Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jonah 3:10
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.
10. that they turned from their evil way ] “See what removed that inevitable wrath. Did fasting and sackcloth alone? No, but the change of the whole life. How does this appear? From the prophet’s word itself. For he who spake of the wrath of God and of their fast, himself mentions the reconciliation and its cause. And God saw their works. What works? that they fasted? that they put on sackcloth? He passes by these and says, that everyone turned from his evil ways; and God repented of the evil which He had said that He would do unto them. Seest thou that not the fast plucked them from the peril, but the change of life made God propitious to these heathen? I say this, not that we should dishonour, but that we may honour fasting. For the honour of a fast is not in abstinence from food, but in avoidance of sin. So that he who limiteth fasting to the abstinence from food only, he it is who above all dishonoureth it. Fastest thou? Show it me by thy works.” St Chrysostom, On the Statues, Hom. iii. 4, quoted by Pusey.
God repented ] When we regard the relations of Almighty God to men and His dealings with them from the divine side, so far as it is revealed to us and we are able to comprehend it, then they are all foreseen and planned and executed in accordance with His perfect foreknowledge. Then there is no place for repentance, no room for change. “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” But when we alter our stand-point, and regard them from the human side, when from the pure heights of contemplation we come down to the busy field of action, free scope is given in the aspect in which God then presents Himself to us for human effort and prayer and feeling, then His purpose waits upon our will. Both of these sides are freely and fearlessly set forth in Holy Scripture. On the one side, “God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent” (Num 23:19). With Him “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jas 1:17). On the other side we read, “It repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart” (Gen 6:6); “God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them, and He did it not.” Both views are equally true, and they are in perfect harmony with each other, but Holy Scripture never attempts to harmonise them, nor is it wise for us to attempt to do so; we cannot look upon both sides of the shield at once.
he did it not ] It is obvious that this statement, and indeed the whole account of the repentance of the Ninevites, is to be taken within the limits which the history itself prescribes. There is nothing here to contradict the subsequent relapse of the Ninevites into sin, their filling up the measures of their iniquities, and the consequent overthrow of their city and extinction of their national life. But none of these things are here in view, the present fills the whole picture, and fills it grandly. They are sinners. They are threatened. They repent. They are saved.
The fact that no reference has been discovered amongst extant Assyrian monuments to the mission of Jonah and its results may be reasonably accounted for. The Assyrian records of this particular period are singularly meagre in comparison of those of the immediately preceding and succeeding reigns. The subject-matter of this event in the national history is not such as the monuments are wont to record. Wars and victories and material works chiefly occupy them. Moral reformation is foreign to their theme. The marvellous manner in which recent discoveries have come in confirmation of the statements of Holy Scripture leave it open to us, however, to believe that some such confirmation of the history of Jonah may yet reach us from secular sources.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And God saw their works – o He did not then first see them; He did not then first see their sackcloth when they covered themselves with it. He had seen them long before He sent the prophet there, while Israel was slaying the prophets who announced to them the captivity which hung over them. He knew certainly, that if He were to send the prophets far off to the Gentiles with such an announcement, they would hear and repent. God saw them, looked upon them, approved them, accepted the Ninevites not for time only, but, as many as persevered, for eternity. It was no common repentance. It was the penitence, which our Lord sets forth as the pattern of true repentance before His coming Mat 12:41. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold a greater than Jonah is here.
