Jonas 3:1-10
In those days, the word of the Lord came to Jona a second time: Set out for the great city of Ninive, and announce to it the message that I will tell you. So Jona made ready and went to Ninive, according to the Lord’s bidding. Now Ninive was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jona began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, Forty days more and Ninive shall be destroyed, when the people of Ninive believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the King of Ninive, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. Then he had this proclaimed throughout Ninive, by decree of the king and his nobles: Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from violence he has in hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold His blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish. And God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way; and the Lord, our God, had mercy upon His people.
Haydock
Verse 2. Bid thee before, or when thou shalt be there. C. — He seems to have retired to Jerusalem. M.
Verse 3. 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. Ch. — Diodorus (iii. 1.) says Ninive was 150 stadia or furlongs in length. It must have been therefore 480 round; and as each furlong contains 125 paces of 5 ft. each, the compass would be “60 Italian miles, (about 50 Eng.)” which would employ a person three days to go through the principal streets. W. — Ninive “was much larger that Babylon.” Strabo xvi. — Heb. “a great city of God,” &c. denoting its stupendous size.
Verse 4. Journey. He records what he said the first day, though he seems to have preached many (Theod.) even during forty days, after which time (H.) he expected the city would fall, and therefore retired out of the walls. C. iv. — Forty. Sept. three. S. Justin, (dial.) “three, or forty-three.” Theodoret thinks that the mistake was made by some ancient transcriber, and has since prevailed in all the copies of the Sept. All the rest have forty. S. Aug. (de civ. Dei. xviii. 44.) believes the Sept. placed three for a mysterious reason. Origen (hom. xvi. Num.) suggests that the prophet determined the number, and hence God did not execute the threat. C. — This and many other menaces are conditional. If men repent, God will change his sentence. S. Chrys. S. Greg. Mor. xvi. 18. W.
Verse 5. God. They were convinced that he had wrought such wonders in the person of Jonas, with a desire of their welfare, particularly as he allowed them some delay. Accordingly they did penance for about forty days, and their conversion was so sincere, that Christ proposes it to his disciples. Mat. xii. 41. C. — Thus “the city was overturned in its perverse manners.” S. Aug. de civ. Dei. xxi. 24. and Ps. l. — They were at an end, and the city was renovated. H.
Verse 6. King Sardanapalus, (Salien, A. 3216) or rather his father, Phul, whom Strabo calls Anacyndaraxes, (C.) and who died in the year 3237, (Usher) four years after he had invaded Palestine. 4 K. xv. 19.
Verse 7. Princes. Their consent was requisite, to form an irrevocable edict. Dan. vi. 8. — Men. Even infants, according to the Fathers. Joel ii. 16. S. Basil adds also, the young of cattle. This was done to excite rational beings to repentance. Theod. — We do not find that cattle were deprived of food on such occasions among the Jews. But Virgil specifies that this was the case at the death of Cæsar, (Ecl. v.) as it was in droughts among some nations of America. Horn ii. 13. C. — When people are greatly moved by repentance, they exceed in austerity; but if this be not indiscreet, God accepts of their good intention. W.
Verse 10. Mercy. Heb. “repented,” as some copies of the Sept. read, while others have, “was comforted.” H. — God suspended the stroke. But as the people soon relapsed, Sardanapalus burnt himself to death, and the city was taken, (S. Jer.) thirty-seven years after Jeroboam. A. 3257. Usher. — Yet this was only a prelude to its future ruin, foretold by Tobias, (xiv. 5. in Gr.) and effected by Nabopolassar and Astyages. C. A. 3378. Usher. — The vestiges did not appear in the days of Lucian, (Charon. C.) soon after Christ. H.