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Kretzmann's Popular Commentary

Jonah 3:9

Who can tell if God will turn and repent, the possibility of His doing so being suggested by His interest in sending a prophet to warn them, and turn away from His fierce anger that we perish not? It was a true repentance on the part of the Ninevites and is so cited by Christ in reproof of those who, with much greater light and privileges, did not repent. Matthew 12:41; Luke 11:32, even if its effects were not lasting.

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See also Jonah 3:9 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Jonah 3:9. _WHO CAN TELL_ IF _GOD WILL TURN AND REPENT_] There is at least a peradventure for our salvation. God _may_ turn towards us, change his purpose, and save us alive. While there is lif...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    WHO CAN TELL IF GOD WILL TURN AND REPENT? - The Ninevites use the same form of words, which God suggested by Joel to Judah. Perhaps He would thereby indicate that He had Himself put it into their mout...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 3 Jonah Preaching in Nineveh _ 1. The repeated commission and Jonah's obedience (John 3:1) _ 2. The repentance and salvation of Nineveh (John 3:4) John 3:1. And now after Jonah's death and...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    JONAH 3. THE NINEVITES REPENT AT THE PREACHING OF JONAH. When the prophet is bidden a second time to carry God's message to Nineveh, he knows that it is useless to disobey. Accordingly he takes the ti...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    WHO CAN TELL.. ? Compare "Who knoweth... ? 2 Samuel 12:22.Joel 2:14. Jonah, for one, thought Jehovah might to so. Hence his reluctance to give Nineveh the opportunity to repent. IF. [but that)....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Jonah 3:1-10. Jonah's Preaching and its result Sent a second time by God on a mission to Nineveh, Jonah promptly obeys, Jonah 3:1 _a_. He enters into Nineveh and delivers his message, Jonah 3:3;...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _Who can tell_ Comp. Joel 2:14, where the Hebrew is the same. Calvin well explains the doubtful form assumed by the king's decree. "How can it be," he asks, "that the king of Nineveh repented earnestl...

  • Charles Box Commentaries

    _GOD REPENTED OR CHANGED HIS MIND -- JONAH 3:9-10:_ The message was, "You must also pray to the Lord God with all your heart and stop being sinful and cruel. Maybe God will change his mind and have me...

  • Charles Simeon's Horae Homileticae

    DISCOURSE: 1201 REPENTANCE OF THE NINEVITES [Note: A Fast Sermon.] John 3:8. Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth; and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    AND REPENT— _And revoke his sentence._ Houbigant. And so in the next verse, _God revoked his sentence, and brought not upon them the evil which he was about to do unto them._ See the note on Genesis 6...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    GOD'S MESSENGER RUNNING WITH GOD THE CONSEQUENCE OF REPENTANCE TEXT: Jonah 3:5-10 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of th...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? WHO CAN TELL IF GOD WILL TURN AND REPENT, AND TURN AWAY FROM HIS FIERCE ANGER, THAT WE PERISH NOT?...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    REPENTANCE AND PARDON OF THE NINEVITES 3. An exceeding great city] lit. 'great unto God,' i.e. regarded as great by God: cp. Genesis 10:1. OF THREE DAYS' JOURNEY] i.e. in breadth. 8. Even the cattle...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    THE MAN WHO DISAGREED WITH GOD JONAH _MARK KIRKPATRICK_ CHAPTER 3 V1 Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time. V2 ‘Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Tell them the message that I shall...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    מִֽי ־יֹודֵ֣עַ יָשׁ֔וּב וְ נִחַ֖ם הָ אֱלֹהִ֑י

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    THE REPENTANCE OF THE CITY John 3:1 HAVING learned, through suffering, his moral kinship with the ‘heathen, and having offered his life for some of them, Jonah receives a second command to go to Nine...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    A REPENTANT CITY John 3:1-10 Peter was not only forgiven, but restored to his office; so also was Jonah again sent to Nineveh. Thank God for our second chances! There was no hesitancy this time. The...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    Immediately Jonah was again charged to go to Nineveh. There is a fine revelation of the patient grace of God toward His servant in the statement, "The word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time....

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    (g) Who can tell [if] God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? (g) For partly from the threatening of the prophet, and partly from his own conscience, he dou...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    What! But the sovereign grace of God could have induced such effects! What nation, what kingdom or people shall we look to, for similar humblings, at the preaching of a poor despised Prophet? Do we no...