They believed in the one God, before unknown to them; they humbled themselves; they were not ashamed to repent publicly; they used great strictness with themselves; but, what Scripture chiefly dwells upon, their repentance was not only in profession, in belief, in outward act, but in the fruit of genuine works of repentance, a changed life out of a changed heart. God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. Their whole way and course of life was evil; they broke off, not the one or other sin only, but all their whole evil way . The Ninevites, when about to perish, appoint them a first; in their bodies they chasten their souls with the scourge of humility; they put on hair-cloth for raiment, for ointment they sprinkle themselves with ashes; and, prostrate on the ground, they lick the dust. They publish their guilt with groans and lay open their secret misdeeds. Every age and sex alike applies itself to offices of mourning; all ornament was laid aside; food was refused to the suckling, and the age, as yet unstained by sins of its own, bare the weight of those of others; the mute animals lacked their own food. One cry of unlike natures was heard along the city walls; along all the houses echoed the piteous lament of the mourners; the earth bore the groans of the penitents; heaven itself echoed with their voice. That was fulfilled (Ecclesiasticus 35:17); The prayer of the humble pierceth the clouds. The Ninevites were converted to the fear of God, and laying aside the evil of their former life, betook themselves through repentance to virtue and righteousness, with a course of penitence so faithful, that they changed the sentence already pronounced on them by God. As soon as prayer took possession of them, it both made them righteous, and immediately corrected the city which had been habituated to live with profligacy and wickedness and lawlessness. More powerful was prayer than the long usage of sin. It filled that city with heavenly laws, and brought along with it temperance, lovingkindness, gentleness and care of the poor. For without these it cannot abide to dwell in the soul. Had any then entered Nineveh, who knew it well before, he would not have known the city; so suddenly had it sprung back from life most foul to godliness.
And God repented of the evil – This was no real change in God; rather, the object of His threatening was, that He might not do what He threatened. Gods threatenings are conditional, unless they repent, as are His promises, if they endure to the end Mat 10:22. God said afterward by Jeremiah, Jer 18:7-8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concern ing a kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it, if that nation, against whom I had pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
As God is unchangeable in nature, so is He unchangeable in will. For no one can turn back His thoughts. For though some seem to have turned back His thoughts by their deprecations, yet this was His inward thought, that they should be able by their deprecations to turn back His sentence, and that they should receive from Him whereby to avail with Him. When then outwardly His sentence seemeth to be changed, inwardly His counsel is unchanged, because He inwardly ordereth each thing unchangeably, whatsoever is done outwardly with change. It is said that He repented, because He changed that which He seemed about to do, to destroy them. In God all things are disposed and fixed, nor doth He anything out of any sudden counsel, which He knew not in all eternity that He should do; but, amid the movements of His creature in time, which He governeth marvelously, He, not moved in time, as by a sudden will, is said to do what He disposed by well-ordered causes in the immutability of His most secret counsel whereby things which come to knowledge, each in its time, He both doth when they are present, and already did when they were future. God is subject to no dolor of repentance, nor is He deceived in anything, so as to wish to correct wherein He erred. But as man, when he repenteth willeth to change what he has done, so when thou hearest that God repenteth, look for the change. God, although He calleth it repenting, doth it otherwise than thou. Thou doest it, because thou hast erred; He, because He avengeth or freeth. He changed the kingdom of Saul when He repented.
And in the very place, where Scripture saith, He repenteth, it is said a little after, He is not a man that He should repent. When then He changes His works through His unchangeable counsels, He is said to repent, on account of the change, not of the counsel, but of the act. Augustine thinks that God, by using this language of Himself, which all would feel to be inadequate to His Majesty, meant to teach us that all language is inadequate to His Excellences. We say these things of God, because we do not find anything better to say. I say, God is just, because in mans words I find nothing better, for He is beyond justice. It is said in Scripture, God is just and loveth justice. But in Scripture it is said, that God repenteth, God is ignorant. Who would not start back at this? Yet to that end Scripture condescendeth healthfully to those words from which thou shrinkest, that thou shouldest not think that what thou deemest great is said worthily of Him. If thou ask, what then is said worthily of God? one may perhaps answer, that He is just. Another more gifted would say, that this word too is surpassed by His Excellence, and that this too is said, not worthily of Him, although suitably according to mans capacity: so that, when he would prove out of Scripture that it is written, God is just, he may be answered rightly, that the same Scriptures say that God repenteth; so, that, as he does not take that in its ordinary meaning, as men are accustomed to repent, so also when He is said to be just, this does not correspond to His supereminence, although Scripture said this also well, that, through these words such as they are, we may be brought to that which is unutterable. Why predictest Thou, asks Chrysostom, the terrible things which Thou art about to do? That I may not do what I predict. Wherefore also He threatened hell, that He may not bring to hell. Let words terrify you that ye may be freed from the auguish of deeds. Men threaten punishment and inflict it. Not so God; but contrariwise, He both predicts and delays, and terrifies with words, and leaves nothing undone, that He may not bring what He threatens. So He did with the Ninevites. He bends His bow, and brandishes His sword, and prepares His spear, and inflicts not the blow. Were not the prophets words bow and spear and sharp sword, when he said, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed? But He discharged not the shaft, for it was prepared, not to be shot, but to be laid up.
