Verses 1-3
Jonah 3:1-3. And the word of the
Lord, &c. — After Jonah had been
well chastised for his
disobedience, and was set at
liberty, as recorded in the
preceding chapter, the divine
call to him to prophesy was
repeated. He had rebelled
against God’s command the first
time, but now, being humbled and
better prepared, he is tried
again. So — Hebrew, And, Jonah
arose and went into Nineveh — He
now obeys without reluctance.
Such was the blessed fruit of
the correction which he had
received. Now Nineveh was an
exceeding great city — The
Hebrew reads, A great city to
God: so the mountains of God are
the same with great mountains,
Psalms 36:6, and the cedars of
God are translated goodly
cedars, Psalms 80:10. Nineveh
was the greatest city in the
known world at that time;
greater than Babylon, whose
compass was then three hundred
and eighty-five furlongs; but
Nineveh was in compass four
hundred and eighty furlongs,
which makes something more than
sixty of our miles. It is said
that its walls were one hundred
feet in height, and broad enough
for three coaches to meet and
pass safely by each other: that
it had one thousand five hundred
towers on its walls, each two
hundred feet high. Diodorus
Siculus represents it as an
oblong figure, the two longer
sides of which measured one
hundred and fifty stadia, and
the two shorter ninety. “Ninus,”
says he, “hastened to build a
city of such magnitude, that it
should not only be the greatest
which then existed in the whole
world, but that none in
succeeding ages, who undertook
such a work, should easily
surpass it; and his expectation
has not been deceived. For no
one has since built so great a
city; both as to the extent of
its circuit, and the
magnificence of its wall.”
According to a report recorded
by Eustathius, fourteen myriads
of men were employed for eight
years in building this city. It
is here said, that it was of
three days’ journey; and
Diodorus asserts the same; that
is, of three days’ journey in
circuit, allowing twenty miles
to each day.
Verse 4
Jonah 3:4. And Jonah began to
enter into the city a day’s
journey — That is, he proceeded
into the city as far as he could
go in a day. And he cried, Yet
forty days and Nineveh shall be
overthrown — The threat is
express; but there was a reserve
with God on condition of
repentance. And it must be
observed, that in most of the
threatenings of God there is a
condition expressed or
understood. This is the general
rule for interpreting all such
denunciations, as has been
observed in the note on Jeremiah
18:8, unless where God makes an
express declaration that the
iniquity of the people against
whom he denounces his judgments
is full, and that he will not
spare them; or, as it is
expressed by our Saviour, with
regard to Jerusalem, that the
things which belong unto their
peace are then hid from their
eyes.
Verse 5-6
Jonah 3:5-6. So the people of
Nineveh believed God, &c. — “The
fame,” says Lowth, “of the
wonderful works God had wrought
for the Jews, was spread over
the eastern parts of the world.
This might make the Ninevites
hearken to a man of that nation,
that came to them as sent by
God. And it is likely that he
gave them an account of the
miraculous circumstances which
attended his own mission. But,
without question, a sense of
their own guilt, and their
deserving whatever punishment
Heaven could inflict, was a
principal reason that moved them
to have a regard to this
message. And by the men of
Nineveh’s repenting at the
preaching of Jonah, God designed
to upbraid the stubbornness of
his own people, and shame them,
as it were, into repentance;
lest the men of Nineveh should
rise up in judgment against
them, as our Saviour speaks of
the Jews in his own time,
Matthew 12:41.” And proclaimed a
fast — The king and his nobles,
or those in authority, ordered
that every one should fast for
three days, and put on habits of
sorrow and humiliation. For word
came unto the king of Nineveh —
Archbishop Usher, in his Annals
ad A.M. 3233, supposes this
prince to have been Pul, the
king of Assyria, (Nineveh being
then the capital city of that
empire,) who afterward invaded
the kingdom of Israel, in the
days of Menahem, 2 Kings 15:19 :
it being very agreeable to the
methods of Providence to make
use of a heathen king, that was
penitent, to punish the
impenitence of God’s own people
Israel. And he arose from his
throne, &c. — He laid aside all
his state, and put on the habit
of a penitent.
Verses 7-9
Jonah 3:7-9. Let neither man nor
beast taste any thing — This was
ordered to add the greater
solemnity to the humiliation,
and that men might be affected
by the mournful cries of the
cattle under such restraints,
and thereby be moved to greater
sorrow and contrition. It was,
however, carrying their
abstinence to a greater severity
than we find practised among the
Jews; for though, in times of
public calamity, and on the day
of solemn expiation, they made
their children fast, as we may
gather from Joel 2:16, yet we
nowhere read of their extending
that rigour to cattle. But let
man and beast be covered with
sackcloth — Their horses and
camels, both which they had been
accustomed to adorn with rich
and costly clothing, they must
now clothe with sackcloth, in
testimony of a hearty
repentance; the clothing of the
beasts must witness for the men.
Thus, in funerals, the covering
horses and mules with sackcloth
adds to the solemnity of the
occasion, and tends to increase
the sorrow. And cry mightily —
That is, let the men cry; for
though the men and beasts are
spoken of promiscuously in this
proclamation, yet there are some
expressions which are to be
applied peculiarly to the men.
Yea, let every one turn from his
evil way — Let every one forsake
his vicious practices. And from
the violence that is in their
hands — Let him cease to defraud
or oppress his fellow-creatures,
and desist from all acts of
violence; yea, and let him
restore what he has gotten by
such practices. Natural religion
instructed them, that their
earnest prayers, without true
amendment, would not avail them
before God; nor would their
repentance be thought sincere,
unless they restored to the true
owners what they had gained by
violence and injustice. Who can
tell if God will turn and
repent? — That is, whether he
will change his way toward us,
and revoke the sentence gone
forth against us. It was a great
thing for these heathen to give
such proofs of repentance, under
an uncertain hope of pardon.
Verse 10
Jonah 3:10. And God saw their
works — He not only heard their
good words, by which they
professed repentance, but saw
their good works, by which they
brought forth fruits meet for
repentance. He saw that they
turned from their evil way — And
that was what he looked for and
required. If he had not seen
that, their fasting and
sackcloth would have been as
nothing in his account. Observe,
reader, God takes notice of
every instance of the
reformation of sinners, even of
those instances which fall not
under the observation of the
world. He sees who turn from
their evil ways and who do not;
and meets those with favour that
meet him in a sincere
conversion. When men repent of
the evil of sin committed by
them, he repents of the evil of
judgment pronounced against
them. Thus he spared Nineveh,
and did not the evil which he
said he would do against it.
Here were no sacrifices offered
to God, that we read of, to make
atonement for sin; but the
sacrifice of God is a broken
spirit; a broken and a contrite
heart, such as the Ninevites now
had, is what he will not
despise: on the contrary, it is
what he will give encouragement
to, and put honour upon. |