Jonah

The second time underscores God’s determination to get his message to the Ninevites and to use Jonah in the process. The message that I tell you replaces “for their evil has come up before me” (1:2).

a Jonah went to Nineveh instead of fleeing to Tarshish. He complies with God’s will, but whether this compliance is from the heart remains to be seen.

b–10 Jonah and the Pagan Ninevites. The fifth episode parallels the second (1:4–16) and focuses on how responsive the pagan Ninevites—like the pagan sailors—are to God’s word. The structure follows the pattern of corporate repentance found elsewhere in the OT (cf. 1 Sam. 7:3–14; Joel 1–2): (1) message of divine judgment (Jonah 3:3a–5); (2) account of human repenting (vv. 6–9); and (3) record of divine relenting (v. 10).

b an exceedingly great city (cf. esv footnote, “a great city to God”; see 1:2; 3:2). Nineveh is important to God and will be the recipient of his great compassion. three days’ journey in breadth (cf. esv footnote, “a visit was a three days’ journey”). In Jonah’s day neither the circumference nor the diameter of the walled city of Nineveh (see plan) was a three-day walk. The phrase may refer to the time it would take Jonah to walk throughout the city, preaching his message. (Nineveh could also refer to the much larger administrative area including the city and the outlying villages, which was 30–56 miles/48–90 km across.)

Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! “Overthrown” is the same verb used for God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:21, 25, 29). Although the threat sounds unconditional, a condition was implied: If people repent, God will relent (see Jer. 18:7–8). Jonah knows this condition is included (see Jonah 4:2), and the king of Nineveh will hope that it is (see 3:9).

Believed is the first word in the Hebrew text of the sentence, and the grammar underscores the immediacy of Nineveh’s repentance. To fast and wear sackcloth were ancient demonstrations of mourning (Neh. 9:1; Est. 4:3; Dan. 9:3).

The word that reached the king of Nineveh was the “word” of the Lord (see 1:1; 3:1, 3). The “king of Nineveh” was probably not the king of Assyria, since Nineveh was not an Assyrian capital in Jonah’s day; he may have been a provincial governor who ruled from Nineveh.

issued a proclamation. It seems odd that the king would tell everyone to fast and put on sackcloth when they had already done so (v. 5). Therefore it is more likely that v. 5 and vv. 6–9 are in topical rather than chronological order. First the king issued the proclamation, and then the people carried it out (see a similar summons to repentance in Joel 1:13–14). By putting the people’s response ahead of the king’s proclamation, the author underscores the immediacy of the people’s response and that they are responding to Jonah’s message, not just to the king’s command. The Ninevites each turn from his evil way, whereas the Israelites did not (cf. 2 Kings 17:13–14).

Who knows? expresses hope (see 2 Sam. 12:22) that God may turn and relent—the exact hope of the prophet Joel for the people of Judah (Joel 2:14). we may not perish. This is the third time a pagan has been concerned that people not perish (see Jonah 1:14 and note on 1:6); ironically, Jonah has not expressed any such concern.

Jonah announced that “in forty days Nineveh will be demolished” (v. 4), but God did not overthrow Nineveh in forty days. He “relented” in response to the repentance of the Ninevites. Since Jonah prophesied something that failed to occur, did this make him a false prophet (see note on Dt 18:22)?

Some have suggested the solution lies in the ambiguous nature of the Hebrew word translated “overthrown.” While the verb could have that meaning, it can also have the sense of “turn around” or “be changed” (see Ezk 4:8; Hs 11:8). Nineveh would be either destroyed or changed, and when the people repented it indeed was changed. An objection to this view is that the Ninevites understood the message as a threat of destruction. Further, according to Jnh 3:10, “God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with.”

A better solution considers the nature of a prophecy of judgment. If God was concerned enough about Nineveh—capital city of the feared Assyrian Empire—to send Jonah to preach repentance, such a message must be understood as a warning. Jonah’s prophecy to the Ninevites was therefore conditional, not absolute. If the people repented, the Lord might not bring the judgment. Jonah recognized this even before he gave the message; he fled from the Lord initially because he knew that God might relent (4:2).

evil … disaster. Both terms translate Hebrew ra‘ah (see note on 1:2). The use of the same word underscores the close connection between human action and divine response. God did not carry out the threatened disaster because the Ninevites repented of their evil (see note on 3:4). From a temporal perspective, God responds to human action; from an eternal perspective, God chooses the means (human repenting) as well as the end (divine relenting). The repentance of Gentiles contrasts with the repeated lack of repentance on the part of Israel (see note on vv. 7–8).