When we read in the Scriptures or hear in Churches the word of God, what do we hear but Christ? And behold a greater than Jonas is here. If they repented at the cry of one unknown servant, of what punishment shall not we be worthy, if, when the Lord preacheth, whom we have known through so many benefits heaped upon us, we repent not? To them one day sufficed; to us shall so many months and years not suffice? To them the overthrow of the city was preached, and 40 days were granted for repentance: to us eternal torments are threatened, and we have not half an hours life certain.
And He did it not – God willed rather that His prophecy should seem to fail, than that repentance should fail of its fruit. But it did not indeed fail, for the condition lay expressed in the threat. Prophecy, says Aquinas in reference to these cases, cannot contain anything untrue. For prophecy is a certain knowledge impressed on the understanding of the prophets by revelation of God, by means of certain teaching. But truth of knowledge is the same in the Teacher and the taught, because the knowledge of the learner is a likeness of the knowledge of the Teacher. And in this way, Jerome saith that prophecy is a sort of sign of divine foreknowledge. The truth then of the prophetic knowledge and utterance must be the same as that of the divine knowledge, in which there can be no error. But although in the Divine Intellect, the two-fold knowledge (of things as they are in themselves, and as they are in their causes,) is always united, it is not always united in the prophetic revelation, because the impression made by the Agent is not always adequate to His power. Whence, sometimes, the prophetic revelation is a sort of impressed likeness of the Divine Foreknowledge, as it beholds the future contingent things in themselves, and these always take place as they are prophesied: as, Behold, a virgin shall conceive.
But sometimes the prophetic revelation is an impressed likeness of Divine Foreknowledge, as it knows the order of causes to effects; and then at times the event is other than is foretold, and yet there is nothing untrue in the prophecy. For the meaning of the prophecy is, that the disposition of the inferior causes, whether in nature or in human acts, is such, that such an effect would follow (as in regard to Hezekiah and Nineveh), which order of the cause to the effect is sometimes hindered by other things supervening. The will of God, he says again, being the first, universal Cause, does not exclude intermediate causes, by virtue of which certain effects are produced. And since all intermediate causes are not adequate to the power of the First Cause, there are many things in the power, knowledge, and will of God, which are not contained in the order of the inferior causes, as the resurrection of Lazarus. Whence one, looking to the inferior causes, might say, Lazarus will not rise again: whereas, looking to the First Divine Cause, he could say, Lazarus will rise again. And each of these God willeth, namely, that a thing should take place according to the inferior cause: which shall not take place, according to the superior cause, and conversely. So that God sometimes pronounces that a thing shall be, as far as it is contained in the order of inferior causes (as according to the disposition of nature or deserts), which yet doth not take place, because it is otherwise in the superior Divine Cause. As when He foretold Hezekiah Isa 38:1, Set thy house in order, for thou, shalt die and not live; which yet did not take place, because from eternity it was otherwise in the knowledge and will of God which is unchangeable. Whence Gregory saith , though God changeth the thing, His counsel He doth not change. When then He saith, I will repent, Jer 18:8. it is understood as said metaphorically, for men, when they fulfill not what they threatened, seem to repent.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jon 3:10
And God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them,
God repenting
There are certain passages of holy Scripture which assert in the strongest way that God cannot repent, and that He never does.
