but God will be very tender with us as He teaches us. We will also enter into true fellowship with our Savior who wept over Jerusalem because we will share His heart of compassion.

The message of Jonah then is that God will give us His heart of compassion for the lost as we execute the commission that He has given us.

Constable: Jonah (Outline)

Outline

I. The disobedience of the prophet chs. 1-2

A. Jonah's attempt to flee from God 1:1-3

B. Jonah's lack of compassion 1:4-6

C. Jonah's failure to fear his sovereign God 1:7-10

D. The sailors' compassion and fear of God 1:11-16

D. Jonah's deliverance by God 1:17-2:1

E. Jonah's psalm of thanksgiving 2:2-9

F. Jonah's deliverance from the fish 2:10

II. The obedience of the prophet chs. 3-4

A. Jonah's proclamation to the Ninevites 3:1-4

B. The Ninevites' repentance 3:5-10

C. Jonah's displeasure at God's mercy 4:1-4

D. God's rebuke of Jonah for his attitude 4:5-9

E. God's compassion for those under His judgment 4:10-11

The following outline points out some of the parallels in the story nicely.¹⁹

I. A Hebrew sinner saved (1:1-2:10[11])

A. Jonah's disobedience (1:1-3)

B. Jonah's punishment; heathen homage (1:4-16)

C. Jonah's rescue (1:17-2:10 [2:1-11])

1. God's grace (1:17 [2:1])

2. Jonah's praise (2:1-9 [2-10])

3. God's last word (2:10 [11])

II. Heathen Sinners Saved (3:1-4:11)

A. Jonah's obedience (3:1-4)

B. Nineveh's repentance (3:5-9)

C. Jonah's rebuke (3:10-4:11)

1. God's grace (3:10)

2. Jonah's plaint (4:1-3)

3. God's last word (4:4-11)

Constable: Jonah

Jonah

Bibliography

Allen, Leslie C. The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah. New International Commentary on the Old Testament series. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976.

Archer, Gleason L., Jr. A Survey of Old Testament Introduction. Chicago: Moody Press, 1964. Revised ed. 1974.

Backus, William. The Paranoid Prophet. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1986.

Baly, Dennis. The Geography of the Bible. London: Lutherworth, 1957.

Chisholm, Robert B., Jr. "Does God Change His Mind'?" Bibliotheca Sacra 152:608 (October-December 1995):387-99.

Constable, Thomas L. "What Prayer Will and Will Not Change." In Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost, pp. 99-113. Edited by Stanley D. Toussaint and Charles H. Dyer. Chicago: Moody Press, 1986.

de Vaux, Roland. Ancient Israel. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961.

Ellison, H. L. "Jonah." In Daniel-Minor Prophets. Vol. 7 of Expositor's Bible Commentary. 12 vols. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein and Richard P. Polcyn. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1985.

Feinberg, Charles Lee. Jonah, Micah, and Nahum. The Major Messages of the Minor Prophets series. New York: American Board of Missions to the Jews, 1951.

Gaebelein, Frank E. Four Minor Prophets: Obadiah, Jonah, Habakkuk, and Haggai. Chicago: Moody Press, 1970.

Hannah, John D. "Jonah." In Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, pp. 1461-73. Edited by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1985.

Harrison, R. K. Introduction to the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1969.

Howe, George F. "Jonah and the Great Fish." Biblical Research Monthly, January 1973, pp. 6-8.

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, 1957 ed. S.v. "Nineveh," by A. H. Sayce.

Keil, C. F. The Twelve Minor Prophets. 2 vols. Translated by James Martin. Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. Reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1949.

McGee, J. Vernon. Jonah: Dead or Alive? St. Louis: Miracle Press, 1969.

Morgan, G. Campbell. Living Messages of the Books of the Bible. 2 vols. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1912.

_____. The Minor Prophets. Westwood, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1960.

New Bible Dictionary, 1962 ed. S.v. "Nineveh," by D. J. Wiseman.

_____. S.v. "Tarshish," by J. A. Thompson.

Pentecost, J. Dwight. Thy Kingdom Come. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1990.

Strickland, Wayne G. "Isaiah, Jonah, and Religious Pluralism." Bibliotheca Sacra 153:609 (January-March 1996):24-33.

Thomas, D. Winton. "Consideration of Some Unusual Ways of Expressing the Superlative in Hebrew." Vetus Testamentum 3 (1953):209-24.

Wilson, A. J. "Sign of the Prophet Jonah and Its Modern Confirmations." Princeton Theological Review 25 (October 1927):630-42.

Wendland, Ernst R. "Text Analysis and the Genre of Jonah (Part 1)." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 39:2 (June 1996):191-206.

_____. "Text Analysis and the Genre of Jonah (Part 2)." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 39:3 (September 1996):373-95.

Wiseman, Donald J. "Jonah's Nineveh." Tyndale Bulletin 30 (1979):29-51.

Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, 1975 ed. S.v. "Nineveh," by Elmer B. Smick.

Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Jonah (Book Introduction)

THE PROPHECY OF JONAS.

INTRODUCTION.

Jonas prophesied in the reign of Jeroboam II, as we learn from 4 Kings xiv. 25., to whom also he foretold his success in restoring all the borders of Israel. He was of Geth --- Opher, in the tribe of Zabulon, and consequently of Galilee; which confutes that assertion of the Pharisees, (John vii, 52.) that no prophet ever arose out of Galilee. He prophesied and prefigured in his own person the death and resurrection of Christ, and was the only one among the prophets who was sent to preach to the Gentiles. (Challoner) --- The most incredible mystery in our religion, and the vocation of the Gentiles, are thus insinuated. (Calmet) --- The latter shall be saved if they repent, like Ninive. (Worthington) --- Thomas Paine's supposition, that this book was written by a pagan "to satirise the malignant character of a predicting priest," requires no refutation. (Haydock) (Watson)

Gill: Jonah (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO JONAH

This book, in the Hebrew copies, is called "Sepher Jonah", the Book of Jonah; by the Vulgate Latin version "the Prophecy of Jonah": and in the Syriac version "the Prophecy of the Prophet Jonah". His name signifies a dove, derived from a root which signifies to oppress; because it is a creature liable to oppression, and to become the prey of others. Hillerus ^a derives the word from a root which signifies to be "fair" and "beautiful", as this creature is This name is very suitable to a prophet and minister of the Lord, who ought to be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves; and who mourn over their own sins, and the sins of others. Jonah did not always in, his conduct answer to his name, particularly when he was so angry at the Lord's sparing the Ninevites, and so impatient for the loss of his gourd. His father's name was Amittai, as in Jon 1:1 and in 2Ki 14:25; from whence it also appears that he was of Gathhepher, a town in the tribe of Zebulun, Jos 19:13; and was a part of Galilee, Isa 9:1; and so R. Jochanan, in Abendana, affirms, that he was of the tribe of Zebulun, and of Gathhepher, which was in that tribe; which confutes that notion of the Pharisees in the times of Christ, that no prophet came out of Galilee, Joh 7:52. The Jews ^b have a tradition that his mother was the widow of Sarepta, whose son Elijah raised from the dead, which was this prophet; and who is said to be the son of Amittai, that is, "truth": because his mother thereby knew and believed that the word of the Lord in the mouth of Elijah was truth, 1Ki 17:23; but his being a Hebrew contradicts him, Jon 1:9; for Sarepta was a city of Sidon, and he must have been a Sidonian if born of her, and not a Hebrew: but, be this as it will, it is certain he was a prophet of the Lord; and this book, which bears his name, and very probably was written by him, its divine authority is confirmed by the testimony Christ, of whom Jonah was a type; see Mat 12:39; and indeed the principal design of this book is to set forth in himself the type of the death and resurrection of Christ, by his being three days in the whale's belly, and then delivered from it; and to declare the grace and mercy of God to repenting sinners, and to signify the calling of the Gentiles after the death and resurrection of Christ; and is a very profitable book to instruct us about the power and goodness of God; the nature of repentance, and the effects of it; the imperfection and infirmities of the best of men in this life; and the call and mission of the ministers of the word, and the necessity of their conformity and attendance to it. Cyprian the martyr was converted from idolatry by hearing this prophecy read and explained by Caecilius. If this prophet was the son of the widow of Sarepta, or the person Elisha sent to anoint Jehu, according to the tradition of the Jews ^c, he was born in the times of Ahab, and lived in the reigns of Joram and Jehu; and, according to Bishop Lloyd ^d, he prophesied in the latter end, of Jehu's reign; where Mr. Whiston ^e also places him, about 860 B.C.; or in the beginning of the reign of Jehoahaz, when Israel was greatly oppressed by Hazael king of Syria, 2Ki 13:22; at which time he might prophesy of the victories and success of Jeroboam the second, and grandson of Jehoahaz, 2Ki 14:25; and, if so, he is more ancient than Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, Joel, and Micah, whose contemporary he is generally thought to be Pseudo-Epiphanius ^f, as he gives a wrong account of the place of the birth of this prophet, so of the place of his burial; which he makes to be in the land of Saar, and in the cave of Kenan, the father of Caleb and Othniel; but it is more likely that he died and was buried at Geth, where he was born; and where Jerom ^g says his grave was, shown in his time, about two miles from Zippore, in the way to Tiberias; with which account Isidore ^h agrees; and so Benjamin Tudelensis ⁱ says, his sepulchre was on a hill near Zippore. Monsieur Thevenot ^k says, not far from Nazareth the tomb of Jonah is now to be seen, to which the Turks bear a great respect.

Gill: Jonah 3 (Chapter Introduction)

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; 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; and of God's approbation thereof, by revoking the sentence he had pronounced upon them, Jon 3:10.