1 Then the word of the LORD 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.” 3 This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey. 4 On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!” 5 And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. 6 When 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. 7 Then 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. 8 Furthermore, 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. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.” 10 When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.
Jonah 3 Berean Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
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Places
Nineveh
Capital of the brutal Assyrian Empire. Jonah's reluctant mission brought it to repentance; Nahum later prophesied its fall, which came in 612 BC.
Cited in the guide: Jonah 3:3; Nahum 1:1; 2 Kings 19:36
Cross references (10)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Jonah 1:1
- 2 Jeremiah 1:17; Ezekiel 2:7; Jonah 3:3; Jonah 1:2; John 5:14
- 3 Matthew 21:28–29; Psalm 80:10; Genesis 22:3
- 4 Deuteronomy 18:22; Jeremiah 18:7–10; 2 Kings 20:1; Jonah 3:10; 2 Kings 20:6
- 5 Luke 11:32; Daniel 9:3; Matthew 12:41; Joel 2:12–17; 2 Chronicles 20:3
- 6 James 4:6–10; Esther 4:1–4; Job 2:8; Daniel 9:3; Luke 10:13
- 7 2 Chronicles 20:3; Joel 2:15–16; Joel 1:18; Jonah 3:5; Ezra 8:21
- 8 Isaiah 59:6; Isaiah 55:6–7; Jonah 1:6; Jonah 1:14; Ezekiel 18:21–24
- 9 2 Samuel 12:22; Joel 2:13–14; Psalm 106:45; Jonah 1:6; Luke 15:18–20
- 10 Jeremiah 18:8; 1 Kings 21:27–29; Exodus 32:14; Amos 7:6; Luke 15:20
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… wrought in Jonah's case, as the Scripture says of them, "And they returned each from his evil way, and the unrighteousness which was in their hands, saying, Who knoweth if God will repent, and turn away His anger from us, and we shall not perish?" --so also, from the beginning, did God permit man to be swallowed up by the …
But some one may say, "How shall I know whether the prophet Jonah said to the Ninevites, Yet three days and Nineveh shall be overthrown,' or forty days?" For who does not see that the prophet could not say both, when he was sent to terrify the city by the threat of imminent ruin?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)