There are certain other passages which assert, just as strongly, and with as little qualification, that He can repent, and that, in fact, He has often done so. Here is an apparent contradiction. The ordinary method of interpretation applied to such texts is, to my mind, eminently unsatisfactory, and in fact involves erroneous and pernicious views of the Divine nature. We are told that the passages which speak of Gods repentance are simply forms of speech to indicate a change of outward procedure, but do not imply any change whatever of interior feeling. This theory, in order to exempt God frown those imperfections which are connected with the exercise of the affections and passions among men, virtually denies to Him the possession of any affections at all. It makes Him simply a Being of pure thought and unrelenting will. What a stupendous inroad is thus made on the fulness and beauty of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God! I take the words to mean what we naturally understand by them–that God did really repent–i.e., changed His mind, which is the meaning of repentance. When He sent the prophet He meant destruction. When the city was humbled, He changed His mind, and waved the destroying angel home. There was a condition involved in the threat, and understood. God knew that the city would repent. Yes, but He also knew that the city would repent under commination. Why should it be incredible that God repents or changes? Would it not be more incredible if it were asserted that He never does? Are we to suppose that what constitutes a special perfection in the moral character of a man is an imperfection in God? God morally regards us at any one moment just as we are. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Repentance applied to God
As to what Jonah adds, that God was led to repent, it is a mode of speaking that ought to be sufficiently known to us. Strictly speaking, no repentance can belong to God; and it ought not to be ascribed to His secret and hidden counsel. God, then, is in Himself ever the same, and consistent with Himself, but He is said to repent when a regard is had to the comprehension of men; for as we conceive God to be angry whenever He summons us to His tribunal, and shows us our sins, so also we conceive Him to be placable when He offers the hope of pardon. But it is according to our perceptions that there is any change when God forgets His wrath, as though He had put on a new character. As then we cannot otherwise be terrified, that we may be humbled before God and repent, except He sets forth before us His wrath, the Scripture accommodates itself to the grossness of our understanding. But, on the other hand, we cannot call confidently on God unless we feel assured that He is placable. We hence see that some kind of change appears to us, whenever God either threatens or gives hopes of pardon and reconciliation; and to this must be referred this mode of speaking which Jonah adopts when he says that God repented. There is a twofold view of God–as He sets Himself forth in His word, and as He is in His hidden counsel. With regard to His secret counsel, God is always like Himself, and is subject to none of our feelings; but with regard to the teaching of His Word, He is accommodated to our capacities. God is now angry with us, and then, as though He were pacified, He offers pardon, and is propitious to us. Such is the repentance of God. Let us remember, then, that it proceeds from His Word that God is said to repent. (John Calvin.)
Repentance, human and Divine
Jonahs prediction, we say, was not fulfilled. But was it not, in a very true sense? The city was not overthrown in one sense, but it was in another. A moral revolution took place, but it was a revolution. Nineveh was overthrown by the preaching of Jonah, as long afterwards the world was said to be turned upside down by that of the apostles. This, of course, was not what Jonah had in mind. It was not that the city was destroyed, in Jonahs sense. The inhabitants repented, and by so doing occasioned God Himself to repent of His purpose in relation to them. There is, then, such a thing as repentance, not only on the part of human beings, but also on that of the Divine Being.
I. The repentance of the Ninevites.
1. It was a sincere repentance. God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. This settles the matter. It was impossible for them to deceive God. There is in our fallen nature a tendency to the hateful sin of hypocrisy, and there are two kinds of hypocrisy–the hypocrisy which affects holiness; and the hypocrisy which affects penitence. The latter is the more artful, as it is the more heinous.
2. It was occasioned by their faith ill God. The people of Nineveh believed in God. Faith in God is certain to produce repentance. A man cannot repent without repenting of his unbelief in God, and in Gods Son.
3. It was universal. They seem to have turned every one from his evil way. It is probable that the case of Nineveh is unique in this respect. It was an earnest of the universal repentance of mankind.
4. It was exceedingly prompt. There was a necessity for promptitude, seeing that a time-limit had been fixed. Delay in such a case meant destruction.
5. It originated at the summit of society, and spread downwards to its base. But the repentance of the Ninevites, sincere and effectual as it was, did not prevent their descendants from doing all manner of evil, and incurring the destruction of their city.
