Vor. 8.-Arose, e.nd went. Ho wns now to _have gone on through the city, repe,:iting o.e prompt to obey oe formerly to flee. We.s; this one awful announcement, as we rearl i.e. when Jonah viaitocl it. Nothing can be of fanatics denouncing woe on J erusnlem nrguocl from Lhe past tense here e.s to the before its final destruction (Josephus,' Bell. de.te of the composition of the book. It ie Jnd.,' vi. 5. 3). The threat was conditional o. more historical cletail, and cannot be virtually, though expressed in uncompro- forced into a proof that J onnh wrote e.fter mising terms. In the Hebrew the participle the destruction of Nineveh. An exceeding . is used, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh over- gree.t oity; litero.lly, a city great to Gorl; thrown,'' as though be saw at the end of ,rol1.1r µ<'yd.l\11 ,,.,;; e,,;: (Septuagint): great the specified time the great city lying in before God-in his estimation, e.s though ruinB. One sees from Isa. xxxvi. 11, 13, even God must acknowledge it. So Nimrod that J one.h could readily be understood by is called (Gen. L 9) "a mighty hunter the Assyria.us. before the Lord:" and Moses, in Acts vii. 20, is said to have been "beautiful to God." Vera. 5-9.-§ 3. The Nine1Jites hearken The expression may also mean that God to the cry of Jonah, believe in God, and (Elohim, God as Governor of the world) repel,t, regarded this city with interest, as intended in the Divine counsels to perform e.n im- Ver. 5.-llelieved God; believed in God, port.ant po.rt. For he is not the God of the which implies trust and hope; Vnlge.te, Jews only, but also of the Gentiles (Rom. crediderunt in Deum. They recognized iii. 29). Of three days' journey; i.e. in cir• Jonah as God's messenger; they recognized cumference-about sixty miles (see note on God's power e.s able to execute the threat, oh. i. 2). Or the writer may mean that it and they had confidence in his mercy if took Jonah three de.ye to visit the various they repented. This great result has seemed quarters of this huge place. The e.ree. of to some incredible, and bas occasioned doubts the ve.st qundru.ngle containing the remains to be caat upon the history. But, as we of the four cities comprised under the name have seen in the Introduction, Jone.I.i's mis- Nineveh is estime.ted by Professor Raw Iinson sion occurred probably e.t e. time of national e.t two hundred and sixteen square miles. depression, when men's minds were disposed We ought, however, to omit Khorsabad from to expect calamity, u.nd anxious to avert it this computation, as it was not founded till by any means. Other considerations led to Sargon's time, B.o. 710. the same resnlt. They had heard much of Ver. 4.-§ 2. Jonah, undeterred 'by the the God of the Hebrews, mnch of the doings danger of the enterprise, eucutes his mis- of his great prophets Elijah and Elisha: sion at once, and announces the approac'/ling and now they had in their midst one of destruction of the city. llege.n to enter into these holy men, who, as they were informed, the oity e. day's journey. Jonah commenced had been miraculously preserved from death his day's journey iu the city, and, e.s he in order to carry his message to them ; for found a suitable place, uttered his warn- that it was thus that Jonah was "a sigu ing cry, not necessarily continuing in one unto the Ninevites" (Luke xi. 30) seems straight course, but going to the most fre- most certain. They saw the Divine inspira- quented spots. At the time of Jonah's tion beaming in his look, dictating his preaching the royal residence was probably utterance, animoting his bearing, filling e.t Che.lah: i.e. Nimrud, the most southern him with coura!re, confidence, and faith, of the oities, Coming from Palestine, he 1.rbe credulity wiili which they received the
would reach this part first, so that his announcements of their own seers, their strange message would soon come to the national predilection for presages a net omens, king's eo.rs (var. 6). Yet forty de.ye, encouraged them to open their ears to this "Forty" in Scripture is the number of stru.nger, and to regard his mission with probation (see Gen. vii. 4, 12; Exod. xxiv. grave attention. Their own conscience, too, 18: I Kings xix. 8: Matt. iv. 2). The was on the prophet's side, o.nd assisted his LXX. he.s, fr, ,,.p,ir 11µlpa.,, "yet three words with its powerful pleading. So they dnys," owing probably to some oleriou.l believed in God, and proclaimed e. fast. error, as writing -y' instead ofµ'. St. AU!!US• Spontaneously, without any specie.I order tine (' De Civit.,' xviii. 44) endeavour~ to from the authorities. Before the final fall explain tha disorepanoy mystically as refer- of Nineveh, the inscriptions mention, the ring to Christ under different circumstances, theu king ordered a fru,t of one hundred as being the su.me who remained forty days and nights to the gods in order to du.ye on earth u.ftor his resl\l'reotion, and o.vert the threatened danger (see a note by who rose ngain ou the third dny. Shall Professor Sayce, in G. Smith's 'History of be overthrown. This is the word used for Babylon,' p. 156). Put on sa.okcloth (comp. the destruction of Sodom (Gen. xix. 25, Gen. xxxvii. 3-1: 1 Kings xxi. 27; Joel L 27 j Amos iv, 11). Tho prophet appears 13), Tllo custom of changing the uress ia 60 THE BOOK OF JONAI1, [011, lit, 1-10.