What happensPermalink
God again commands Jonah to go to Nineveh, and this time Jonah obeys. He announces that Nineveh will be overthrown in forty days. The Ninevites believe God, fast, and put on sackcloth. The king joins their repentance and commands everyone to turn from evil and violence, hoping that God may relent. When God sees that they have turned from their evil ways, He relents from the threatened disaster.
Why it mattersPermalink
Chapter 3 echoes chapter 1 on a massive scale. Once again, pagans threatened with destruction respond to God with greater faith than His prophet: they pray, change their ways, and hope for mercy. The sailors wondered whether God might spare them; now Nineveh’s king asks the same question. God’s compassion extends from one ship of foreigners to an entire foreign city, showing that repentance can transform announced judgment into mercy.
Key versePermalink
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.