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| 1 ¶ And the word of the
LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. 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. .4 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. |
3 -
Thee
days' journey Assuming this to be the time for walking across
the city, we have a problem. No city in antiquity was that big. Instead,
it was apparently the traveling time from the shore of the Great Sea (Mediterranean)
assuming travel by horseback. However, see comments below for v4.
4 - Day's journey People may have been living around the city. The area was probably not as arid as it is today. Jonah could have circulated in suburban areas before entering the walls of the city itself. See on jos1404 and on jon0411. 4 - Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown The record doesn't say that Jonah called for repentance. |
| .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.
.6 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. 7 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: 8 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. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? |
5 -
People
... believed God's plan to destroy the city was conditional.
Jonah preached what the Lord had told him v2.
7 - Caused it to be proclaimed Do you recall another time when a king's proclamation became part of the Bible? Try da04 and ezr0711. |
| .10 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. | Prophecies dependent on human response are conditional. The word repented would be better translated, "relented," in modern English. Compare je3003,11. |
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