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.
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.47Nineveh 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.49The essence of his proclamation was that Nineveh would be overthrown in only 40 days.50As 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.
Jonah's proclamation moved the Ninevites to humble themselves and seek divine mercy.
3:5 The people believed in God because of the message from God that Jonah had brought to them. Fasting and wearing sackcloth were signs of self-affliction that reflected an attitude of humility in the ancient Near East (cf. 2 Sam. 3:31, 35; Isa. 58:5; Dan. 9:3). Sackcloth was what the poor and the slaves customarily wore. Thus wearing it depicted that the entire population viewed themselves as needy (of God's mercy in this case) and slaves (of God in this case). This attitude and these actions marked all levels of the city's population (i.e., the chronologically old and young, and the socially high and low).
Some commentators believe that two plagues that had ravaged Nineveh in 765 and 759 B.C. plus a total eclipse of the sun on June 15, 763 prepared the Ninevites for Jonah's message.51The Ninevites may have viewed these phenomena as indications of divine anger. However that is not the emphasis of the text.
Some commentators have attributed the repentance of the Ninevites at least partially to Jonah's previous experience in the great fish's stomach. They base this on Jesus' statement that Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites (Luke 11:30). They note that the Ninevites worshipped Dagon, which was part man and part fish.52They have also pointed out that the Assyrian fish goddess, Nosh, was the chief deity in Nineveh. Some of them have argued that Jonah came to the city as one sent by Nosh to proclaim the true God. However the text of Jonah attributes the repentance of the Ninevites primarily to the message that God had given Jonah to proclaim. Whatever the Ninevites may have known about Jonah's encounter with the fish, the text gives the credit to the word of the Lord, not to Jonah's personal background.53
"God delights to do the impossible, and never more so than in turning men to Himself. Instead, then, of denying on the grounds of its human' impossibility the repentance that swept over Nineveh, let us see it as an evidence of divine power. For this, not the episode of the sea monster, is the greatest miracle in the book."54
3:6 Even the king responded by repenting. Evidently he heard the message from other Ninevites rather than directly from the prophet. The king of Nineveh would probably have been the king of Assyria since Nineveh was the capital of the empire.55However the writer described this man as the king of Nineveh. The explanation may be that the focus of Jonah's prophecy was specifically Nineveh (v. 4), not the whole Assyrian Empire. His name, though of interest to us, was unnecessary to the writer.
Who was this king? He was probably one of the Assyrian kings who ruled during or near the regency of Jeroboam II in Israel (793-753 B.C.).
Assyrian Kings Contemporary with Jeroboam II56
Adad-nirari III 811-783 B.C.
Shalmaneser IV 783-772 B.C.
Ashur-dan III 772-754 B.C.
Ashur-nirari V 754-746 B.C.
Of these perhaps Ashur-dan III is the most likely possibility.
"There is something affecting in the picture of this Oriental monarch so swiftly casting aside such gorgeous robes and taking the place of the penitent. He had the virtue of not holding back in his approach to God."57
3:7 This verse further describes how seriously the king and his nobles regarded their situation and to what extent they went to encourage citywide contrition. They did not regard their animals as needing to humble themselves but viewed them as expressing the spirit of their owners.
3:8 Clearly the Ninevites connected the impending judgment with their own conduct. They felt that by abandoning their wickedness they could obtain some mercy from God. The Hebrew word translated "violence"(hamas) refers to the overbearing attitude and conduct of someone who has attained power over others and misuses it (cf. Gen. 16:5). Assyrian soldiers were physically violent (Nah. 3:1, 3-4; cf. 2 Kings 18:33-35), but so were the Chaldeans (Hab. 1:9; 2:8, 17) and others who because of conquest could dominate others. Discrimination against minorities because they are less powerful manifests this sin. We must not forget the violence of our own times and society.
"Violence, the arbitrary infringements of human rights, is a term that occurs in the OT prophets especially in connection with cities: urban conglomeration encourages scrambling over others, like caterpillars in a jar."58
This reference to violence recalls Genesis 6:11 and 13. God had previously destroyed the world in Noah's day because it was so violent. Now Jonah became the bearer of a message of judgment on another violent civilization.
Decorating horses and other animals has long been a popular practice. You may recall that in the funeral of President Kennedy a riderless horse added a poignant touch to the procession.
3:9 The Ninevites lived in the ancient Near East that viewed all of life as under the sovereign control of divine authority, a supreme being.59Even though they were polytheists and pagans they believed in a god of justice who demanded justice of humankind. They also believed that their actions affected their god's actions. This world view is essentially correct as far as it goes. We should probably not understand their repentance as issuing in conversion to Jewish monotheism. It seems unlikely that all the Ninevites became Gentile proselytes to Judaism (cf. 1:16).
