Jonah 3:7

And he caused [it] to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh,.... By a herald or heralds, sent into the several parts of the city: by the decree of the king and his nobles; with whom he

And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor

And he, the king, caused it to be proclaimed; took a particular care to have speedily a fast ordered, and notified to the people by those public officers who were wont to proclaim the decrees and edicts of the king and his council. And published: this ingemination confirms the thing, and adds somewhat for showing the deep sense the king had both of his oral and his people’ s sins, danger, and duty in this exigent. By the decree of the king and his nobles; it was an act of the king and council, and that which passed them with good liking, they relished the thing, as the Hebrew phrase importeth. Let neither man: men have sinned and provoked God to this high displeasure, it does most principally concern them to repent, fast, and mourn for their sins, that God may pardon and spare them. Nor beast: these, comprised ill the threat, and likely to be involved. in the common danger, are put under a fast; this the general, which is afterwards expressed more particularly, herd and flock; let none of these, whether at home in the stall, or abroad in the fold and herd. Taste any thing: this is referred by some to the strictness with which men were bound to keep this fast; but this may be a general prohibition, explained by what follows, let all, man and beast, forbear to eat or drink, that the fast might be most solemn, that the cry of man, seconded with the cry of hungry cattle, might enter the ears of God, who preserveth man and beast.

Jonah 3:7 And he caused [it] to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:Ver. 7. And he caused it to be proclaimed] By sound of trumpet, as Joe 2:12; or otherwise, as 2 Chronicles 20:3-4; 2 Chronicles 20:18-20; 2 Chronicles 22:6-7; at which times he that obeyeth not is culpable before God and man, Leviticus 23:29. By the decree of the king and his nobles] Who all unanimously consenting to so good a work, iis quibus praeerant, praeibant, became a precedent to their inferiors, who looked upon them (no doubt) as their lookingglasses, by which most men dressed themselves. When Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed, many Corinthians believed also, Acts 18:8. The primitive Christians were wont to pray that their emperors might have good counsellors (Tertullian). Of a certain prince in Germany it was said that, Esset alius, si esset apud alios, He would have been a far better man had he had better servants and officers about him (Bucholcer). Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing] The whole action of fasting hath its name, both in Hebrew and Greek, φεννηστεια, from abstinence and forbearance of meats and drinks; a toto, if it may be, at least, a tanto et a tali, as Daniel 10:2-3; and as it might be here, till the forty days were expired; besides, that one or more solemn days of total fasting, "wherein neither man nor beast," &c. But why is the beast abridged of sustenance? both to testify and increase the people’ s lamentation by their lowings and bellowings. Alexander the Great, at the death of his favourite Hephaestion, clipped his horses’ and mules’ hair, and cut them short, in token of his great grief; he pulled down also the battlements of the walls, that they might seem to mourn with him (Plutarch). So Virgil, speaking of the general grief for Caesar’ s death, saith (Eclog. 5): “ Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus Frigida, Daphni, boves ad fiumina; nulla nec annem Libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attigit herbam. ” Let them not feed, nor drink water] But what they get of themselves without man’ s care, who is to be wholly intent and taken up in God’ s service; and so to begin the heavenly life here, the sweetness whereof makes him forbear both meat and thirst. Besides, they took pride in their palfries, covering them with purple and rich trappings, see Judges 8:26, they catered for the flesh, by fatting cattle and other creatures to please their palate. This they were now forbidden to do by an edict from the king, who interesteth himself in matters of religion; as did also Artaxerxes, Ezra 7:26 (for which Ezra seeth cause to bless God); and Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 3:29, which the Scripture commendeth, and recordeth as a work of his repentance.

