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Jonah 3
The call comes a second time, identical to the first, and this time Jonah goes. He walks a day into the vast city and delivers the shortest sermon imaginable: forty days, and Nineveh is overthrown. No mention of God, mercy, or repentance, just doom. Watch the response outrun the message. The whole city believes, fasts, and dresses in sackcloth. Even the king steps off his throne, and the decree extends the fast to the cattle. Then God relents.
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The LORD’s word came to Jonah the second time, saying,
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“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”
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So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across.
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Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
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The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.
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The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
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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;
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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.
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Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”
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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.
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Y FUÉ palabra de Jehová segunda vez á Jonás, diciendo:
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Levántate, y ve á Nínive, aquella gran ciudad, y publica en ella el pregón que yo te diré.
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Y levantóse Jonás, y fué á Nínive, conforme á la palabra de Jehová. Y era Nínive ciudad sobremanera grande, de tres días de camino.
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Y comenzó Jonás á entrar por la ciudad, camino de un día, y pregonaba diciendo: De aquí á cuarenta días Nínive será destruída.
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Y los hombres de Nínive creyeron á Dios, y pregonaron ayuno, y vistiéronse de sacos desde el mayor de ellos hasta el menor de ellos.
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Y llegó el negocio hasta el rey de Nínive, y levantóse de su silla, y echó de sí su vestido, y cubrióse de saco, y se sentó sobre ceniza.
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E hizo pregonar y anunciar en Nínive, por mandado del rey y de sus grandes, diciendo: Hombres y animales, bueyes y ovejas, no gusten cosa alguna, no se les dé alimento, ni beban agua:
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Y que se cubran de saco los hombres y los animales, y clamen á Dios fuertemente: y conviértase cada uno de su mal camino, de la rapiña que está en sus manos.
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¿Quién sabe si se volverá y arrepentirá Dios, y se apartará del furor de su ira, y no pereceremos?
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Y vió Dios lo que hicieron, que se convirtieron de su mal camino: y arrepintióse del mal que había dicho les había de hacer, y no lo hizo.
A king who hopes without certainty
The royal proclamation is striking for its honesty: "Who knows whether God will not turn and relent." Nineveh repents with no promise that it will work, only a maybe.
Their turning is concrete, not just ritual. The decree names the goal directly: let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence in his hands. God responds to what they do, not merely to the sackcloth.
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