Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, is a renewal of the commission first given and then fled from, a second command after earlier disobedience to go and preach only the preaching that is bidden. The preaching is not left to the prophet to invent, but is the specific message given him to proclaim. On this renewal Jonah went as commanded, obeying without questioning or doubting and without hesitation.
The message committed to him was a warning from God to that great city whose wickedness had come up before Him, that in forty days Nineveh would be overthrown and destroyed. The threat meant exactly what it said. Although the predicted destruction did not occur after the people humbled themselves, the warning was still truly from God and accomplished its intended purpose.
The warning brought the city to repentance, for from the king downward the people believed God, humbled themselves before Him, sought forgiveness, and turned from their evil ways. Because they repented, God spared them from the announced destruction. In this the verse shows that divine judgments are conditional warnings that give time to repent and prepare and that may be averted by repentance, revealing mercy toward a whole city and its inhabitants. An unfulfilled prediction of this kind did not make the command to preach it false.
The mercy and humbling lasted only for a time, for afterward Nineveh returned to idol worship and to world conquest, and after turning once more to idolatry its sins reached to heaven and its destruction came. The task itself stands as a lesson in bringing God's message to people who need help and guidance, and as a model of the divine call to prepare the way in a neglected, unpromising field. It teaches that God speaks to whom He will to carry His message, and those He commands must declare without reservation what He gives, moving out even when forbidding obstacles stand in the way, because such a command means something. Jonah at first refused to speak the words given him, fainting with fear and wild with the awfulness of the message committed to him, and hurried away as a disobedient prophet fleeing duty. Those who claim to know the truth yet lay every obstacle in the way so that light shall not come to the people will have an unwelcome account to settle with God that they will not be pleased to meet, for God manages His own work and woe comes to the one who puts his hand to the ark of God.
Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, is a renewal of the commission first given and then fled from, a second command after earlier disobedience to go and preach only the preaching that is bidden. The preaching is not left to the prophet to invent, but is the specific message given him to proclaim. On this renewal Jonah went as commanded, obeying without questioning or doubting and without hesitation.
The message committed to him was a warning from God to that great city whose wickedness had come up before Him, that in forty days Nineveh would be overthrown and destroyed. The threat meant exactly what it said. Although the predicted destruction did not occur after the people humbled themselves, the warning was still truly from God and accomplished its intended purpose.
The warning brought the city to repentance, for from the king downward the people believed God, humbled themselves before Him, sought forgiveness, and turned from their evil ways. Because they repented, God spared them from the announced destruction. In this the verse shows that divine judgments are conditional warnings that give time to repent and prepare and that may be averted by repentance, revealing mercy toward a whole city and its inhabitants. An unfulfilled prediction of this kind did not make the command to preach it false.
The mercy and humbling lasted only for a time, for afterward Nineveh returned to idol worship and to world conquest, and after turning once more to idolatry its sins reached to heaven and its destruction came. The task itself stands as a lesson in bringing God's message to people who need help and guidance, and as a model of the divine call to prepare the way in a neglected, unpromising field. It teaches that God speaks to whom He will to carry His message, and those He commands must declare without reservation what He gives, moving out even when forbidding obstacles stand in the way, because such a command means something. Jonah at first refused to speak the words given him, fainting with fear and wild with the awfulness of the message committed to him, and hurried away as a disobedient prophet fleeing duty. Those who claim to know the truth yet lay every obstacle in the way so that light shall not come to the people will have an unwelcome account to settle with God that they will not be pleased to meet, for God manages His own work and woe comes to the one who puts his hand to the ark of God.