(7) And he caused . . .—The fact that the word rendered “decree” in this verse was a technical name for the edicts of Assyrian and Babylonian kings (see Daniel 3:10; Daniel 3:29) would alone vouch for the accurate acquaintance of the author with the customs he describes. But the very form of the royal edict is here preserved. The verse should probably run: And he caused to be proclaimed, and be published in Nineveh “According to the decree of the king and his magnates be it proclaimed that,” &c. The word “saying” is apparently formal like our “thus saith,” &c. And his nobles.—For this association of the great men with the autocrat, comp. Daniel 6:17. Traces of the custom can also be discovered in Assyrian inscriptions, e.g., “I am Assurbanipal king of nations, king of Assyria, Nabu-damiq and Umbadara the great men,” &c. (G. Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, p. 413). Ewald thinks the formal “saying” in the edict marks the omission of the names, which in the original would be given. Beast.—The Hebrew word is general, and might include all the domestic animals, but from the addition of “herd nor flock” we must doubtless here confine it to the horses and mules, &c., which even, according to our ideas, might have their usual gay housings changed to those suited to a time of mourning. “Men think it strange that the horses at Nineveh were covered with sackcloth, and forget how, at the funerals of the rich, black horses are chosen, and are clothed with black velvet” (Pusey). Herodotus (9:24) and Plutarch (Alexander), have both preserved instances in which horses and mules were associated with human beings in the signs of public mourning. The instinct which underlies the custom is a true one. Not only are the destinies of the animals which minister to man’s wants often identical with his own; but there is a bond of sympathy between them naturally; and one remarkable feature of this book is the prominence given to this truth. (See Jonah 4:11.) Let them not feed. . . .—Poetically, the beasts are said by Virgil to fast at the death of Daphnis (Eclog., v. 24-28), and in Joe 1:20 their mute appeal against suffering is represented as audible to God. In the horror of the impending ruin of Nineveh, superstition exaggerated the true feeling underlying such representations, and to the belief in the sympathy of the lower animals with man was added the hope that their sufferings would help to appease the wrath of God. Let them turn.—Notice the insistence on a moral change, and the implied contrast, again showing itself, with the formality of Judaism. Even in this repentance the edict does not stop to distinguish beast from man, but includes all, as all were involved in the threatened destruction. Violence.—This is the characteristic of Assyrian manners most frequently noticed in the prophets. (See Nahum 2:11-12; Nahum 3:1; Isaiah 10:13-14.) The cuneiform inscriptions abundantly illustrate this point.

7. and published] This word is not a participle, though likely to be taken for one in the A.V. It is literally, “And he caused a proclamation to be made, and said, &c. the decree] The word here used is not properly a Hebrew word. It occurs frequently in the Chaldee of Daniel and Ezra to denote a mandate or decree of the Babylonish and Persian monarchs. Dr Pusey rightly sees in the employment of it here a proof of the “accuracy” of Jonah as a writer. He observes, “This is a Syriac word; and accordingly, since it has now been ascertained beyond all question that the language of Nineveh was a dialect of Syriac, it was, with a Hebrew pronunciation (the vowel points are different here from those in Daniel and Ezra), the very word used of this decree at Nineveh.” and his nobles] Lit., his great men, or grandees, Proverbs 18:16. We have a similar association of his nobles with himself by Darius the Mede, when he caused the stone which was laid upon the mouth of the den, into which Daniel had been cast, to be sealed “with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel” (Daniel 6:17). In the present case, however, it would seem that it was not in the exercise of a constitutional right, but by a voluntary act on the part of the king, that the nobles were associated with him in the edict which he issued. Kalisch observes, “It would be unsafe to infer from this passage that the nobles were in some manner constitutionally connected with the government of the kingdom, and thus tempered its arbitrariness, as we know now from the monuments, no less than from the records of history, that ‘the Assyrian monarch was a thorough Eastern despot, unchecked by popular opinion, and having complete power over the lives and property of his subjects, rather adored as a god than feared as a man.’ ” (Layard, Nin. and Babyl. p. 632). May not this association of his nobles with himself have been “fruit meet for repentance,” an abdication, in some sort, of the haughty arbitrariness of his power, an humbling of himself “under the mighty hand of God”? saying] The decree, thus introduced, extends to the end of Jon 3:9. man nor beast, herd nor flock] The Hebrew word for “beast” here means tame or domestic animals, and probably refers only to “beasts of burden,” horses, mules, and the like. So Ahab says to Obadiah when the famine was in Samaria, “peradventure we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive, that we be not deprived of beasts” (1 Kings 18:5).

And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh; - literally, “And he cried and said, etc.” The cry or proclamation of the king corresponded with the cry of Jonah.

5-9. The effect of the preaching. The effects were immediate. The Ninevites believed God and humbled themselves before him in sincere repentance. Believed God — Or, believed in God (Genesis 15:6).