Jonah 3:1-10

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 learned his lesson. So when YHWH came to him again and told him to go to Nineveh to proclaim His word, Jonah did as he was bid. Unlike the seas and the fish he did it by free choice. And the consequence of his preaching was that the people of Nineveh repented deeply, and sought and found mercy from God.

Analysis of Jonah 3:1.

a And the word of YHWH came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the preaching that I bid you” (Jonah 3:1).

b So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of YHWH. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, of three days' journey, and Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown” (Jonah 3:3).

c And the people of Nineveh believed God, and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them (Jonah 3:5).

d And the news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes (Jonah 3:6).

c And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed, nor drink water, but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily to God, yes, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands” (Jonah 3:7).

b “Who knows whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” (Jonah 3:9).

a And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil which he said he would do to them; and he did not do it (Jonah 3:10).

Note that in ‘a' Jonah is to preach to Nineveh what YHWH tells him, and in the parallel the Ninevites have listened to what YHWH had said. In ‘b' he proclaimed that in forty days Nineveh would be overthrown, and in the parallel the hope is that he will show mercy. In ‘c' the people proclaim a fast and put on sackcloth, and in the parallel they are called on by their king to fast and be covered in sackcloth. Centrally in ‘d' the king himself covered himself with sackcloth and mourned over his sin.