Verse 9
The Ninevites lived in the ancient Near East that viewed all of life as under the sovereign control of divine authority, the gods. [Note: Keil, 1:107.] Even 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 worldview 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. Jonah 1:16).
"The Ninevites then assumed that one of their gods-it is ultimately immaterial which one they may have thought it to be, or if they found it necessary to make such an identification-was planning to compound their recent troubles by bringing disaster to the city." [Note: Stuart, p. 494.]
God turning and relenting (Heb. niham) would result from His compassion, which the Ninevites counted on when they repented.
"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." [Note: Gaebelein, p. 95.]
It is amazing that God brought the whole city to faith and repentance through the preaching of a man who did not love the people to whom he preached. Ultimately salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9). It is not dependent on the attitudes and actions of His servants, though our attitudes and actions affect our condition as we carry out the will of God.
"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." [Note: Allen, p. 189. Cf. 1:6, 14.]
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