Jonah 3
Big idea: The word of Yahweh comes 'the second time,' and this time Jonah goes. His sermon is a single, unadorned sentence — 'In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!' — with no call to repent, no mention of Yahweh, no offer of mercy. Yet the response is staggering: the whole city, from the greatest to the least, believes God, fasts, and puts on sackcloth; even the king rises from his throne to sit in ashes and decrees repentance for man and beast alike. When God sees them turn from their evil way, he relents of the disaster he had announced.
Nineveh's repentance and God's relenting are exactly the outcome Jonah feared and fled — which is why chapter 3's happy ending detonates into chapter 4's anger. The 'Who knows whether God will relent?' of the Ninevites (3:9) is answered by God's action (3:10) and then contested by the prophet (4:1–2).
3:1–2 — The word comes again
'Yahweh's word came to Jonah the second time,' repeating the commission of chapter 1 with one telling change: not 'preach against it' but 'preach to it the message that I give you.' Grace extends to the prophet a second chance, and the errand is reissued nearly verbatim — the book circles back to its starting point with Jonah now on dry land and, this time, willing.
1 Yahweh’s word came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”
3:3–4 — The five-word sermon
This time Jonah obeys, going to Nineveh — 'an exceedingly great city, three days' journey across.' He enters a day's journey in and delivers the shortest recorded prophetic sermon: 'In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!' There is no gospel in it — no summons to repent, no name of God, no ray of hope. The bare announcement of doom is all the reluctant prophet gives.
3 So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to Yahweh’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across. 4 Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
3:5–9 — The city repents
The response is total and immediate. The people believe God, proclaim a fast, and put on sackcloth 'from their greatest even to their least.' The king himself rises from his throne, strips off his robe, dons sackcloth, and sits in ashes — then decrees a fast for every person and animal, ordering all to cry mightily to God and to turn from evil and violence. The decree ends in fragile hope: 'Who knows whether God will not turn and relent... so that we might not perish?'
5 The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. 6 The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; 8 but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”
3:10 — God relents
'God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn't do it.' The threatened overthrow is withheld the moment there is turning. God's response to genuine repentance is the exact mercy Jonah feared — and the seed of the confrontation that fills the final chapter.
10 God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).