“Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.”
Bid thee before, or when thou shalt be there. (Calmet) — He seems to have retired to Jerusalem. (Menochius)
“So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. exceeding: Heb. of God”
Journey. By the computation of some ancient historians, Ninive was about fifty miles round: so that to go through all the chief streets and public places, was three days’ journey. (Challoner) — Diodorus (iii. 1.) says Ninive was 150 stadia or furlongs in length. It must have been therefore 480 round; and as each furlong contains 125 paces of 5 ft. each, the compass would be “60 Italian miles, (about 50 English)” which would employ a person three days to go through the principal streets. (Worthington) — Ninive “was much larger that Babylon.” (Strabo xvi.) — Hebrew, “a great city of God,” &c., denoting its stupendous size.
“And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
Journey. He records what he said the first day, though he seems to have preached many (Theodoret) even during forty days, after which time (Haydock) he expected the city would fall, and therefore retired out of the walls, chap. iv. — Forty. Septuagint three. St. Justin Martyr, (Dialogue with Trypho) “three, or forty-three.” Theodoret thinks that the mistake was made by some ancient transcriber, and has since prevailed in all the copies of the Septuagint. All the rest have forty. St. Augustine (City of God xviii. 44.) believes the Septuagint placed three for a mysterious reason. Origen (hom. xvi. Num.) suggests that the prophet determined the number, and hence God did not execute the threat. (Calmet) — This and many other menaces are conditional. If men repent, God will change his sentence. (St. Chrysostom; St. Gregory, Mor. xvi. 18.) (Worthington)
“So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.”
God. They were convinced that he had wrought such wonders in the person of Jonas, with a desire of their welfare, particularly as he allowed them some delay. Accordingly they did penance for about forty days, and their conversion was so sincere, that Christ proposes it to his disciples, Matthew xii. 41. (Calmet) — Thus “the city was overturned in its perverse manners.” (St. Augustine, City of God xxi. 24., and Psalm l.) — They were at an end, and the city was renovated. (Haydock)
“For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.”
King Sardanapalus, (Salien, Year of the world 3216) or rather his father, Phul, whom Strabo calls Anacyndaraxes, (Calmet.) and who died in the year of the world 3237, (Usher) four years after he had invaded Palestine, 4 Kings xv. 19.
“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: published: Heb. said nobles: Heb. great men”
Princes. Their consent was requisite, to form an irrevocable edict, Daniel vi. 8. — Men. Even infants, according to the Fathers, Joel ii. 16. St. Basil adds also, the young of cattle. This was done to excite rational beings to repentance. (Theodoret) — We do not find that cattle were deprived of food on such occasions among the Jews. But Virgil specifies that this was the case at the death of Cæsar, (Ecl. v.) as it was in droughts among some nations of America. (Horn ii. 13.) (Calmet) — When people are greatly moved by repentance, they exceed in austerity; but if this be not indiscreet, God accepts of their good intention. (Worthington)
“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”
Mercy. Hebrew, “repented,” as some copies of the Septuagint read, while others have, “was comforted.” (Haydock) — God suspended the stroke. But as the people soon relapsed, Sardanapalus burnt himself to death, and the city was taken, (St. Jerome) thirty-seven years after Jeroboam. (Year of the world 3257, Usher) — Yet this was only a prelude to its future ruin, foretold by Tobias, (xiv. 5. in Greek) and effected by Nabopolassar and Astyages. (Calmet) (Year of the world 3378, Usher) — The vestiges did not appear in the days of Lucian, (Charon.; Calmet) soon after Christ. (Haydock)