3 1 Jonah is sent again to Ninevah. 5 The repentance of the king of Ninevah.
1 And the word of the Lord came unto [a]Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh that great city, and preach unto it the preaching which I bid thee.
3 So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord: now Nineveh was a [b]great and excellent city of three days journey.
4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s [c]journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
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.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he proclaimed and said through Nineveh, (by the counsel of the king and his nobles) saying, Let neither man, nor [e]beast, bullock nor sheep taste anything, neither feed nor drink water.
8 But let man and beast put on sackcloth, and [f]cry mightily unto God: yea, let every man turn from his evil way, and from the wickedness that is in their hands.
9 [g]Who can tell if God will turn, and repent and turn away from his fierce wrath, that we perish not?
10 And God saw their [h]works that they turned from their evil ways: and [i]God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not.
Footnotes
- Jonah 3:1 This is a great declaration of God’s mercy, that he receiveth him again, and sendeth him forth as his Prophet, which had before showed so great infirmity.
- Jonah 3:3 Read Jonah 1:2.
- Jonah 3:4 He went forward one day in the city, and preached, and so he continued till the city was converted.
- Jonah 3:5 For he declared that he was a Prophet sent to them from God to denounce his judgments against them.
- Jonah 3:7 Not that the dumb beasts had sinned or could repent, but that by their example man might be astonished, considering that for his sin the anger of God hanged over all creatures.
- Jonah 3:8 He willed that the men should earnestly call unto God for mercy.
- Jonah 3:9 For partly by the threatening of the Prophet, and partly by the motion of his own conscience, he doubted whether God would show them mercy.
- Jonah 3:10 That is, the fruits of their repentance, which did proceed of faith, which God had planted by the ministry of his Prophet.
- Jonah 3:10 Read Jer. 18:8.