  • Introductory Lectures - Commentary by William Kelly

    Lectures on the Minor Prophets. W. Kelly. The most cursory reader can hardly avoid seeing that Jonah has a peculiar place among the prophets. There is none more intensely Jewish; yet his prophecy was...

  • John Brown Commentaries Selected Books of the Bible

    Jonah the Suicidal Evangelist I. INTRODUCTION A. In our last study of Jonah we limited ourselves to chapter 3 verses 1-2 - Jonah 3:1-2 (NASB) Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time,...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    The mind and design of the king are here more distinctly stated, — that he thus endeavored to reconcile himself and the people to God. Some give a rendering somewhat different, “He who knows will turn...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    And now the second testimony begins. All that Israel could have been, all that belonged to man as responsible in himself, as far as testimony was concerned, has failed for ever. Christ Himself, the fa...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    WHO CAN TELL,.... The Septuagint and Arabic versions prefix to this the word "saying", and take them to be, not the words of the king, but of the Ninevites; though very wrongly: or "who is he that kno...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Who can tell [if] God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? Ver. 9. _Who can tell if God will turn and repent_] This is the speech of one that doubteth and ye...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _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,...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    5-10 There was a wonder of Divine grace in the repentance and reformation of Nineveh. It condemns the men of the gospel generation, Matthew 12:41. A very small degree of light may convince men that h...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    Here is the ground of the Ninevites fasting and praying, there is a possibility that they may escape; there is fairly argued a probability, for why should the ruin beforehand be threatened, but to giv...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Jonah 3:9 tell H3045 (H8802) God H430 turn H7725 (H8799) relent H5162 (H8738) away H7725 (H

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    “Who knows whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” The hope then was that God (Elohim) would also ‘turn and repent' in His attitude towards them...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    A CHANGED JONAH OBEYS GOD AND GOES TO NINEVEH PROCLAIMING ITS OVERTHROW WITHIN FORTY DAYS, WITH THE RESULT THAT (TO JONAH'S CHAGRIN) NINEVEH REPENTS (JONAH 3:1). Jonah was no longer rebellious. He had...

  • Scofield's Bible Commentary

    REPENT (_ See Scofield) - (Zechariah 8:14). _...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    JONAH 1-4 Jonah buried and risen a type of Christ. I. More than once in the course of our Lord's ministry, among different persons and for different objects, He makes use of the similitude of the pro...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    Jonah 3:1. _And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee._ There is no preaching like th...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Jonah's second commission. Ninevah's repentance because of his obedience. CHARACTERS: God, Jonah, King of Nineveh. CONCLUSION: Those who would not destroy their souls must afflict their so...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Jonah 3:4. _Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown._ The LXX read “three days,” and they are followed by most of the Greek fathers. But three days is thought to be an error of the scribe, for...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _So the people of Nineveh believed God._ BELIEF INSPIRED BY FEAR How came the Ninevites to believe God, as no hope of salvation was given them? For there can be no faith without an acquaintance with...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Who can tell if God will turn?_ PEACE HAS BEEN PROCLAIMED During the Civil War in America some soldiers of the Southern Army deserted, and found themselves caught in a wood between their own regimen...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JONAH—NOTE ON JONAH 3:3 Jonah and the Pagan Ninevites. The fifth episode parallels the second (Jonah 1:4) and focuses on how the pagan Ninevites, just like the pagan sailors, respond

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JONAH—NOTE ON JONAH 3:9 WHO KNOWS? expresses hope that GOD MAY TURN AND RELENT. The phrase WE MAY NOT PERISH marks the third time a pagan has been concerned that people not perish (compare...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.] JONAH 3:5. BELIEVED] Lit. _in_ God, in his word; trusted in him. SACKCLOTH] The attire of deep mourning, irritating to the body. Fasting and sackcloth customary in humiliation (1 King...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION JONAH 3:1 Part III. JONAH'S PREACHING IN NINEVEH; THE REPENTANCE OF THE NINEVITES. Jonah 3:1

  • The Typology of Scripture by Patrick Fairbairn

    4. The last step in a true repentance the return in faith and confidence to God is also represented to have been taken by the Ninevites. Without this their repentance could certainly not have been com...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    So the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh (Jonah 3...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    2 Samuel 12:22; Amos 5:15; Joel 2:13; Joel 2:14; Jonah 1:6;...

  • Wells of Living Water Commentary

    ON TO NINEVEH Jonah 3:1 INTRODUCTORY WORDS 1. Our opening verse says, "The Word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time." These words bring to us the thought of a second chance. We are reminded...

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