Jonah 3:3 - Exposition

Arose, and went. He was now as prompt to obey as formerly to flee. Was ; i.e. when Jonah visited it. Nothing can be argued from the past tense here as to the date of the composition of the book. It is a mere historical detail, and cannot be forced into a proof that Jonah wrote after the destruction of Nineveh. An exceeding great city ; literally, a city great to God ; πόλις μεγάλη τῷ θεῷ ; great before God—in his estimation, as though even God must acknowledge it. So Nimrod is called ( Genesis 10:9 ) "a mighty hunter before the Lord;" and Moses, in Acts 7:20 , is said to have been" beautiful to God." The expression may also mean that God ( Elohim, God as Governor of the world) regarded this city with interest, as intended in the Divine counsels to perform an important part. For he is not the God of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles ( Romans 3:29 ). Of three days' journey; i.e. in circumference—about sixty miles (see note on Jonah 1:2 ). Or the writer may mean that it took Jonah three days to visit the various quarters of this huge place. The area of the vast quadrangle containing the remains of the four cities comprised under the name Nineveh is estimated by Professor Rawlinson at two hundred and sixteen square miles. We ought, however, to omit Khorsabad from this computation, as it was not founded till Sargon's time, B.C. 710.