Jonah’s Preaching
1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: k 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh l and preach m the message that I tell you.” 3 Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the LORD’S command.
Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, ,n a three-day walk. 4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, o “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished! ” 5 Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast p and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.
6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, q and sat in ashes. 7 Then he issued a decree r in Nineveh:
By order of the king and his nobles: No person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. 8 Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. s Each must turn from his evil ways t and from his wrongdoing. 9 Who knows? u God may turn and relent; he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish. v
10 God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways w—so God relented from the disaster x he had threatened them with. And he did not do it.
A. Jonah’s proclamation of the Lord’s message to Nineveh (3:1–4). The Lord’s second commission to Jonah mirrors 1:1–3, although here Jonah obeys the Lord. While 1:2 states the reason for Jonah’s visit to Nineveh, in 3:2 Jonah is simply told to proclaim the message the Lord is about to give him. The adjective “great” describes the city four times (1:2; 3:2, 3; 4:11), indicating its political, cultural, and geographic importance. Nineveh, located at the crossroads of two major trade routes, served as the capital of Assyria. While the text describes Jonah’s journey as of three days’ duration (3:3), we are uncertain whether it took three days to arrive at Nineveh or whether the prophet traveled around the eight-mile circumference of the city for three days. It is also possible that the three-day journey included visits to the entire district of Nineveh. The use of “three-day walk” alludes to the time Jonah spent in the sea creature and connects the preceding narrative with the events in chapter 3.
B. Nineveh’s response to the Lord’s message (3:5–9). 3:5. Significantly, the people take the initiative and begin fasting. The practice of fasting as well as the donning of sackcloth typically represented mourning (Ezk 7:18). Prophets often wore sackcloth and fasted, outwardly demonstrating their grief over the people’s sinfulness (2 Kg 1:8; Zch 13:4). The extent of the fast supersedes social strata and class distinction.
3:6–9. After hearing of Jonah’s announcement, the king steps down from his throne to sit on the ground in the dust, a gesture of great humility (3:6), and he officially decrees a fast throughout the kingdom (3:7–9). The participation of animals in ritual mourning seems unparalleled in the ancient Near East, yet Jonah does not question the practice.
C. The Lord relents from judgment (3:10). Significantly, the Lord recognizes not the outward expression of Nineveh’s contrition but the city’s willingness to renounce wickedness and evil. In his great compassion, the Lord relents and spares Nineveh.