Jonah 3

Then the LORD spoke his word to Jonah a second time. He said:

1And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,

Note"The LORD" in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written YHWH. Jewish readers avoided pronouncing it and said "Lord" instead, and English translations follow that custom.

2"Get up. Go to Nineveh, that great city, and announce to it the message I give you."

2Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

3So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, just as the LORD had told him. Now Nineveh was an extremely large city. It took three days to travel through it.

3So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.

NoteNineveh was the chief city of Assyria, on the Tigris River in what is now northern Iraq. Assyria was the great military power of the region and was feared and hated by Israel; a prophet from Israel being sent there would have struck the first hearers as extraordinary. The Hebrew of "three days' journey" is ambiguous: it may mean the distance across the city, the time needed to walk through all its districts, or the length of a formal visit to it.

4Jonah started into the city, going a day's walk, and he called out, "Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overthrown!"

4And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

NoteThe Hebrew verb translated "overthrown" is the ordinary word for turning something upside down. It is used of cities being destroyed, but also of things being reversed or changed into something else, and the announcement leaves both senses open.

5The people of Nineveh believed God. They called for everyone to go without food, and they put on sackcloth, from the most important person to the least important.

5So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

NoteSackcloth was a coarse, dark cloth woven from goat or camel hair, scratchy against the skin. Wearing it, together with going without food, was the standard public sign of grief, distress or pleading in the ancient Near East, the way black clothing signals mourning today.

6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

6For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

NoteSitting in ashes, often after throwing dust or ashes over the head, went with sackcloth as a display of grief or self-abasement. For a king to leave his throne and strip off the robe that marked his office was a deliberate public reversal of his rank.

7Then he had this announcement made all through Nineveh: "By order of the king and his officials: No person and no animal, no herd and no flock, may taste anything at all. They must not eat, and they must not drink water.

7And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

NoteIncluding livestock in a fast is unusual but not unknown in the ancient world; Greek writers describe similar customs among neighboring peoples. The animals belonged to the household, so their hunger and noise made the household's distress visible and audible.

8Instead, let people and animals be covered with sackcloth, and let everyone call out to God with all their strength. Let each person turn from his evil way and from the violence he does.

8But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

Note"The violence that is in their hands" is a Hebrew way of speaking: the hands stand for what a person actually does, so this means the violent acts they themselves commit, not violence done to them.

9Who knows? God may turn and change his mind. He may turn away from his burning anger, so that we do not die."

9Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

NoteThe Hebrew verb behind "repent" here does not mean confessing sin. It means to change course, relent, or feel differently about a decision already announced, and it is used of both people and God.

10God saw what they did, that they turned from their evil way. So God changed his mind about the harm he had said he would bring on them, and he did not do it.

10And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.