Jonah 3:2

Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city,.... So it is called; [See comments on Jonah 1:2].

Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching - literally, proclaim the proclamation.

Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city; see ; great in extent of ground, in strength of its fortifications, height and breadth of its walls, and multitude of its towers; great in the multitude of its numbers, and riches of its citizens, and every whit as great in the multitude of its sins: but let nothing retard or discourage thee, arise and go. Preach, publicly, plainly, boldly; cry, . Unto it, i.e. against it, publish the near approaching ruin of it, preach to them the necessity of their repentance, and awaken them to it by the terrors of the Lord. The preaching that I bid thee; either which I did bid thee at first, as , or what I shall suggest and communicate to thee when thou art come thither.

Jonah 3:2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.Ver. 2. Arise, go unto Nineveh] Begin again, and take better heed; as that Nazarite was to do that had defiled the head of his consecration, Numbers 6:9; Numbers 6:12. Unto Nineveh, that great city] There was no city since, by the estimation of Diodorus, had the like compass of ground or stateliness of walls; the height thereof being a hundred feet, the breadth able to receive three carts abreast, adorned with fifteen hundred turrets. Some think (as Annius and Berosus) that those three cities spoken of, Genesis 10:11-12, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen, were all included in Nineveh, and they conceive it thus; that when Nimrod had built Babylon, Ninus, disdaining his government, went into the fields of Asshur, and there erected a city after his own name. Raphael Volaterranus saith it was eight years in building, ten thousand men working at it. Quintilian saith, that great Milan, ancient Ravenna, brave Bononia, noble Naples, and other great cities of Italy, are but towers to Rome: but what was Rome to Nineveh? and yet Lipsius hath written a treatise of Rome’ s greatness; and when the Emperor Constantine came to Rome, and beheld the companies that entertained him, he repeated a saying of Cineas, the Epirote, that he had seen so many kings as citizens; but, viewing the building of the city, he thought, naturam vires omnes in urbem unam effudisse, that nature had showed the utmost of what she could do in that one great city. And preach unto it the preaching] Heb. Proclaim unto it (or against it) the proclamation that I say to thee, that I have formerly put into thy mouth, and do now so again, sc. that their wickedness is come up before me, and I am even upon the way toward them to punish it grievously. Flagitium et flagellum sunt sicut acus et filium, Who ever waxed fierce against God and prospered? Job 9:4. This wicked men must be boldly told, Isaiah 3:11, however they take it; neither may God’ s ministers steal away the word, Jeremiah 23:30, or keep back from the people any part of God’ s counsel, Acts 20:27, "handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commend themselves to every man’ s conscience in the sight of God," 2 Corinthians 4:2, as becometh his ambassadors.

III. THE PROPHET FULFILS HIS . ITS RESULT. (2) Preach.—In Jonah 1:2 the word is rendered “cry.”

Verse 2. And preach unto it the preaching] וקרא את הקריאה vekera eth hakkeriah, "And cry the cry that I bid thee." Be my herald, and faithfully deliver my message. The word κηρυξ in Greek answers to the Hebrew קורא kore: both signifying a crier, a herald, a preacher; one that makes proclamation with a loud and earnest cry. Such was John Baptist, Isaiah 40:3; such was Jesus Christ, John 7:18-37; and such were all his apostles. And such earnestness becomes a ministry that has to do with immortal souls, asleep and dead in sin, hanging on the brink of perdition, and insensible of their state. The soft-speaking, gentle-toned, unmoved preacher, is never likely to awaken souls. As we preach, so the people hear; scarcely receiving any counsels that appear to have no importance by the manner in which they are delivered. But this earnestness is widely different from that noisy, blustering, screaming rant, that manifests more of the turbulence of disorderly passions, than of the real inspired influence of the Spirit of God.

2. that great city] Calvin explains this repeated mention of the greatness of Nineveh (comp. Jonah 1:2), as intended to prepare Jonah for the magnitude of the task before him, lest when he came face to face with it he should be appalled and draw back. But perhaps the true key is to be found in Jonah 4:11, where the same expression “the great city” occurs as an argument for God’s compassion. It is on no mean errand of mercy, not to save a few only from destruction, that I bid you go. preach unto it the preaching] Lit., cry to it the crying. The word is rendered cry, Jonah 1:2.

Arise, go to Nineveh that great city, and preach (or cry) unto it - God says to Jonah the self-same words which He had said before; only perhaps He gives him an intimation of His purpose of mercy, in

1-4. The preaching of Jonah. Jonah 3:1, is almost identical with Jonah 1:1, the only difference being the addition of “the second time” and the omission of “the son of Amittai”; Jonah 3:2 a, is