II. Repentance as ascribed to God. There is a doctrinal difficulty here. Some passages of Scripture attribute repentance to the Most High, and some other passages deny that He ever does repent. Truth may sometimes be formulated most conveniently by a paradox. God may be said to be, unchangeably changeable. Illustrate from the thermometer or from the tides. As often as a change bakes place in a human being from loyalty to disloyalty, or vice versa, a corresponding change in God occurs in relation to that person. This change takes place in the Most High, not because He is changeable, but because He is unchangeable. See Jer 18:7-10. That gives the changeless principle of Gods government, and it explains all the changes in His attitude towards nations and persons. God has Often changed in the manner thus described, and that for the simple and sufficient reason that He is unchangeable. If there is one who knows only too well that he is regarded by the Supreme Being with deserved displeasure, let such an one know that a change on his part towards God will result in a corresponding change on Gods part towards himself. (Samuel Clift Burn.)
Gods mercy vindicated
The dealings of God with men have ever been characterised by judgment and mercy. God always deals with man according to his works; but the moral character of those works is determined by the state of the heart, and by the motives from which they spring. God deals with man according to his works. To the penitent God shows mercy; to the obedient, favour; to the rebellious and impenitent, judgment. The conduct of God towards the repentant Ninevites was in accordance with these general principles of His moral government.
I. Gods repentance. Repentance in man is change of mind and purpose, issuing in change of conduct; but repentance in God is only change of operation or administration, according as mans conduct agrees with, or violates, the requirements of the Divine law. With the Ninevites God was justly angry. Their aggravated sins cried aloud for vengeance, and He determined to destroy them; but when they turned away from their sins He graciously withheld His avenging hand. This change in Gods dealings, or threatened dealings, with the Ninevites, was not a change of principle or a change of mind, but simply a change of dispensation, arising out of their altered circumstances. Repentance in man always produces a corresponding change in Gods administrations towards him. (Jer 18:7-10.) This gives to the denunciations of God a conditional character. Some times the condition is expressed in the terms of the threatening, and sometimes it is understood. It is as much a principle of Gods gracious government to suspend the execution of a threatened punishment on mans sincere repentance as it is to execute it in the case of obstinate and continued sin. Erroneous notions have been adopted with respect to the immutability of God. God is unchangeable in His being, perfections, and principles of moral government. But in His actual dispensations with man He deals with him according to the state of his heart and life.
II. The effects of Gods repentance on Jonah. Such an act of grace and forbearance On the part of God ought to have excited the devout thankfulness of the prophet. But Jonah heard of the reprieve and pardon not only without joy, but with angry displeasure. The reason of his inhuman displeasure was a fear for his own fame. Jonahs unreasonable anger will account for his unseemly and censurable prayer.
III. Gods reproof of Jonah, and vindication of Himself. Gods dealings with Jonah place His own character in the most gracious and amiable light, and in the most affecting contrast with that of the prophet. Jonah appears to have been a man of strong passions, and easily excited. Means had been found, in connection with the booth, the gourd, and the worm, to arouse conviction in Jonahs mind, and now God proceeds to make more direct application. He approaches Jonah with mild and dispassionate language–Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? How great the patience that bore with Jonahs petulance! Thou hast had pity on the gourd; and should not I spare Nineveh? Whether this appeal of God had any salutary effect on Jonahs mind, and led to any improvement in his conduct or not, is wholly unknown. We lose sight of Jonah under circumstances extremely disadvantageous to him. He drops out of history in a bad temper; and we have little to recall him to our remembrance but his sin, his punishment, and his petulance. (Thomas Harding.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. And God saw their works] They repented, and brought forth fruits meet for repentance; works which showed that they did most earnestly repent. He therefore changed his purpose, and the city was saved. The purpose was: If the Ninevites do not return from their evil ways, and the violence that is in their hands, within forty days, I will destroy the city. The Ninevites did return, &c., and therefore escaped the threatened judgment. Thus we see that the threatening was conditional.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
God saw; not only with naked and single intuition, hut he saw and approved, was singularly well pleased with that he saw.
Their works: works, not words, are sure signs of what men are humbling themselves to the dust, extraordinary fasting, and crying unto God, these were some of their works; but God saw more than these external, professing works.