God's turning and relenting would result from His compassion, which the Ninevites counted on when they repented (i.e., changed their thinking).
"Though generalities must always be used with caution, we may say that never again has the world seen anything quite like the result of Jonah's preaching in Nineveh."60
"The book is a challenge to all to hear God's appeal to be like the sailors and the Ninevites in their submissiveness to Yahweh."61
3:10 God noted the genuineness of the Ninevites' repentance in their actions. These fruits of repentance moved Him to withhold the judgment that He would have sent on them had they persisted in their wicked ways.62Nineveh finally experienced overthrow in 612 B.C., about 150 years later.
"We may know the character of God only from what he does and the words he uses to explain his actions. When he does not do what he said he would, we as finite men can say only that he has changed his mind or repented, even though we should recognize, as Jonah did (4:2), that he had intended or desired this all along."63
"Helpful also is the analogy of the thermometer. Is it changeable or unchangeable? The superficial observer says it is changeable, for the mercury certainly moves in the tube. But Just as certainly it is unchangeable, for it acts according to fixed law and invariably responds precisely to the temperature."64
Notice that in this section of verses (vv. 5-10) the name "God"(Heb. Elohim, the strong one) appears exclusively. Earlier and later in the story the name "Lord"(Heb. Yahweh, the covenant keeping God) occurs frequently. Jonah did not present God, and the Ninevites did not fear God, as the covenant keeping God of Israel but as the universal supreme being. Likewise God did not deal with the Ninevites as He dealt with His covenant people Israel but as He deals with all people generally. His mercy was part of the "common grace"that He bestows on all people who do right rather than a manifestation of "special grace."Thus the story teaches that God will be merciful to anyone, His elect and His non-elect, who live submissively to natural divine law.
The reader might assume that the Lord's deliverance of the Ninevites from imminent doom is the climax of the story. This is not the case. The most important lesson of the book deals with God's people and specifically God's instruments, not humanity in general.
4:1 The whole situation displeased Jonah and made him angry, the Ninevites' repentance and God's withholding judgment from them.
"Jonah finds that the time-fuse does not work on the prophetic bomb he planted in Nineveh."65
This is the first clue since Jonah repented and went to Nineveh that his heart was still not completely right with God. One can do the will of God without doing it with the right attitude, and that is the focus of the remainder of the book. The repentance and good deeds of the Ninevites pleased God, but they displeased His representative. They made God happy, but they made Jonah angry. A literal translation might be, "It was evil to Jonah with great evil."Until now evil (Heb. ra'ah) described the Ninevites, but now it marks the prophet. Consequently Jonah now became evil in God's eyes and in need of punishment as the Ninevites had (cf. Rom. 2:1), but God showed Jonah the same compassion He had shown the Ninevites.
"The word butpoints up the contrast between God's compassion (3:10) and Jonah's displeasure, and between God's turning fromHis anger (3:9-10) and Jonah's turning toanger."66
Why did Jonah become so angry? Who was he to complain? He had only recently been very happy that God had saved him from destruction (cf. Matt. 18:23-35). It was not primarily because his announced judgment failed to materialize and so raised questions about his authenticity as a true prophet (cf. Deut. 18:21-22). Almost all prophecies of impending doom in the Bible assume that those being judged will remain unmoved. Divine punishment is avoidable provided people repent (cf. Jer. 3:22; 18:8; 26:2-6; Ezek. 18:21-22, 30-32; 3:10-15).67Jonah undoubtedly became angry because he wanted God to judge the Ninevites and thereby remove a threat to the nation of Israel. If he was aware of Hosea and Amos' prophecies, he would have known that Assyria would invade and defeat Israel (Hos. 11:5; Amos 5:27).
4:2 To his credit Jonah told God why he was angry (cf. 2:1). (Many believers try to hide their true feelings from God when they think God will not approve of those feelings.) Even though the prophet had been rebellious he had a deep and intimate relationship with God.
Jonah's motive in fleeing to Tarshish now becomes known. He was afraid that the Ninevites would repent and that God would be merciful to this ancient enemy of God's people. By opposing the Israelites her enemies were also opposing Yahweh. This is why a godly man such as Jonah hated the Assyrians so much and why the psalmists spoke so strongly against Israel's enemies.
Jonah's description of God goes back to Exodus 34:6-7, a very ancient expression of God's character (cf. Num. 14:18; Neh. 9:17; Ps. 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13). "Gracious"(from the Heb. hen, grace) expresses God's attitude toward those who have no claim on Him because they are outside any covenant relationship with Him.68Compassion, one of the themes of this story, is a trait that Jonah recognized in God but did not share with Him as he should have. Lovingkindness (Heb. hesed) refers to God's loyal love to those who are in covenant relationship with Him. The prophet was criticizing God for good qualities that he recognized in God. He wished God was not so good. Even the best of people, people such as Jonah, wish calamity on the wicked, but God does not.
