Jonah 3:5

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. SO THE PEOPLE OF NINEVEH BELIEVED GOD - gave credit to Jonah's message from God; thus recognizing Yahweh as the true God. Literally, 'believed IN God,' which expresses more than "believed God." They not only believed His word as true, but believed in Himself, trusting in Him. However they came to know Jonah's history, he was a sign to them at once of wrath, if they should disregard the message from God, and mercy, if they should regard it. AND PROCLAIMED A FAST, AND PUT ON SACKCLOTH. In the East outward actions are often used as symbolical expressions of inward feelings. So fasting and clothing in sackcloth were customary in humiliation. Compare in Ahab's case, parallel to that of Nineveh, both receiving a respite on penitence ...

One thing, escaped me in the third verse: Jonah said that Nineveh was a city _great to God_. This form of speech is common in Scripture: for the Hebrews call that Divine, whatever it be, that is superior or excellent: so they say, the cedars of God, the mountains of God, the fields of God, when they are superior in height or in any other respect. Hence a city is called the city of God, when it is beyond others renowned. I wished briefly to allude to this subject, because some, with too much refinement and even puerility says that it was called the city of God, because it was the object of God’s care, and in which he intended to exhibit a remarkable instance of conversion. But, as I have said, this is to be taken as the usual mode of speaking in similar cases. I now return to the text: Jonah says, that the citizens of Nineveh _believed God _(44). We hence gather that the preaching of Jona...

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 humbling themselves before God, confessing their sins with prayer, and turning from sin, are means of escaping wrath and obtaining mercy. The people followed the example of the king. It became a national act, and it was necessary it should be so, when it was to prevent a national ruin. Let even the brute creatures' cries and moans for want of food remind their owners to cry to God. In prayer we must cry mightily, with fixedness of thought, firmness of faith, and devout affections. It concerns us in prayer to stir up all that is within us. It is not enough to fast for sin, but we must fast from sin; and, in order to the success of our prayers, we must no more regard iniquity in our hearts,...

Verse Jonah 3:5. _THE PEOPLE OF NINEVEH BELIEVED GOD_] They had no doubt that the threatening would be fulfilled, unless their speedy conversion prevented it; but, though not expressed, they knew that the threatening was conditional. "The promises and threatenings of God, which are merely personal, either to any particular man or number of men, are always conditional, because the wisdom of God hath thought fit to make these depend on the behaviour of men." - Dr. S. Clarke's Sermons, vol. i. _PROCLAIMED A FAST_] And never was there one so general, so deep, and so effectual. Men and women, old and young, high and low, and even the cattle themselves, all kept such a fast as the total abstinence from food implies....

AND THE PEOPLE OF NINEVEH BELIEVED GOD; - strictly, “believed in God.” To “believe in God” expresses more heart-belief, than to “believe God” in itself need convey. To believe God is to believe what God says, to be true; “to believe in” or “on God” expresses not belief only, but that belief resting in God, trusting itself and all its concerns with Him. It combines hope and trust with faith, and love too, since, without love, there cannot be trust. They believed then the preaching of Jonah, and that He, in Whose Name Jonah spake, had all power in heaven and earth. But they believed further in His unknown mercies; they cast themselves upon the goodness of the hitherto “unknown God.” Yet they believed in Him, as the Supreme God, “the” object of awe, the God אלהים _'ĕlohı̂ym_ Jonah 3:5,...

EXPOSITION JONAH 3:1 Part III. JONAH'S PREACHING IN NINEVEH; THE REPENTANCE OF THE NINEVITES. JONAH 3:1 _§ 1. Jonah is sent a second time to Nineveh, and obeys the command._ JONAH 3:1 THE SECOND TIME. He is forgiven and restored to his office, and the commission formerly given is renewed. Commentators have supposed that he went up to Jerusalem to pay his vows, and that the word of the Lord came unto him there. But all unnecessary details are omitted from

SO THE PEOPLE OF NINEVEH BELIEVED GOD,.... Or "in God" r: in the word of the Lord, as the Targum; they believed there was a God, and that he, in whose name Jonah came, was the true God; they believed the word the prophet spake was not the word of man, but, the word of God; faith came by hearing the word, which is the spring of true repentance, and the root of all good works. Kimchi and R. Jeshuah, in Aben Ezra, suppose that the men of the ship, in which Jonah had been, were at Nineveh; and these testified that they had cast him into the sea, and declared the whole affair concerning him; and this served greatly to engage their attention to him, and believe what he said: but this is not certain; and, besides, their faith was the effect of the divine power that went along with the preaching of Jonah, and not owing to the persuasion of men; AND PROCLAIMED A FAST; not of themselves, but by t...

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 that which Gods bids us. The preaching that comes out of our own heads will never go into other men's hearts. If we will keep to the preaching that the Lord bids us, we shall not fail in our ministry. Jonah 3:3. _So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey._ For those times, Nineveh was «an exceeding great city,» but it is far exceeded in size by this modern Nineveh of London. Jonah 3:4. And Jonah began

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 life experience the Word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, telling him to arise and go to Nineveh to preach there what the Lord would command him. And now he is obedient. Jonah arrived in the great city of three days' journey, and advancing a day's journey into it he cried out his message, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Following is the objection of higher criticism as to this statement: “If we were reading a historical description the narrative would be full of difficulties. A strange proph

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 tidings that in forty days Nineveh will be destroyed. So huge was the city that three days would be spent in passing through it. Jonah advances one day's journey into the city and then announces its doom. His message meets with instant belief from the whole of the Ninevites. The king leaves his throne, strips off his royal robes, and sits in sackcloth and ashes. A great fast is proclaimed for man and beast, and all alike are covered in sackcloth. They cry fervently to God, and turn from their evil ways and the violence of their hands, in hope that God will repent of His fierce anger. And in consequence of their penitence they are not destroyed. It was probably a secondary aim of the book to sh...