Jonas 3

ARC · Chapter 3/4

¹E veiu a palavra do Senhor segunda vez a Jonas, dizendo:

²Levanta-te, e vae á grande cidade de Ninive, e prega contra ella a prégação que eu te digo.

³E levantou-se Jonas, e foi a Ninive, segundo a palavra do Senhor: era pois Ninive uma grande cidade de Deus, de tres dias de caminho.

⁴E começava Jonas a entrar pela cidade caminho d'um dia, e prégava, e dizia: Ainda quarenta dias, e Ninive será subvertida.

⁵E os homens de Ninive creram em Deus; e proclamaram um jejum, e vestiram-se de sacco, desde o maior até ao menor.

⁶Porque esta palavra chegou ao rei de Ninive, e levantou-se do seu throno, e tirou de si os seus vestidos, e cobriu-se de sacco, e assentou-se sobre a cinza.

⁷E fez apregoar, e fallou-se em Ninive, pelo mandado do rei e dos seus grandes, dizendo: Nem homens, nem animaes, nem bois, nem ovelhas provem coisa alguma, nem se lhes dê pasto, nem bebam agua.

⁸Mas os homens e os animaes estarão cobertos de saccos, e clamarão fortemente a Deus, e se converterão, cada um do seu mau caminho, e da violencia que ha nas suas mãos.

⁹Quem sabe se se voltará Deus, e se arrependerá, e se apartará do furor da sua ira, de sorte que não pereçamos?

¹⁰E Deus viu as obras d'elles, como se converteram do seu mau caminho: e Deus se arrependeu do mal que tinha dito lhes faria, e não o fez.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jonah finally obeys and preaches in Nineveh; to everyone's surprise, the whole city, from the king to the common people, repents in fasting and ashes, and God decides not to destroy the city.

Explanation

Jonah's preaching is extremely simple — just a single sentence of judgment, with no explicit mention of repentance or mercy — yet the result is the fastest and most sweeping revival recorded in the Bible: an entire pagan city turns to God. The king steps down from his throne, puts on sackcloth, and decrees a fast even for the animals, an extreme gesture of humility rarely seen in any other biblical account. The key verse, 'God saw their works... and God repented of the evil,' does not mean that God changed in character, but that His merciful response genuinely corresponds to human repentance. The application for today: no person or city is beyond the reach of God's grace when there is a sincere willingness to change.

Fun facts

The description of Nineveh as a city of 'three days' journey' likely includes the entire metropolitan area and surrounding farmland, not just the walls of the central city, since archaeological excavations show a smaller urban area — though still very large for its time.
The custom of covering animals in sackcloth (v. 8) seems strange to modern readers, but it reflected a mourning and humility so total that it embraced all creation under the king's rule, a practice documented in other ancient Near Eastern cultures.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Jonas 3:1God gives Jonah a second chance, repeating the call after the whole experience of the previous chapter.
Jonas 3:2Repeats the same command from the start of the book, to go to Nineveh, but this time Jonah actually obeys.
Jonas 3:3Calling Nineveh a city 'of three days' journey' describes the size of the city and the metropolitan area around it, one of the largest in the ancient world — not a single street, but a territory that took days to cross.
Jonas 3:4Jonah's message is short and blunt: just a warning of judgment in forty days, with no explicit call to repentance — even so, its effect will be enormous.
Jonas 3:5A surprising reaction: the whole city, from the greatest to the least, believes the message and repents in fasting — a success no prophet of Israel ever had historically.
Jonas 3:6The king of Nineveh getting off his throne, taking off his royal robes, and sitting in ashes was a public, extreme gesture of humiliation and mourning, normally reserved for national tragedies — here used as a sign of repentance.
Jonas 3:7The king's official decree extends the fast even to the animals — an exaggerated detail showing how seriously the city took the warning.
Jonas 3:8Covering even the animals in sackcloth and forbidding them to eat is a deliberately exaggerated detail, showing that the entire city, without exception, took the warning seriously.
Jonas 3:9The pagan king himself expresses the same hope Israel's prophets often had: that God might relent in the face of sincere repentance.
Jonas 3:10God 'repenting of the evil' doesn't mean He made a mistake; it's biblical language for saying He changed His stance in response to Nineveh's genuine change — the opposite of what Jonah wanted to happen.