4:3 Jonah felt so angry that he asked God to take his life (cf. 1:12; 4:8, 9). Elijah had previously made the same request (1 Kings 19:4), but we must be careful not to read Elijah's reasons into Jonah's request. Both prophets obviously became extremely discouraged. Both evidently felt that what God had done through their ministries was different from what they wanted to see happen. Elijah had wanted to see a complete national revival, but Jonah had wanted to see judgment on Israel's enemies. The sinfulness of people discouraged Elijah whereas the goodness of God depressed Jonah. How could Jonah return to Israel and announce that God was not going to judge the nation that had been such an enemy of the godly for so long? God had to teach Elijah to view things from His perspective, and He proceeded to teach Jonah the same thing.
4:4 God's reply did not rebuke Jonah nor did it ask what right he had to criticize God. Rather it suggested that Jonah might not be viewing the situation correctly. The Jerusalem Bible's translation, "Are you right to be angry?"captures the intent of the Hebrew text. Jonah was feeling the frustration of not understanding God's actions in the light of His character that many others have felt (e.g., Job, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, et al.). God dealt with this servant compassionately as usual.
When God's servants become angry because God is as He is, the Lord deals with them compassionately.
The Lord proceeded to teach Jonah His ways and to confront him with his attitude problem.
4:5 We might have expected Jonah to leave what so angered him quickly, as Elijah had fled from Israel and sought refuge far from it to the south. Why did Jonah construct a shelter and sit down to watch what would happen to Nineveh?69Did he think that judgment might fall anyway, or was he waiting for God to clarify His actions? Perhaps he hoped that the Ninevites' repentance would evaporate quickly and that God would then call him to pronounce the judgment that he so wanted to see. Jonah did not know if the Ninevites' repentance would be sufficient to postpone God's judgment. He evidently took up residence somewhere on the slopes of the mountains that rise to the east of Nineveh to gain a good view of whatever might happen. Perhaps he expected to witness another spectacular judgment such as befell Sodom and Gomorrah. His shelter proved to be a classroom for the prophet similar to what the town dump had been for Job.
4:6 God continued to manifest compassion for Jonah by providing him with a shading plant that relieved the discomfort of the blistering Mesopotamian sun. This is the only time that we read that Jonah was happy, and it was because he was physically comfortable. His anger grew out of his personal discomfort resulting from God's mercy on the Ninevites. It is impossible to identify the exact plant that God provided, and it is inconsequential.70
Notice the shift in the name of God again from Yahweh to Elohim in this verse. This is one of the rare appearances of the compound name "LORD God"in Scripture (cf. Gen. 2; 3; et al.). Its use here may help make a transition. God dealt with Jonah as He deals with all humanity in what follows.
4:7 The stress on God's sovereignty continues. God had provided (Heb. manah, to appoint, provide, or prepare) a storm, a fish, a plant, and now a worm to fulfill His purpose.71He would provide a wind (v. 8). Clearly God was manipulating Jonah's circumstances to teach him something. He uses large things such as the fish and small things like the worm.72
4:8 The scorching east wind that God provided was the dreaded sirocco. The following description of it helps us appreciate why it had such a depressing effect on Jonah.
"During the period of a sirocco the temperature rises steeply, sometimes even climbing during the night, and it remains high, about 16-22ûF. above the average . . . at times every scrap of moisture seems to have been extracted from the air, so that one has the curious feeling that one's skin has been drawn much tighter than usual. Sirocco days are peculiarly trying to the temper and tend to make even the mildest people irritable and fretful and to snap at one another for apparently no reason at all."73
Why did Jonah not move into the city and live is some residence there? Apparently he wanted nothing to do with the Ninevites whom he despised so much. He probably still did not know if God would spare Nineveh or destroy it catastrophically. Earlier he had wished to die because as God's servant he was not happy with God's will. Now he longed for death because as a common human being he was unhappy with his circumstances. Divine discipline had brought him to the place where even the loss of a plant affected him so deeply that he longed to die.
"The shoe Jonah wanted Nineveh to wear was on his foot now, and it pinched."74
4:9 God's question here was very similar to His question in verse 4. Was Jonah right to be angry about the plant, God asked? Jonah's reply was a strong superlative.75He felt strong anger was proper. Evidently Jonah believed that God was not even treating him with the compassion that He normally showed all people much less His chosen servants.
In this pericope God was setting the stage for the lesson that He would explain to His prophet shortly.
