1 The word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you." 3 So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey across. 4 Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried out, and said, "In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!" 5 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. 6 The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, "Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; 8 but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?" 10 God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn't do it.
Jonah is sent again to Nineveh, a city of three days' journey, (being sixty miles in circumference, according to Diodorus Siculus), Jonah 3:1-4. The inhabitants, in consequence of the prophet's preaching, repent in dust and ashes, Jonah 3:5-9. God, seeing that they were deeply humbled on account of their sins, and that they turned away from all their iniquities, repents of the evil with which he had threatened them, Jonah 3:10.
INTRODUCTION TO JONAH 3
This chapter gives an account of the renewal of Jonah's message to Nineveh, and of his faithful execution of it, Jonah 3:1; and of the fruit and effect of it, the conversion of the Ninevites, their faith in God, repentance of their sins, and reformation from them, Jonah 3:5; and of God's approbation thereof, by revoking the sentence he had pronounced upon them, Jonah 3:10.
Jonah's Preaching in Nineveh - Jonah 3:1-10
After Jonah had been punished for his disobedience, and miraculously delivered from death by the mercy of God, he obeyed the renewed command of Jehovah, and preached to the city of Nineveh that it would be destroyed within forty days on account of its sins (Jonah 3:1-4). But the Ninevites believed in God, and repented in sackcloth and ashes, to avert the threatened destruction (Jonah 3:5-9); and the Lord spared the city (Jonah 3:10).
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.