King James Version
Jonah 3
10 verses with commentary
Jonah Goes to Nineveh
And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
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KJV Study Commentary
God gives Jonah a second chance: "And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying." The Hebrew <em>vayehi devar-YHWH el-Yonah shenit lemor</em> (וַיְהִי דְבַר־יְהוָה אֶל־יוֹנָה שֵׁנִית לֵאמֹר) emphasizes divine persistence—God doesn't give up on His rebellious prophet.<br><br>"The second time" (<em>shenit</em>, שֵׁנִית) is theologically significant. Jonah failed the first time, ye...
Read full commentary →Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
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KJV Study Commentary
God repeats the command with slight variation: "Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." The Hebrew <em>qum lekh el-Nineveh ha'ir haggedolah uqera eleyha et-haqeri'ah asher anokhi dover eleyka</em> (קוּם לֵךְ אֶל־נִינְוֵה הָעִיר הַגְּדוֹלָה וּקְרָא אֵלֶיהָ אֶת־הַקְּרִיאָה אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי דֹבֵר אֵלֶיךָ) differs from 1:2 in subtle but important ways....
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
III.
THE PROPHET FULFILS HIS COMMISSION.
ITS RESULT.
(2) **Preach.**—In Jonah 1:2 the word is rendered “cry.”
So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. exceeding: Heb. of God
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.</strong> The chastened prophet finally obeys. The Hebrew <em>vayyaqam Yonah vayelekh el-Nineveh kid'var YHWH</em> (וַיָּקָם יוֹנָה וַיֵּלֶךְ אֶל־נִינְוֵה כִּדְבַר יְהוָה) echoes 1:3's language but with opposite action—instead of fleeing, Jonah goes. The phrase "according to the word of the LORD" (<em>kid'var YHWH</em...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **Now Nineveh was** . . .—The past tense here certainly seems to imply that at the time in which the author wrote the city was no longer in existence, but the force of a Hebrew tense is not to be estimated by the analogy of modern languages.
**An exceeding great city.**—Literally, *A city great to God;* an expression equivalent to *a divinely great city,* and taken, as Ewald thinks, from the l...
Read full commentary →And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.</strong> Jonah's message is shockingly brief—only five words in Hebrew: <em>od arba'im yom veNineveh nehpakhet</em> (עוֹד אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם וְנִינְוֵה נֶהְפָּכֶת). No explanation, no call to repentance, no offer of mercy—just stark announcement of imminent destruc...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey.**—This is apparently equivalent to *And Jonah entered the city, and walked for a day through it.* To enter on a minute inquiry as to whether his course was straight or circuitous seems trivial. The writer has no thought of furnishing data for ascertaining the exact dimensions of Nineveh, but only of producing a general sense of its vast...
Read full commentary →Nineveh Repents
So 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.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>So 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.</strong> The response is immediate and total. The Hebrew <em>vaya'aminu anshei Nineveh be'Elohim vayyiqre'u-tzom vayyilbeshu saqqim miggdolam ve'ad-qetanam</em> (וַיַּאֲמִינוּ אַנְשֵׁי נִינְוֵה בֵּאלֹהִים וַיִּקְרְאוּ־צוֹם וַיִּלְבְּשׁוּ שַׂקִּים מִגְּדוֹ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **Believed God.**—Or, *believed in God.* Notice again an implied contrast to the dulness of the Jews, who were “slow to believe” the prophetic warnings addressed to themselves.
**Proclaimed a fast.**—Apparently on a spontaneous resolution of the people themselves. (See Note to Jonah 3:6.) The fast would no doubt be for one day, according to the Jewish and the general Oriental custom.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**7. trees--**not merely one tree of life as in Paradise (Ge 3:22), but many: to supply immortal food and medicine to the people of God, who themselves also become "trees of righteousness" (Is 61:3) planted by the waters and (Psa 1:3) bearing fruit unto holiness.