The story now reaches its climax. God revealed to Jonah how out of harmony with His own heart the prophet, though obedient, was. He contrasted Jonah's attitude with His own.
Compassion (Heb. hus, concern [NIV], be sorry for [NEB], pity [RSV, RV]) is the key attitude. Jonah had become completely indifferent to the fate of everyone outside Israel. He knew His God well (4:2). Nevertheless his appreciation for God's love for Israel had evidently so pervaded his life that it crowded out any compassion for people who lacked knowledge of and relationship with Yahweh. To reveal his lack of compassion to him God dealt with him as any ordinary person. He exposed him to the pleasures and discomforts that everyone faces and made him see that his theology made him no more compassionate than anyone else. It should have. Knowledge of a sovereign, compassionate God whom He feared should have made Jonah more submissive to God's will, more compassionate toward other people, and more respectful of God.
God had invested much work in Nineveh and had been responsible for its growth. This is why it was legitimate at the most elementary level for God to feel compassion for its people. Jonah's compassion extended only to a plant but not to people. God's compassion extended not only to plants and animals but also to people. The 120,000 people that God cited as the special objects of His compassion were probably those who for various reasons could not care for themselves (babies, the mentally incompetent, et al.).
"Not to be able to distinguish between the right hand and the left is a sign of mental infancy."76
We normally have compassion for those with whom we can identify most closely, but God also has compassion on people who are helpless. Spiritually they are those who do not know God, those who are "lost."
People naturally go to one of two extremes in their attitude toward animals. We either look down on them and treat them inhumanely feeling superior, or we elevate them to the level of persons and grant them rights that they do not possess. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals tries to guard us from the first attitude. The "animal rights movement"tends to promote the second attitude. God has compassion on animals as creatures living below the level of humans that need His grace. This should be our attitude to them too (cf. Gen. 1:26, 28; Ps. 8:6-8). The reference to animals concludes the book and is the final climax of God's lesson to the prophet and through him to God's people in Israel and in the church. If God has compassion for animals, how much more should we feel compassion for human beings made in God's image who are under His judgment because of their sins (cf. 3:8). We must never let our concern for the welfare of God's people keep us from reaching out with the message of hope to those who oppose us.
The book closes without giving us Jonah's response, but that is not the point of the book. Its point is the answer to the Lord's question in verse 11 that every reader must give. Yes, God should have compassion on the hopeless Ninevites, and we should have compassion on people like them too (cf. Luke 15:25-32; Matt. 20:1-16).
"It is not only the unbelievers in the Ninevehs of today who need to repent; it is also we who are modern Jonahs. For no one begins to understand this profound and searching little book unless he discovers the Jonah in himself and then repentantly lays hold upon the boundless grace of God."77
"As so often, the effect of this OT book is to lay a foundation upon which the NT can build. God so loved the world' is its basic affirmation, which the NT is to conclude with the message of the gift of his Son.
"Throughout the story the figure of Jonah is a foil to the divine hero, a Watson to Yahweh's Holmes, a Gehazi to Yahweh's Elisha. The greatness and the goodness of God are enhanced against the background of Jonah's meanness and malevolence. Look out at the world, pleads the author, at God's world. See it through God's eyes. And let your new vision overcome your natural bitterness, your hardness of soul. Let the divine compassion flood your own hearts."78
Does this book constitute a call to foreign missionary service? It contains no such call though it records God's call of one of His prophets to this type of ministry. However, we must remember that this was a rare ministry in the Old Testament period. Typically Israel was to be a light to the nations by providing a model theocracy in the Promised Land that would attract the Gentiles to her. They would come to Israel for the knowledge of God that they would take back home with them (e.g., Exod. 19:5-6; 1 Kings 10; Isa. 42:6; Acts 8:26-40). In the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) Jesus changed the basic missionary method by which people were to learn of God. Now we are to go into all the world and herald the gospel to everyone rather than waiting for them to come to us for it. The Book of Jonah shows an Old Testament prophet doing reluctantly what Christians are now to do enthusiastically. It was not God's plan that all Old Testament prophets, much less all Israelites, were to do what he did. Nevertheless they were to have a heart of compassion for those outside the covenant community and to show them mercy, as this book clarifies. Christian missionaries can use the Book of Jonah, therefore, but they should do so by stressing its true message, not by making Jonah's call the main point.
"This book is the greatest missionary book in the Old Testament, if not in the whole Bible. It is written to reveal the heart of a servant of God whose heart was not touched with the passion of God in missions. Does it strike home, dear reader? Are we more interested in our own comfort than the need of multitudes of lost souls in Israel dying in darkness without the knowledge of their Messiah and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we more content to remain with the gourds,' the comforts of home and at home, than to see the message of Christ go out to the ends of the earth to both Jew and Gentile?"79
