Nineveh North Palace King Hunting A Lion

 Jonah Finally Obeys

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. 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.

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 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. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. (Jonah 3:1-10 kjv)

The Book of JONAH The name Jonah means "dove." In 2 Kings 14:25, it is stated that Jonah was from Gathhepher, about two miles northeast of Nazareth, and that he gave a prophecy which was fulfilled by Jeroboam II (793-752 B.c.).   The Book of Jonah is unique in the Old Testament in that the entire prophecy is written in the third person. God commanded Jonah to prophesy against Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, at a time when the power of the Assyrian Empire was resurgent and posed a threat to Israel. For this reason Jonah was unwilling to speak to Nineveh. He hoped that God would destroy these people. The book was written after Jonah returned from his mission, and had time to reflect on its significance. Some have called the Book of Jonah the "Acts of the Old Testament" because it graphically demonstrates that God is willing to have mercy on all who seek Him in humility and sincerity. The repentance of the people of Ninevah postponed the destruction of their city for roughly 150 years (until 612 B.C.) Many critics dismiss the story of Jonah as a "myth" or "fable" because they reject the miraculous element of the great fish. This simply shows their inability to comprehend the supernatural nature of the God of the Bible. For one who can stay the sun or divide the Red Sea, controlling one fish is not a great problem. Jesus treated the book as a historical fact, comparing Jonah's time in the belly of the fish to His own time in the tomb (Matt. 12:40).   Moreover, He affirmed that the repentance of the Ninevites was genuine and contrasted their reaction to the indifference of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 12:41; Luke 11:32). [Source for Introduction of chapter: Hebrew Greek Key Study Bible KJV edited by Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D. AMG Publishers, Chattanooga, TN 37422]