For 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.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>For 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.</strong> The king's response exemplifies leadership in repentance. The Hebrew <em>vayyigga hadavar el-melekh Nineveh vayyaqom mikkis'o vayya'aver addarto me'alav vayekhas saq vayyeshev al-ha'epher</em> (וַיִּגַּע הַדָּבָר אֶל־מֶלֶךְ נִינְוֵה...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **For word came.**—Rather, *And the matter reached.* The Authorised Version treats the royal edict that follows as the same with the *proclamation* in Jonah 3:5. This is possible, but it is more probable that the writer intended to describe the effect produced on each district of the vast city in succession, and on all grades of people. The piercing cry uttered from street to street, from squa...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**8. the desert--**or "plain," Hebrew, Arabah (De 3:17; 4:49; Jos 3:16), which is the name still given to the valley of the Jordan and the plain south of the Dead Sea, and extending to the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea.
**the sea--**the Dead Sea. "The sea" noted as covering with its waters the guilty cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. In its bituminous waters no vegetable or animal life is ...
Read full commentary →And 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: published: Heb. said nobles: Heb. great men
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And 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.</strong> The king's personal repentance becomes official policy. The Hebrew <em>vayyaz'eq vayyomer beNineveh mitaam hammelekh ugdolav lemor ha'adam vehabehemah habaqar vehatzon al-yi...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **And he caused** . . .—The fact that the word rendered “decree” in this verse was a technical name for the edicts of Assyrian and Babylonian kings (see Daniel 3:10; Daniel 3:29) would alone vouch for the accurate acquaintance of the author with the customs he describes. But the very form of the royal edict is here preserved. The verse should probably run: *And he caused to be proclaimed, and ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**9. rivers--**in Hebrew, "two rivers." Hence Hebrew expositors think that the waters from the temple were divided into two branches, the one emptying itself into the eastern or Dead Sea, the other into the western or Mediterranean. So Zec 14:8. However, though this probably is covertly implied in the Hebrew dual, the flowing of the waters into the Dead Sea only is expressed. Compare Eze 47:8, "wa...
Read full commentary →But 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.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>But 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.</strong> The decree moves beyond external ritual to internal transformation. The Hebrew <em>veyitkassu saqqim ha'adam vehabehemah veyiqre'u el-'Elohim behazaqah veyashuvu ish middarko hara'ah umin-hechamas asher bekappeihe...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**10. En-gedi ... En-eglaim--**En-gedi (meaning "fountain of the kid"), anciently, Hazazon-Tamar, now Ain-Jidy; west of the Dead Sea; David's place of refuge from Saul. En-eglaim means "fountain of two calves," on the confines of Moab, over against En-gedi, and near where Jordan enters the Dead Sea (Is 15:8). These two limits are fixed on, to comprise between them the whole Dead Sea.
**fish ... ...
Read full commentary →Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?</strong> The king's decree concludes with humble uncertainty and desperate hope. The Hebrew <em>mi-yodea yashuv venicham ha'Elohim veshav meḥaron appo velo noveid</em> (מִי־יוֹדֵעַ יָשׁוּב וְנִחַם הָאֱלֹהִים וְשָׁב מֵחֲרוֹן אַפּוֹ וְלֹא נֹאבֵד) expresses theology that balances God's justice w...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**11. marshes--**marshy places. The region is known to have such pits and marshes. The Arabs take the salt collected by evaporation in these pits for their own use, and that of their flocks.
**not be healed--**Those not reached by the healing waters of the Gospel, through their sloth and earthly-mindedness, are given over (Re 22:11) to their own bitterness and barrenness (as "saltness" is often ...
Read full commentary →And 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.
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KJV Study Commentary
Nineveh's repentance produces divine response: "And 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." The Hebrew <em>vayyar ha'Elohim et-ma'aseihem ki-shavu middarekam hara'ah vayyinachem ha'Elohim al-hara'ah asher-dibber la'asot-lahem velo asah</em> (וַיַּרְא הָאֱלֹהִים אֶת־מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם כִּי־שָׁ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) **And God repented.**—See Note, Genesis 6:6.
**And he did it not.**—As we are entirely ignorant of the nature of the threatened destruction, so are we also of the mode in which it was averted. Possibly some inscription throwing light on the book of Jonah may yet be discovered.
**Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
12. Instead of the "vine of Sodom and grapes of Gomorrah" (De 32:32), nauseous and unwholesome, trees of life-giving and life-restoring virtue shall bloom similar in properties to, and exceeding in number, the tree of life in Eden (Re 2:7; 22:2, 14).
**leaf ... not fade--**expressing not only the unfailing character of the heavenly medicine of the tree of life, but also that the graces of the be...
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