The Prophet Jonah

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- Chapter 3 -

(Matthew 12:38–42; Luke 11:29–32)

And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying:

Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city. And preach in it the preaching that I say to you.

And Jonah rose, and he went to Nineveh in accordance with the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey.(a)

And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey. And he cried out and said, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”

And the men of Nineveh believed in God. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest all the way to the least.

And word reached the king of Nineveh. And he rose from his throne, and he threw off his robe from himself and was clothed in sackcloth, and he sat in ashes.

And he cried out and spoke: “In Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, let it be said: Men and beasts and oxen and sheep may not taste anything. Neither shall they feed or drink water.(b)

And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with strength, and may man be converted from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.(c)

Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and may turn away from his furious wrath, so that we might not perish?”(d)

And God saw their works, that they had been converted from their evil way. And God took pity on them, concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Footnotes

(a)3:3 Of three days’ journey:By the computation of some ancient historians, Ninive was about fifty miles round: so that to go through all the chief streets and public places was three days’ journey.(Challoner)

(b)3:7 The first part of this verse seems redundant. He cried out and said (dixit) . . . saying (dicens).... It seems that the second use of this verb is part of the decree itself. Therefore, it is rendered loosely as ‘let it be said,’ rather than as ‘saying,’ because the context is a formal decree.(Conte)

(c)3:8 Here is an unusual example of the use of ‘vir’ in the singular to refer to a group of persons, similar to the use of Man to signify mankind in English. The man who must convert from his evil way is mankind. This becomes clear with the use of the plural in the last part of the verse.(Conte)

(d)3:9 This verse has a question mark, but it is more of a statement than a question. The question mark is probably not necessary in the English translation. Notice that ‘et non peribimus’ is translated as ‘so that we might not perish,’ instead of ‘and we might not perish.’ The word ‘et’ is not always equivalent to the English word ‘and.’(Conte)

(Matthew 12:38–42; Luke 11:29–32)

The LORD’s word came to Jonah the second time, saying,

“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”

So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across.

Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”

The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.

The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water;

but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”

God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.