Jonah 3:5

3:5-10 There was a wonder of Divine grace in the repentance and reformation of Nineveh. It condemns the men of the gospel generation, Mt 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, Ps 66:18. The work of a fast-day is not done with the day. The Ninevites hoped that God would turn from his fierce anger; and that thus their ruin would be prevented. They could not be so confident of finding mercy upon their repentance, as we may be, who have the death and merits of Christ, to which we may trust for pardon upon repentance. They dared not presume, but they did not despair. Hope of mercy is the great encouragement to repentance and reformation. Let us boldly cast ourselves down at the footstool of free grace, and God will look upon us with compassion.

Jonah 3:5-6 . So the people of Nineveh believed God, &c. — “The fame,” says Lowth, “of the wonderful works God had wrought for the Jews, was spread over the eastern parts of the world. This might make the Ninevites hearken to a man of that nation, that came to them as sent by God. And it is likely that he gave them an account of the miraculous circumstances which attended his own mission. But, without question, a sense of their own guilt, and their deserving whatever punishment Heaven could inflict, was a principal reason that moved them to have a regard to this message. And by the men of Nineveh’s repenting at the preaching of Jonah, God designed to upbraid the stubbornness of his own people, and shame them, as it were, into repentance; lest the men of Nineveh should rise up in judgment against them, as our Saviour speaks of the Jews in his own time, Matthew 12:41 .” And proclaimed a fast — The king and his nobles, or those in authority, ordered that every one should fast for three days, and put on habits of sorrow and humiliation. For word came unto the king of Nineveh — Archbishop Usher, in his Annals ad A.M. 3233, supposes this prince to have been Pul, the king of Assyria, (Nineveh being then the capital city of that empire,) who afterward invaded the kingdom of Israel, in the days of Menahem, 2 Kings 15:19 : it being very agreeable to the methods of Providence to make use of a heathen king, that was penitent, to punish the impenitence of God’s own people Israel.

(5) Believed God. —Or, believed in God. Notice again an implied contrast to the dulness of the Jews, who were “slow to believe” the prophetic warnings addressed to themselves. Proclaimed a fast.—Apparently on a spontaneous resolution of the people themselves. (See Note to Jonah 3:6.) The fast would no doubt be for one day, according to the Jewish and the general Oriental custom.

So, Heb. And , the people of Nineveh; the inhabitants who heard; they first believed who first heard, and successively others as soon as they heard. Believed God, speaking by his prophet; they knew their own sins. Though Jonah were a stranger to them, yet because, coming in God’s name, he did very particularly, fully, and to the life enumerate, decipher, and lay open their sins, with what they deserved, what might be expected, what God threatened from heaven, all which concurring wrought them to believe their danger, God’s mercy, and the possibility of escape if they repent. Whether the fame of Jonah’s deliverance came to Nineveh before him appears not, nor is it likely it should come so far and so fast, though it were known on the Syrian coast, and about Tyre and Zidon; possibly Jonah might publish it in Nineveh. Proclaimed a fast; every one called upon other to fast, of cried out it was high time to fast, repent, and supplicate God, so some think; but this passage is an anticipation, tells us what was done, and will tell us afterwards on what grounds, authority, and example it was done. Put on sackcloth; a ceremony very usual in mournings, private or public, in those countries, and a token of their true mourning; this all did, great and small, rich and poor.

Verses 5-9. § 3. The Ninevites hearken to the cry of Jonah, believe in God, and repent. Verse 5. - Believed God; believed in God , which implies trust and hope; Vulgate, crediderunt in Deum. They recognized Jonah as God's messenger; they recognized God's power as able to execute the threat, and they had confidence in his mercy if they repented. This great result has seemed to some incredible, and has occasioned doubts to be east upon the history. But, as we have seen in the Introduction, Jonah's mission occurred probably at a time of national depression, when men's minds were disposed to expect calamity, and anxious to avert it by any means. Other considerations led to the same result. They had heard much of the God of the Hebrews, much of the doings of his great prophets Elijah and Elisha; and now they had in their midst one of these holy men, who, as they were informed, had been miraculously preserved from death in order to carry his message to them; for that it was thus that Jonah was "a sign unto the Ninevites" ( Luke 11:30 ) seems most certain. They saw the Divine inspiration beaming in his look, dictating his utterance, animating his bearing, filling him with courage, confidence, and faith. The credulity with which they received the announcements of their own seers, their national predilection for presages and omens, encouraged them to open their ears to this stranger, and to regard his mission with grave attention.

Their own conscience, too, was on the prophet's side, and assisted his words with its powerful pleading. So they believed in God, and proclaimed a fast. Spontaneously, without any special order from the authorities. Before the final fall of Nineveh, the inscriptions mention, the then king ordered a fast of one hundred days and nights to the gods in order to avert the threatened danger (see a note by Professor Sayce, in G. Smith's 'History of Babylon,' p. 156). Put on sackcloth (comp. Genesis 37:34 ; 1 Kings 21:27 ; Joel 1:13 ). The custom of changing the dress in token of mourning was not confined to the Hebrews (comp. Ezekiel 26:16 ). Jonah 3:5

5. believed God—gave credit to Jonah's message from God; thus recognizing Jehovah as the true God. fast … 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 (1Ki 21:27; 20:31, 32; Joe 1:13). from the greatest … to the least—The penitence was not partial, but pervading all classes.

5–10 . The Happy Result of Jonah’s Preaching 5 . believed God ] Or, believed in God . Three things their faith certainly embraced. They believed in the God of the Hebrews, as the true God. They believed in His power to execute the threat which He had held out. They believed in His mercy and willingness to forgive the penitent. And this was marvellous faith in heathen, contrasting favourably with that of the chosen people. “So great faith” had not been found, “no not in Israel.” What they knew of the Hebrews and their God (for doubtless they recognised in Jonah a Jewish prophet) may have contributed to the result. That they knew also the miraculous history of Jonah’s mission to them, and so were the better prepared to credit him, appears to be plainly taught us by our Lord. It is difficult to understand how Jonah should have been “a sign unto the Ninevites,” corresponding in any way to the sign, which by His resurrection the “Son of man” was to “the men of that generation,” ( Luke 11:30 with Matthew 12:38-41 ,) unless they were aware that he had passed, as it were, through death to life again, on his way to preach to them. How that information reached them we have no means of judging certainly. Of course it may have come to them from the lips of Jonah himself, though we have seen reason (see note on Jonah 3:4 ) to regard that as improbable.

Alford speaks of “his preaching after his resurrection to the Ninevites, announcing (for that would necessarily be involved in that preaching) the wonderful judgment of God in bringing him there, and thus making his own deliverance, that he might preach to them, a sign to that people.”