They turned from their evil way: see Jon 3:8; they did heartily, presently, and universally turn from the ways of impiety against God, of injustice against man, from the ways of luxury and pride, from all their violence against man; without this all the rest had been not worth the observing, nor would God have regarded it. God repented: this is spoken as before, Jon 3:9, (and as his seeing is attributed to him,) after the manner of man, and must be applied unto our unchangeable God so as may not reflect any blemish upon his truth, constancy, or immutability. Though he is said to repent, it is not as man doth, who may, through frailty of his nature, lie; but our God is not a man, or as the son of man, that he should change or lie.
Of the evil of punishment,
that he had said, threatened by Jonahs mouth,
that he would do unto them; to sinning Ninevites, who did rightly conjecture that it was possible this dreadful message might be a minatory warning and might be big of a merciful condition of pardon if they repented, and there was no other way to make the discovery of this but that they took. For he will not deal with penitent sinners as with impenitent; though his justice would not have spared unrepenting citizens, his mercy is so great he will not destroy repenting sinners.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. God repented of the evilWhenthe message was sent to them, they were so ripe for judgment that apurpose of destruction to take effect in forty days was the only wordGod’s righteous abhorrence of sin admitted of as to them. But whenthey repented, the position in which they stood towards God’srighteousness was altered. So God’s mode of dealing with them mustalter accordingly, if God is not to be inconsistent with His ownimmutable character of dealing with men according to their works andstate of heart, taking vengeance at last on the hardened impenitent,and delighting to show mercy on the penitent. Compare Abraham’sreasoning, Gen 18:25; Eze 18:21-25;Jer 18:7-10. What wasreally a change in them and in God’s corresponding dealingsis, in condescension to human conceptions, represented as a change inGod (compare Ex 32:14), who, inHis essential righteousness and mercy, changeth not (Num 23:19;1Sa 15:29; Mal 3:6;Jas 1:17). The reason why theannouncement of destruction was made absolute, and not dependent onNineveh’s continued impenitence, was that this form was the only onecalculated to rouse them; and at the same time it was a truthfulrepresentation of God’s purpose towards Nineveh under its existingstate, and of Nineveh’s due. When that state ceased, a new relationof Nineveh to God, not contemplated in the message, came in, and roomwas made for the word to take effect, “the curse causeless shallnot come” [FAIRBAIRN].Prophecy is not merely for the sake of proving God’s omniscience bythe verification of predictions of the future, but is mainly designedto vindicate God’s justice and mercy in dealing with the impenitentand penitent respectively (Ro11:22). The Bible ever assigns the first place to the eternalprinciples of righteousness, rooted in the character of God,subordinating to them all divine arrangements. God’s sparing Nineveh,when in the jaws of destruction, on the first dawn of repentanceencourages the timid penitent, and shows beforehand that Israel’sdoom, soon after accomplished, is to be ascribed, not tounwillingness to forgive on God’s part, but to their own obstinateimpenitence.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And God saw their words, that they turned from their evil way,…. Not their outward works, in putting on sackcloth and ashes, and fasting; but their inward works, their faith in him, and repentance towards him; and which were attended with fruits and works meet for repentance, in that they forsook their former course of life, and refrained from it; and these he saw not barely with his eye of omniscience, as he sees all persons and things, good and bad, but so as to like them, approve of them, and accept them, in which sense the word is used, Ge 1:4; and so the repentance of these men is spoken of with commendation by Christ, and as what would rise up in judgment, and condemn the men of that generation, Mt 12:41;
and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did [it] not; this is spoken after the manner of men, as Aben Ezra observes; and is to be understood, not of any such affection in God as repentance; but of an effect done by him, which carries in it a show of repentance, or resembles what is done by men when they repent; then they change their course and conduct; so, the Lord, though he never changes his will, nor repents of or revokes his decrees, or alters his purposes; yet he sometimes wills a change, and makes an alteration in the dispensations of his providence, according to his unchangeable will. God, in this case, did not repent of his decrees concerning the Ninevites, but of what he had said or threatened respecting the overthrow of Nineveh, in case of their impenitence; it was his will that they should be told of their sin and danger, and by this means be brought to repentance, and the wrath threatened them be averted; so that here was a change, not of his mind and will concerning them, but of his outward dispensations towards them; see Jer 18:7.