Chapter 4

Chapter Three

¹ And it was commanded by the Lord to the sea-monster, and it cast Jonah out upon the dry land. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying: Arise and go to Nineveh the great city, and proclaim in it according to the proclamation that was before, which I have spoken to you. And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, as the Lord had spoken. Again the sea-monster is commanded — that is, by a divine and unutterable power it is moved according to what seems good to God, and gives up the prophet unharmed from its flanks, having gained, through suffering, the learning of obedience. For when he was commanded a second time to go to Nineveh, and to proclaim according to the former proclamation (and this was, that its wickedness had come up to God), he does not draw back, but at once rises up — not in body only, but also in eagerness, and with a resurrection of soul — and does what is commanded. So then, to those who give heed, afflictions are a great schooling toward doing the things that seem good to God. And consider for me also the things of the Lord set beside the things of Jonah. The one, before suffering what he suffered, runs away from Nineveh; and the Lord, before the passion, shrank from preaching to the nations, who even forbade his disciples to go into the way of the nations, but rather commanded them to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; since not even he himself was sent elsewhere than to these. But when, having suffered, he had been in the heart of the earth three days and three nights, and had accepted all else that Jonah prefigured, and his life had come up to him out of corruption, then he preaches also to the nations through the apostles, according to the former proclamation. For he did not deliver one thing to those of Israel before the passion, and another to the nations after the passion; but one Gospel is upon all, and one faith, and one baptism.

² And Nineveh was a great city to God, of about three days’ journey. Nineveh was great in size, and for this reason great in the sight of God also, and he made much of its salvation, inasmuch as he had fashioned many men in it, and willed that all these be saved. As for the phrase, “of about three days’ journey,” some have taken it concerning the extent of the city, as being able to be traversed throughout in three days.

³ And Jonah began to go into the city about a day’s journey. And he proclaimed, and said: Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. He did not proclaim going straight through the city, but going about the markets and streets and lanes. And it was a marvel: a Hebrew man, come from a foreign land, and known to no one, going through the town and crying out: Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. But one might ask, how it is that God commanded him to proclaim “according to the former proclamation.” It is possible, then, to say that the prophets relate to us only this in summary, namely, when they were sent; but they do not report at full length and in detail all the words which both God spoke to them, and they to God. Indeed, at the beginning of the prophecy this prophet is not recorded to have spoken anything to God; yet we shall find him saying: O Lord, were not these my words, while I was yet in my own land? Therefore I made haste to flee to Tarshish, because I knew that you are merciful and compassionate. It is no wonder, then, that the words, Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown, were spoken indeed at the beginning by God to the prophet, but were not written down by him. And it is to be known that the rest of the translators said forty days instead of three. [1] And some accepted this number as having the probability. For in three days, they say, it was not possible that at one time the prophet should have gone about the whole city, at another the Ninevites should have offered to God that laborious repentance, and at another Jonah, sitting before the gates, should have awaited the outcome of the prophecy. Therefore they say that the reading of the forty days is the truer; and it is likely that the Seventy too set down forty days, but that those who first wrote it erred, and then the error was spread through all the copies. Yet observe that nothing absurd will meet those who accept the three days. For it was not necessary that the prophet go round the whole city, but, as soon as he had gone a single day’s journey preaching, the proclamation was spread to all, so as to reach even the king; and for the laborious repentance of the Ninevites to be displayed, and to be accepted by God, the days after the proclamation were enough, whether we set them at three or at two; since even a single day would suffice for men who genuinely repent. And Jonah sat before the gates, whether after he saw them so setting themselves to repent — that is, either right after the first day of the proclamation, or after the completion of the three days — knowing that God was still gently disposed toward them, and would not overthrow, that is, utterly destroy; yet awaiting perhaps that some lighter punishment would be brought upon them. We have said what seems good to us, that the ancient reading of the three days may not be set aside; but let the reader choose what he judges the better.

⁴ And the men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. It is said with emphasis, the men of Nineveh — that is, those who formerly did every absurd thing, the sorcerers, the dealers in drugs, the demon-ridden, believed in the true God; those full of all luxury and licentiousness, fasted; the soft, and the delicate in their attire, put on sackcloth. And such a course did not begin from the small and poorer sort, but, beginning from the great and richer, thus it went down also to the small. Yet consider also what is simply present: that from the great — that is, the men — down even to the small, that is the infants, they displayed the tokens of repentance. But these men, who had never heard a single soul-profiting word, became disciples of a poor and unknown man; whereas the Jews, mocking both Moses and the prophets, and at last disbelieving the Savior God himself, became God-slayers.

