1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he cried, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6 Then tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry mightily to God; yea, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands. 9* Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?" 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.
Commentary on Jonah 3
3:3 three day's journey: And with regard to 'three day's journey' some have understood the meaning as the area which came under the jurisdiction of the city being a three day’s journey according to both its length and breadth. But, others have understood the meaning as the one who was preaching was able to wander around the whole city in three days. But whether someone accepts the meaning one way or the other, he does not cause any injury to the truth. Nevertheless, it seems to me that the second interpretation is more reliable, and what follows compels me to choose this version. (Theodoret of Cyrus)
3:4 forty days: The number three written in the Septuagint does not agree with the penitence, and I am quite astonished at this translation. (St. Jerome) Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion said “forty,” and both the Syriac and the Hebrew agree with these. This number forty is the most likely. It is likely that the Septuagint translators had put down the number which agrees with the others. And, that the ones who first wrote it down erred concerning this number, thus the rendering existed in this way in all the copies. (Theodoret of Cyrus)
3:5 God threatens to destroy the city of Nineveh for the very reason that He might not destroy it. When God makes a threat concerning our sins, He makes the threat beforehand so that |
we may be sobered by fear, so that our repentance will bring about God’s mercy so He will not have to follow through with the threat. (St. John Chrysostom)
3:7-8 Why the further fasting of flocks and herds? Surely, in order that the hunger of even the animals might manifest the repentance of men. (St. Caesarius of Arles) And inasmuch then as these would participate in the punishment, let them also do so in the fast. (St. John Chrysostom)
3:9 God may yet repent: Divine repentance takes in all cases a different form from that of man, in that it is never regarded as the result of improvidence or of fickleness, or of any condemnation of a good or an evil work. For it will have no other meaning than a simple change of a prior purpose; and this is admissible without any blame even in a man, much more in God, whose every purpose is faultless. Now in Greek the word for repentance METANOIA is formed, not from the confession of sin, but from a change of mind, which in God we have shown to be regulated by the occurrence of varying circumstances. (Tertullian) God is said ‘to change His mind,’ metaphorically, inasmuch as He bears Himself after the manner of one who repents, by ‘changing His sentence, although He does not change His plan. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
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