NOTES for Jon 3:1-5

The Lord commands Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh. This not only emphasizes the special importance of what has been said, as with everything in the Bible that is said twice. The Lord addresses Jonah just as He did the first time, as though there had been no attempt to evade his calling; He gives the one who has strayed from His ways an opportunity to begin again.

Nineveh, a hostile pagan city, is for the first time called a great city to God. He has not finally rejected it because of its sinfulness; its inhabitants are also His creatures, descendants of Adam. The expression a three days’ walk, describing the size of the city, is a metaphor, but it is no less accurate than the phrase about the rare bird able to fly across the Dnieper. Ancient Nineveh did not reach such dimensions; such epithets rather bring modern cities to mind, and they really are difficult to cross on foot. Here we understand that the Book of Jonah is about every age. This means that we too, living in new Ninevehs, may, like Jonah, be called to preach to those whom we are accustomed to regard as hardened sinners. Will we have enough resolve to accept such a call if it comes, or will we try to kick free of it on the pretext that the preaching “will not be heard anyway”?