टीका वर्तमान में केवल अंग्रेज़ी में उपलब्ध है। हिन्दी अनुवाद प्रगति पर है।
Jonah 3 — Yet Forty Days, and Nineveh Shall Be Overthrown
The word of the Lord comes to Jonah a second time. He goes to Nineveh and preaches a single, stark message — forty days to destruction. The whole city believes God, from the king to the lowest. They proclaim a fast, put on sackcloth, and turn from their evil ways. God sees their repentance and relents from the disaster He had threatened.
“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil.”
— Jonah 3:10
- v.1-4 The second commission; the eight-word sermon
- v.5-9 Nineveh's repentance from king to commoner
- v.10 God relents
This time, Jonah arose, and went. Same verb as chapter 1:3 (Jonah rose up to flee), now redirected toward obedience. The restored servant does the very thing he once refused.
Nineveh was an exceeding great city — Hebrew literally great to God. God valued the city Jonah despised. The size of the population (120,000 who could not discern right from left, 4:11) shows the scale of the mercy at stake.
The shortest recorded sermon in the Bible — eight words in English, five in Hebrew. No grace offered, no invitation, no gospel. Just judgment announced. And the whole city repented.
A reminder that the power is in the message and the Spirit, not the eloquence of the messenger. Jonah's sermon was bare, possibly bitter. God used it to convert a city. The fruit was God's doing, not Jonah's skill.
Believed God. The same phrase used of Abraham (Genesis 15:6). The Ninevites took God's warning seriously and acted. Jesus said they would rise in judgment against His own generation (Matthew 12:41) — they repented at less light than Israel had.
From the greatest even to the least. The repentance was total — across every class. When God moves a city, He moves it top to bottom.
The king's decree. True repentance is not just ritual (sackcloth, fasting) but moral — turn every one from his evil way. The fast was only valid if it produced changed behavior.
From the violence that is in their hands. Nineveh's signature sin was named — violence. Repentance addresses the actual sin, not a generic religiosity. Real turning identifies the specific evil and abandons it.
God repented of the evil. The Hebrew means God relented, changed His announced course in response to their change. This is not divine fickleness — Jeremiah 18:7-8 explains the principle: when a nation turns, God turns from the threatened judgment.
The threat had been the means of the mercy. God announced judgment precisely so that Nineveh would repent and be spared. The forty-day warning was an act of grace, not just of wrath.
If you have failed a clear assignment and been restored, expect the call to come again. God gave Jonah the same commission a second time. Your past failure does not cancel your future usefulness. Rise and go this time. And if you are praying for a hardened city, person, or culture — remember Nineveh. The least likely place repented at the barest sermon. No one is beyond the reach of God's mercy.
Jesus pointed to Nineveh as a witness against unbelief — the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here (Matthew 12:41). Christ is the greater Jonah. If Nineveh repented at Jonah's bare eight words, how much more should men repent at the gospel of the One who actually died and rose.
The second time. The God of second chances. Jonah had fled, been swallowed, prayed, been delivered — and now received the same commission again. God did not write him off.
A comfort to every believer who has failed a clear assignment. The call that you ran from is often given again after restoration. Mark, who deserted Paul (Acts 15:38), was later called profitable (2 Timothy 4:11). God re-commissions the restored.