Jonah 3:2

3:2 “Go immediately ¹  to Nineveh, that large city, ²  and proclaim to ³  it the message that I tell you.”

Isaiah 58:1

The Lord Desires Genuine Devotion

58:1 “Shout loudly! Don’t be quiet!

Yell as loud as a trumpet!

Confront my people with their rebellious deeds; ⁴ 

confront Jacob’s family with their sin! ⁵ 

Jeremiah 1:7-10

1:7 The Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ But go ⁶  to whomever I send you and say whatever I tell you. 1:8 Do not be afraid of those to whom I send you, ⁷  for I will be with you to protect ⁸  you,” says the Lord. 1:9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I will most assuredly give you the words you are to speak for me. ⁹  1:10 Know for certain that ¹⁰  I hereby give you the authority to announce to nations and kingdoms that they will be ¹¹  uprooted and torn down, destroyed and demolished, rebuilt and firmly planted.” ¹² 

Ezekiel 2:7

2:7 You must speak my words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.

Ezekiel 3:5-9

3:5 For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech ¹³  and difficult language, ¹⁴  but ¹⁵  to the house of Israel – 3:6 not to many peoples of unintelligible speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand ¹⁶  – surely if ¹⁷  I had sent you to them, they would listen to you! 3:7 But the house of Israel is unwilling to listen to you, ¹⁸  because they are not willing to listen to me, ¹⁹  for the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. ²⁰ 

3:8 “I have made your face adamant ²¹  to match their faces, and your forehead hard to match their foreheads. 3:9 I have made your forehead harder than flint – like diamond! ²²  Do not fear them or be terrified of the looks they give you, ²³  for they are a rebellious house.”

Micah 3:8

3:8 But I ²⁴  am full of the courage that the Lord’s Spirit gives,

and have a strong commitment to justice. ²⁵ 

This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion,

and Israel with its sin. ²⁶ 

Matthew 10:18

10:18 And you will be brought before governors and kings ²⁷  because of me, as a witness to them and the Gentiles.

¹ sn The commands of 1:2 are repeated here. See the note there on the combination of “arise” and “go.”

² tn Heb “Nineveh, the great city.”

³ tn The verb קָרָא (qara’, “proclaim”) is repeated from 1:2 but with a significant variation. The phrase in 1:2 was the adversative קְרָא עָל (qÿra’ ’al, “proclaim against”), which often designates an announcement of threatened judgment (1 Kgs 13:4, 32; Jer 49:29; Lam 1:15). However, here the phrase is the more positive קְרָא אֶל (qÿra’ ’el, “proclaim to”) which often designates an oracle of deliverance or a call to repentance, with an accompanying offer of deliverance that is either explicit or implied (Deut 20:10; Isa 40:2; Zech 1:4; HALOT 1129 s.v. קרא 8; BDB 895 s.v. קָרָא 3.a). This shift from the adversative preposition עַל (“against”) to the more positive preposition אֶל (“to”) might signal a shift in God’s intentions or perhaps it simply makes his original intention more clear. While God threatened to judge Nineveh, he was very willing to relent and forgive when the people repented from their sins (3:8-10). Jonah later complains that he knew that God was likely to relent from the threatened judgment all along (4:2).

⁴ tn Heb “declare to my people their rebellion.”

⁵ tn Heb “and to the house of Jacob their sin.” The verb “declare” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

⁶ tn Or “For you must go and say.” The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is likely adversative here after a negative statement (cf. BDB 474 s.v. כִּי 3.e). The Lord is probably not giving a rationale for the denial of Jeremiah’s objection but redirecting his focus, i.e., “do not say…but go…and say.”

⁷ tn Heb “be afraid of them.” The antecedent is the “whomever” in v. 7.

⁸ tn Heb “rescue.”

⁹ tn Heb “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.” This is an example of the Hebrew “scheduling” perfect or the “prophetic” perfect where a future event is viewed as so certain it is spoken of as past. The Hebrew particle rendered here “assuredly” (Heb הִנֵּה, hinneh) underlines the certitude of the promise for the future. See the translator’s note on v. 6.

¹⁰ tn Heb “See!” The Hebrew imperative of the verb used here (רָאָה, ra’ah) functions the same as the particle in v. 9. See the translator’s note there.

¹¹ tn Heb “I appoint you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot….” The phrase refers to the Lord giving Jeremiah authority as a prophet to declare what he, the Lord, will do; it does not mean that Jeremiah himself will do these things. The expression involves a figure of speech where the subject of a declaration is stated instead of the declaration about it. Compare a similar use of the same figure in Gen 41:13.

¹² sn These three pairs represent the twofold nature of Jeremiah’s prophecies, prophecies of judgment and restoration. For the further programmatic use of these pairs for Jeremiah’s ministry see 18:7-10 and 31:27-28.

¹³ tn Heb “deep of lip” (in the sense of incomprehensible).

¹⁴ tn Heb “heavy of tongue.” Similar language occurs in Exod 4:10; Isa 33:19.

¹⁵ tn The conjunction “but” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied from the context.

¹⁶ tn Heb “hear.”

¹⁷ tc The MT reads “if not” but most ancient versions translate only “if.” The expression occurs with this sense in Isa 5:9; 14:24. See also Ezek 34:8; 36:5; 38:19.

¹⁸ sn Moses (Exod 3:19) and Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10) were also told that their messages would not be received.

¹⁹ sn A similar description of Israel’s disobedience is given in 1 Sam 8:7.

²⁰ tn Heb “hard of forehead and stiff of heart.”

²¹ tn Heb “strong, resolute.”

²² tn The Hebrew term translated “diamond” is parallel to “iron” in Jer 17:1. The Hebrew uses two terms which are both translated at times as “flint,” but here one is clearly harder than the other. The translation “diamond” attempts to reflect this distinction in English.

²³ tn Heb “of their faces.”

²⁴ sn The prophet Micah speaks here and contrasts himself with the mercenaries just denounced by the Lord in the preceding verses.

²⁵ tn Heb “am full of power, the Spirit of the Lord, and justice and strength.” The appositional phrase “the Spirit of the Lord” explains the source of the prophet’s power. The phrase “justice and strength” is understood here as a hendiadys, referring to the prophet’s strong sense of justice.

²⁶ tn Heb “to declare to Jacob his rebellion and to Israel his sin.” The words “this enables me” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

²⁷ sn These statements look at persecution both from a Jewish context as the mention of courts and synagogues suggests, and from a Gentile one as the reference to governors and kings suggests. Some fulfillment of Jewish persecution can be seen in Acts.