Second chance. This time Jonah goes. His whole sermon is eight words in English: Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned. And it works. The whole city fasts, even the king and the cows wear sackcloth, and God holds back the disaster.
The Ninevites Repent// Matthew 12:38–42; Luke 11:29–32
1Then the word of Yahweh came to Jonah a second time: 2“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”
3This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of Yahweh.
Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey.4On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”
JON 3:3[ARCHAEOLOGY]The ruins of Nineveh by the Tigris, across from Mosul in Iraq, with the mounds of its walls and palaces, see The Walls of Nineveh Field Notes page
JON 3:3[NOTE]A THREE DAY JOURNEY. It may mean the whole Nineveh area, or a three day visit to walk the streets and do business. See The Walls of Nineveh.
JON 3:4[NOTE]FORTY MORE DAYS. Jonah's sermon prints black, because the Bible does not give God's own words for it. In the Hebrew it is only five words.
5And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.
JON 3:5[FORESHADOW]A pagan city repented at one prophet's preaching → MT 12:41; LK 11:30-32MEDIUM
JON 3:5[NOTE]THE WHOLE CITY BELIEVED. Jesus said the men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with His generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah's preaching, Matthew 12:41. See Did Nineveh Really Repent?
6When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink. 8Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands. 9Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”
JON 3:7[NOTE]THE KING'S DECREE. The king speaks, not God, so his words print black.
JON 3:8[NOTE]ANIMALS IN SACKCLOTH. It sounds strange, but ancient people did this. The Greek historian Herodotus says the Persians cut the manes of their horses in mourning, and Judith 4:10 has cattle in sackcloth.
10When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.
JON 3:10[NOTE]DISASTER HELD BACK. God's warnings are often a call to turn. When people turn, He can hold back what He threatened, Jeremiah 18:7 to 8.
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