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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
3:3b-10 Jonah and the Pagan Ninevites. The fifth episode parallels the second (1:4-16) and focuses on how responsive the pagan Ninevites--like the pagan sailors--are to God's word. The structure follows the pattern of corporate repentance found elsewhere in the OT (cf. 1 Sam. 7:3-14; Joel 1-2):
3:3b an exceedingly great city (cf. ESV footnote, "a great city to God"; see 1:2; 3:2). Nineveh is important to God and will be the recipient of his great compassion. in breadth (cf. ESV footnote, "a visit was a three days' journey"). In Jonah's day neither the circumference nor the diameter of the walled city of Nineveh (see plan) was a . The phrase may refer to the time it would take Jonah to walk throughout the city, preaching his message. (Nineveh could also refer to the much larger administrative area including the city and the outlying villages, which was
3:4 Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! "Overthrown" is the same verb used for God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:21, 25, 29). Although the threat sounds unconditional, a condition was implied: If people repent, God will relent (see Jer. 18:7-8). Jonah knows this condition is included (see Jonah 4:2), and the king of Nineveh will hope that it is (see 3:9).
3:5 Believed is the first word in the Hebrew text of the sentence, and the grammar underscores the immediacy of Nineveh's repentance. To fast and wear sackcloth were ancient demonstrations of mourning (Neh. 9:1; Est. 4:3; Dan. 9:3).
3:6 The word that reached the king of Nineveh was the "word" of the Lord (see 1:1; 3:1, 3). The "king of Nineveh" was probably not the king of Assyria, since Nineveh was not an Assyrian capital in Jonah's day; he may have been a provincial governor who ruled from Nineveh.
3:7-8 issued a proclamation. It seems odd that the king would tell everyone to fast and put on sackcloth when they had already done so (v. 5). Therefore it is more likely that v. 5 and vv. 6-9 are in topical rather than chronological order. First the king issued the proclamation, and then the people carried it out (see a similar summons to repentance in Joel 1:13-14). By putting the people's response ahead of the king's proclamation, the author underscores the immediacy of the people's response and that they are responding to Jonah's message, not just to the king's command. The Ninevites each turn from his evil way, whereas the Israelites did not (cf. 2 Kings 17:13-14).
3:9 Who knows? expresses hope (see 2 Sam. 12:22) that God may turn and relent--the exact hope of the prophet Joel for the people of Judah (Joel 2:14). we may not perish. This is the third time a pagan has been concerned that people not perish (see Jonah 1:14 and note on 1:6); ironically, Jonah has not expressed any such concern.
3:10 evil . . . disaster. Both terms translate Hebrew ra‘ah (see note on 1:2). The use of the same word underscores the close connection between human action and divine response. God did not carry out the threatened disaster because the Ninevites repented of their evil (see note on 3:4). From a temporal perspective, God responds to human action; from an eternal perspective, God chooses the means (human repenting) as well as the end (divine relenting). The repentance of Gentiles contrasts with the repeated lack of repentance on the part of Israel (see note on vv. 7-8).