⁵ And the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he rose up from his throne, and put off his robe from himself, and put on sackcloth, and sat upon ashes. And it was proclaimed and said in Nineveh by the king and his great men, saying: Let the men, and the cattle, and the oxen, and the sheep, taste nothing, neither feed, nor drink water. Since the great men were the first to begin the repentance, fittingly the word of the proclamation was carried quickly to the king also. And see a man of good understanding, and one who acknowledged his own evils: he did not disbelieve, nor mock the word, nor grow savage at the harshness of the threat; but, knowing that he had lived ill in the time gone by (for naturally the conscience displays the sin), he leaps down from the throne, sitting on which before he had judged and ordained many things ill, and sits upon ashes and dust; and the robe shot with gold, and set with gems, and luxurious, he puts off, and puts on a rough sackcloth, and one of an intolerable stench. Thus on a sudden he becomes a philosopher, and shows to all that in vain men put forward custom, as having power to bind; and he proclaims that the irrational beasts too should fast with them — not as though God required this of the cattle, but as displaying the excess of their own eagerness for the fast, by compelling even the irrational creatures to fast. And besides, they knew that the suffering of the cattle would help them toward a more laborious repentance, reasoning that, if the sinless cattle fast, much more ought they themselves to do so, who are liable to sins; and at the same time they reckoned this also, that, the irrational living things being pressed by hunger, and each using its natural voice, they themselves would be borne toward warmer tears by their fellow-feeling; and God, having compassion, would the more readily bestow his own kindness. But some have invented marvels, that “cattle” here means the more irrational sort of men.

⁶ And the men and the cattle were clothed in sackcloth. By “sackcloth,” understand the affliction; for surely the cattle did not wear sackcloth.

⁷ And they cried out to God earnestly. If you take they cried out in common, both of the men and of the cattle (for the cries too of the famished beasts were a kind of supplication to the kindness of God), you will understand earnestly as meaning intensely, exceedingly; but if of the men only, understand that, stretching out their hands too, they cried — which is somehow natural to us, to stretch out the hands when we entreat, as if longing to lay hold of the one entreated, and to receive the more quickly from him what we ask.

⁸ And each turned back from his evil way, and from the wickedness that was in their hands. Not only by fasting and by sackcloth, that is by affliction, did they entreat God, but they also set their ways right; for this is the definition of true repentance, as it says in Isaiah: Not this fast have I chosen, even a day for a man to humble his soul; but: Loose every bond of unrighteousness. And again: Learn to do good. The poorer sort, then, turned back from the evil way — from drunkenness, lying, licentiousness, insolence, and the like; but the more powerful, also from the unrighteousness that was in their hands, that which is accomplished in violence and oppression; for the hands signify violence. So too in common speech we say: So-and-so did such a thing “by hand.” But the unjust judge too, who judges for bribes, has the unrighteousness in his hands, casting an unjust vote; and he who grows rich by plunder has the unrighteousness in his hands. But when the one votes lawfully, and the other acquires honestly, they turn back from the unrighteousness that is in their hands.

⁹ Saying: Who knows whether God will repent and be entreated, and turn from the fierceness of his anger, that we perish not? See men of understanding: they did not cast themselves into despair, perceiving the greatness of their sins, but reckoned also the gentleness of the Judge, and that he will repent — that is, change his counsel, and alter the threat — and will be entreated, that is, be made gentle. But the Israelites were not such; rather, what did they say? Hear: Our iniquities are upon us, and in them we waste away, and how shall we live? And they said these things, not wishing to turn back from their wickednesses, but taking pleasure in them, and on purpose putting forward the incurableness that comes of despair. But God said to them: With turning, turn back from your evil way; and why do you die, O house of Israel? So ought we also to repent, as the Ninevites; the greater our evils, the more reckoning also the love of the Master for mankind, by what measure it exceeds the multitude of our sins — a thing which cannot even be told.

¹⁰ And turn from the fierceness of his anger, that we perish not. Now “wrath” is the decision that certain grievous things should be brought upon him who deserves them; but “anger” is the pain and the punishment itself, brought on by the righteous Judge. For instance, the physician, having marked the inflamed and festering part, judges the cutting to be necessary: this the Scripture calls “wrath.” And after this decision there follows also the cutting, working pain in the part cut: this is named the “anger” of God. God will turn, then, he says, from bringing upon us the pain and the punishment, which punishment is the effect of his wrath. Such a thing David too said: For anger is in his wrath.

¹¹ God saw their works, that they turned back from their evil ways. He did not see their fasting, but their works — that is plainly, the good things they did, in that they turned back from their wickednesses. For depart, he says, from evil, and do good. So that the fasting was not of itself sufficient to propitiate God, unless their characters too were set right and they displayed good works.

¹² And God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them. To the repentance of the Ninevites God too grants a repentance — not as repenting in like manner with us (for he does not will now this, now that), but the word names the changing of the threat, as was said above, a “repentance”; for on this account he would not have threatened, but would have punished at once. But since he rejoices in salvation, he threatens the fearful things, that he may not bring them on. And hearing “evil,” do not think of wickedness. For he who takes away wickedness is not a worker of evils; but the word here means by “evil” the affliction, which God, having threatened them with before, was no longer about to bring upon them, since they repented — as it is said in another prophet: There is no evil in a city, which the Lord has not done; and elsewhere, Add evils to them, Lord — that is, the things that afflict and grieve. And in this very Jonah too, a little below: To shade him, it says, from his evils.