God Sends Jonah Again
Study note
Nineveh was one of the largest cities in the ancient world. A 'three days' journey' means it took three days to walk across it. Jonah's message was short and direct: destruction was coming in forty days.
1 The LORD spoke to Jonah a second time. And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh," God said. "Deliver the message I have for them." Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
3 This time Jonah obeyed the LORD and headed straight to Nineveh. It was a massive city — so big it took three full days just to walk across it. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.
4 Jonah walked into the city for a whole day. He called out his message everywhere: "Forty days from now, Nineveh will be completely destroyed!" And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Nineveh Repents
Study note
Sackcloth was rough, scratchy cloth worn to show grief and repentance. Sitting in ashes was another sign of deep sorrow. The king's decree covered every person and even the animals, showing how seriously Nineveh took the warning. God's decision to spare them shows that his warnings are meant to lead people to change.
5 And the people of Nineveh believed God! They announced a citywide fast, and everyone — from the most powerful to the least important — put on rough sackcloth to show their grief. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne. He took off his royal robes. He put on rough sackcloth and sat down in a pile of ashes. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 The king and his nobles sent out an order across the city. "No person or beast may eat or drink. Not a cow, sheep, or goat." And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8 "Everyone, including the animals, must be covered in sackcloth. Every person must cry out to God with everything they have. Everyone must stop their evil behavior and quit their violent ways." But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9 "Who knows? Maybe God will reconsider. Maybe he will pull back his burning anger, and we will not be destroyed." Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10 When God saw how they changed their ways and turned from their evil, he was moved with compassion. He did not carry out the destruction he had warned them about. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.