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> Chapter 4 >
[1-2] But God immediately commanded Jonah again to do these things which he heard earlier, both to go down to that great city and to bear the message of terrible destruction. Having learned by trial the penalty which resisting God brings, he makes his journey as commanded and arrives at Nineveh. And let no one foolishly be excessively concerned as to how the whale vomited him out,110 for all things are possible when God wills them; nor let anyone be excessively concerned as to what kind of shore God led him out, for this is also characteristic of excessively curious people. But may all who are devout be content with the teaching of the Spirit. 110
Verse 3: “And Nineveh,” it says, was a great city to God, about a walking journey of three days.” God places great value upon the salvation of this city, it says, because he fashioned many men and women in it. And with regard to “about a walking journey of three days,” some have understood the meaning as the area which came under the jurisdiction of the city being a three day’s journey {S 1471}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. Verse 4: “For Jonah began,” it says, “to enter the city about a one day’s journey.” Not immediately passing through the city, but wandering through the marketplaces, highways, and byways, preaching that “in yet three days Nineveh will be destroyed.” 113 But Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion said “forty,” and both the Syrian and the Hebrew114 agree with these. But this number (forty) is the most likely. For at one time, Jonah wandered through the entire city in three days. At another time the Ninevites, offering to God that painful repentance, had the benefit of the salvation from him. And at still another time, Jonah, sitting in front of the gates, awaited the outcome of his prophecy. Therefore, it seems to me that the forty days is more reliable. It is likely that the Seventy had put down the number which agrees with the othersAnd, that the ones who first wrote it down erred concerning this number, thus the rendering existed in this way in all the copies. 119 [5] And the Ninevites, although they saw an ignorant and foreign man making a harsh proclamation, neither became annoyed, nor shot him down; but believing in his prediction and wearing sackcloth, they brought their supplications to God, both the people abounding in wealth and the ones living in poverty. For it says this: “from the small, even up to the great of these.” {S 1472} [6] And when the king himself heard and obeyed 120 these words, he left behind his gold plated and gem studded throne, stripped off his purple robe as useless, and took on the garment of sackcloth instead of this. [7-8] He commanded not only the men and women to observe a fast, but also the various types of animals not to have benefit from any nourishment, so that when oppressed by hunger, some lowing and others bleating, each one making use of its individual voice, then the humans would offer more fervent tears and open up the springs of God’s mercy. Not only using sackcloth and fasting did they offer supplications to God, but “each turned from his evil way and the injustice in his hands,” saying: Verse 9: “Who knows whether God might turn around and relent, and turn away from the wrath of his anger and we will not be destroyed.” For this is the definition of true repentance, for it says, “Turn away from evil and do good” (Ps 33:14)125, and again, “Cease from your evil ways; learn to do good” (Is 1:16-17).126 Therefore, the Ninevites, after they ceased from their previous sin and accepted the change of character for the better, benefited from divine favor. Verse 10: For it says, “God saw their deeds, that they turned away from their evil ways, and God changed his mind about the evil which he said he would do to them, and he did not do it.” 127 He did not pay attention to their fasting, but to their abstinence from evil. Therefore, God grants repentance by repentance, not changing his mind similar to us (for God does not will this now but that later). {S 1473} But, he called the change from the threat “repentance.” On account of this, he made the threat. If he wishes to chastise, he would not have offered a threat, but he would have inflicted that punishment himself. Since he rejoices in salvation alone, he threatens painful things in order that he might not inflict pain. And he called that threat “evil,” not since it is evil by nature, for how could the thing bringing the end of evil and the acquisition of virtue and good order be evil?_ But the divine scriptures, employing expressions which are used customarily by us, called the threat of punishment “evil,” on the grounds that it is able to result in evil and create trouble. The prophet, when he observed this benevolence of God, is saddened and troubled, since the prophecy is refuted and appears false. Then praying to God and explaining the reason for his flight, he says: |