(5) Believed God.—Or, believed in God. Notice again an implied contrast to the dulness of the Jews, who were “slow to believe” the prophetic warnings addressed to themselves.Proclaimed a fast.—Apparently on a spontaneous resolution of the people themselves. (See Note to Jonah 3:6.) The fast would no doubt be for one day, according to the Jewish and the general Oriental custom. read more
(6) For word came.—Rather, And the matter reached. The Authorised Version treats the royal edict that follows as the same with the proclamation in Jonah 3:5. This is possible, but it is more probable that the writer intended to describe the effect produced on each district of the vast city in succession, and on all grades of people. The piercing cry uttered from street to street, from square to square, reaches at last the king on his throne of state.And he laid . . .—Stripping off the state... read more
Repentance (For Ash Wednesday) Jonah 3:5 ; Jonah 3:10 Among all the passages in the picturesque narratives of the Old and New Testaments, there is none that, as a picture, is more wonderfully illustrative of the repentant life than is this. It brings before us three well-defined points. I. First, as to the cause which leads a man to repentance. The people of Nineveh are here said to have believed God. I want to submit to you that this curious statement about this people strikes one more... read more
THE REPENTANCE OF THE CITYJonah 3:1-10HAVING learned, through suffering, his moral kinship with the ‘heathen, and having offered his life for some of them, Jonah receives a second command to go to Nineveh. He obeys, but with his prejudice as strong as though it had never been humbled, nor met by Gentile nobleness. The first part of his story appears to have no consequences in the second. But this is consistent with the writer’s purpose to treat Jonah as if he were Israel. For, upon their return... read more
CHAPTER 3 Jonah Preaching in Nineveh 1. The repeated commission and Jonah’s obedience (John 3:1-4 ) 2. The repentance and salvation of Nineveh (John 3:4-10 ) John 3:1-4 . And now after Jonah’s death and life experience the Word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, telling him to arise and go to Nineveh to preach there what the Lord would command him. And now he is obedient. Jonah arrived in the great city of three days’ journey, and advancing a day’s journey into it he cried out... read more
3:5 So the people of Nineveh {d} believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.(d) For he declared that he was a Prophet sent to them from God, to make known his judgments against them. read more
A MISGUIDED PATRIOT LEARNS OBEDIENCE There is only one instance of Jonah’s prophesying to his own people of Israel, 2 Kings 14:25 . There he made a prediction concerning the restoration of the coasts of Israel, which was fulfilled in the reign of Jeroboam 2 about 800 B.C., showing that he lived earlier than that date. Of his personal history nothing further is known than what is found in this book. Jonah 1:0 Nineveh (Jonah 1:2 ) was the capital of Assyria, and the reason Jonah sought to... read more
What! But the sovereign grace of God could have induced such effects! What nation, what kingdom or people shall we look to, for similar humblings, at the preaching of a poor despised Prophet? Do we not see in it the Lord's Almighty hand disposing all orders of the people to this conduct! read more
God. They were convinced that he had wrought such wonders in the person of Jonas, with a desire of their welfare, particularly as he allowed them some delay. Accordingly they did penance for about forty days, and their conversion was so sincere, that Christ proposes it to his disciples, Matthew xii. 41. (Calmet) --- Thus "the city was overturned in its perverse manners." (St. Augustine, City of God xxi. 24., and Psalm l.) --- They were at an end, and the city was renovated. (Haydock) read more
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John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Jonah 3:1-10
Repentance and Pardon of the Ninevites3. An exceeding great city] lit. ’great unto God,’ i.e. regarded as great by God: cp. Genesis 10:1.Of three days’ journey] i.e. in breadth.8. Even the cattle join in the mourning. Neglected by their owners, they fill the air with their groanings. Cp. Joel 1:20, ’The beasts of the field pant unto thee,’ and for an interesting parallel, Judith 4:9-15. The Persians are said, by Herodotus, to have clipped the hair of the horses and baggage animals that they... read more