Jonah 3

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: Jonah 3:1

Chuck Smith, founder of the Calvary Chapel movement, remarks how God brings us back many times to the place of failure, and that is the place where we can start again. [1] In this sense, God is the God of second chances. We have only to think of Old Testament figures like Moses, who failed at his first attempt to deliver Israel from Egypt but who later succeeded wonderfully well. We can also think of New Testament figures like young John Mark, who failed on his first mission trip but who succeeded later and even wrote one of the gospels. Then we surely think of Peter, who denied Jesus and failed him at his crucifixion, but who was later reinstated, becoming the chief apostle of the church.

Coffman surmises that at his earliest convenience, Jonah went up to Jerusalem, worshipped, and paid his vows as he had indicated in his psalm-prayer. [2] It is even possible that the fish vomited the prophet out on the Israeli coastline near the road leading up to Jerusalem. He could have paid his vows on the way to Nineveh. If he had not done that, he would certainly have paid his vows promptly when he arrived home.

“Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you” (3:2). By all accounts, Nineveh was a very great and large city. Commentators try to outdo each other in describing the vastness and greatness of Nineveh. They seem to agree that the circumference of the city was 60 miles (96 km) and the population was some 600,000 souls. [3] Paul Butler reports that from the record of the ancient writer Diodorus, Nineveh had walls 100 feet high (30 m), with 1,500 towers, each 200 feet high. He notes that four chariots could run abreast on top of the wall. [4] Other writers say that it was only three chariots wide.

We must understand that ancient cities had a walled portion that was surrounded by smaller settlements outside the wall. In fact, many people lived outside and carried on their occupations there. However, when danger threatened, these people quickly came inside the walled and protected area. [5]

Jonah’s Preaching

Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” Jonah 3:4

It appears that Jonah went about a third of the way into Nineveh as he preached. Phillips says, “These eight words formed the shortest of all prophecies.” [6] We see the number “forty” on many occasions in Scripture. The number is often associated with humility, testing, and judgment (Gen. 7:4; Exo. 24:8; 1 Ki. 19:8; Mat. 4:2).

“The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth” (3:5). Jonah’s preaching had an immediate and astounding effect upon the Ninevites. There may be two or three reasons for this. First, God’s Spirit must have fallen on the people, leading them to an immediate repentance. Second, the appearance of Jonah must have shocked them. Apparently, the gastric fluids of the big fish had probably turned his skin white, and he may have had some matted seaweed stuck in his hair. He was likely a sight to behold and a holy sight at that. Third, there may have been a period of awakening and revival in the area. Pfeiffer & Harrison report that there might have been a brief swing toward monotheism in the nation around that time. There were also a couple of severe plagues in the country that might have awakened the people to spiritual realities. [7]

It is even possible that the strange story of Jonah had reached Nineveh before the prophet, making him a sign to them. [8] Utley chimes in here with a quip, “What a difference a room in the fish hotel can make!” [9]

Nineveh’s Total Repentance

When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Jonah 3:6

Feinberg feels that the whole city turning to God was highly unusual and that nothing approximating it has ever happened in the history of revivals. [10] It was an amazing example of national repentance. Can we even imagine the king taking off his royal robes, clothing himself with itchy and ugly sackcloth, and sitting himself down in the dust?

“This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish’” (3:7-9). In the Bible, we see fasting mentioned a lot of times. However, I cannot remember any instance when the animals were required to fast, or especially were required to do a total fast of food and water. We can imagine that there was a chorus of bellowing all over the town. I can remember as a child on the farm once hearing the animals sadly complain when the water troughs were left empty.

We are not told how long this total fast continued. Perhaps it was just for a day. Certainly, it did not go longer than three days because the human body cannot be sustained without fluids much beyond that limit. Pfeiffer & Harrison tell us that it was a common practice among Semitic people to include their animals when they endured times of mourning and distress. [11] Herodotus, the ancient historian, tells of one Masistios, a Persian general who fell in the battle of Platea. To mourn his death, the Persians shaved the hair off their horses. [12] Clarke mentions how Virgil relates that the mourning for the death of Julius Caesar was so general that the cattle neither ate nor drank. [13]

The people of Nineveh certainly needed to repent. In 1:1-2, we talked about Nineveh’s cruelty in battle. They did a lot of other atrocious things. Wiersbe tells of their impaling live victims on sharp poles and leaving them to die in the hot desert sun. They beheaded people and stacked their skulls at the city gate. They even skinned people alive. Then they killed captive babies and young children rather than having to take care of them. [14]

“When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (3:10). The king got his request answered by a very willing people. The horrible destruction of this great city was delayed, and Nineveh received about another 150 years of existence.

We know from Bible history that the city eventually continued its cruel and heartless ways.

Later, the prophet Nahum spoke of its total destruction. Before that destruction could come, Nineveh and the Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel (722 BC). Yet, just as the prophet spoke (Nah. 3:10), the great city of Nineveh fell in 612 BC, being conquered by the Medes and Persians. The city was so completely destroyed that when Alexander the Great fought the Battle of Arbela near the site in 331 BC, he did not realize that there had ever been a city there. [15]

Footnotes

1. Charles (Chuck) Smith, Smith’s Bible Commentary, Commentary on Jonah, v. 3:1-10. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/csc/jonah.html

2. Coffman, Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible, Commentary on Jonah, v. 3:1.

3. Feinberg, The Minor Prophets, p. 143.

4. Coffman, Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible, Commentary on Jonah, v. 3:2.

5. Boice, The Minor Prophets, Vol. 1, pp. 296-297.

6. Phillips, Exploring The Minor Prophets, p. 150.

7. Pfeiffer & Harrison, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, p. 843.

8. Feinberg, The Minor Prophets, p. 144.

9. Utley, Free Bible Commentary, Jonah, v. 3:3.

10. Feinberg, The Minor Prophets, p.145.

11. Pfeiffer & Harrison, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, p. 848.

12. Coffman, Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible, Commentary on Jonah, v. 3:7.

13. Clarke, Adam Clarke Commentary, Jonah, v. 3:8.

14. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, OT, p. 1447.

15. Coffman, Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible, Commentary on Jonah, v. 3:2.