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But however deep the penitential mourning of Nineveh might be, and however sincere the repentance of the people, when they acted according to the king’s command; the repentance was not a lasting one, or permanent in its effects. Nor did it evince a thorough conversion to God, but was merely a powerful incitement to conversion, a waking up out of the careless security of their life of sin, an endeavour to forsake their evil ways which did not last very long. The statement in Jon 3:10, that “God saw their doing, that they turned from their evil ways; and He repented of the evil that He had said that He would do to them, and did it not” (cf. Exo 32:14), can be reconciled with this without difficulty. The repentance of the Ninevites, even if it did not last, showed, at any rate, a susceptibility on the part of the heathen for the word of God, and their willingness to turn and forsake their evil and ungodly ways; so that God, according to His compassion, could extend His grace to them in consequence. God always acts in this way. He not only forgives the converted man, who lays aside his sin, and walks in newness of life; but He has mercy also upon the penitent who confesses and mourns over his sin, and is willing to amend. The Lord also directed Jonah to preach repentance to Nineveh; not that this capital of the heathen world might be converted at once to faith in the living God, and its inhabitants be received into the covenant of grace which He had made with Israel, but simply to give His people Israel a practical proof that He was the God of the heathen also, and could prepare for Himself even among them a people of His possession. Moreover, the readiness, with which the Ninevites hearkened to the word of God that was proclaimed to them and repented, showed that with all the depth to which they were sunken in idolatry and vice they were at that time not yet ripe for the judgment of extermination. The punishment was therefore deferred by the long-suffering of God, until this great heathen city, in its further development into a God-opposing imperial power, seeking to subjugate all nations, and make itself the mistress of the earth, had filled up the measure of its sins, and had become ripe for that destruction which the prophet Nahum predicted, and the Median king Cyaxares inflicted upon it in alliance with Nabopolassar of Babylonia.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Jonah now says, that the Ninevites obtained pardon through their repentance: and this is an example worthy of being observed; for we hence learn for what purpose God daily urges us to repentance, and that is, because he desires to be reconciled to us, and that we should be reconciled to him. The reason then why so many reproofs and threatening resound in our ears, whenever we come to hear the word of God, is this, — that as God seeks to recover us from destruction he speaks sharply to us: in short, whatever the Scripture contains on repentance and the judgment of God ought to be wholly applied for this purpose — to induce us to return into favor with him; for he is ready to be reconciled, and is ever prepared to embrace those who without dissimulation turn to him. We then understand by this example that God has no other object in view, whenever he sharply constrains us, than that he may be reconciled to us, provided only we be our own judges, and thus anticipate his wrath by genuine sorrow of heart, provided we solicit the pardon of our guilt and sin, and loathe ourselves, and confess that we are worthy of perdition.
But Jonah seems to ascribe their deliverance to their repentance, and also to their works: for he says that the Ninevites obtained pardon, because God looked on their works.
We must first see what works he means, that no one may snatch at a single word, as hypocrites are wont to do; and this, as we have said, is very commonly the case under the Papacy. God had respect to their works — what works? not sackcloth, not ashes, not fasting; for Jonah does not now mention these; but he had respect to their works — because they turned from their evil way. We hence see that God was not pacified by outward rites only, by the external profession of repentance, but that he rather looked on the true and important change which had taken place in the Ninevites, for they had become renewed. These then were their works, even the fruits of repentance. And such a change of life could not have taken place, had not the Ninevites been really moved by a sense of God’s wrath. The fear of God then had preceded; and this fear could not have been without faith. We hence see that he chiefly speaks here not of external works, but of the renovation of men.
But if any one objects and says that still this view does not prevent us from thinking that good works reconcile us to God, and that they thus procure our salvation: to this I answer — that the question here is not about the procuring cause of forgiveness. It is certain that God was freely pacified towards the Ninevites, as he freely restores his favor daily to us. Jonah then did not mean that satisfactions availed before God, as though the Ninevites made compensations for their former sins. The words mean no such thing; but he shows it as a fact which followed, that God was pacified, because the Ninevites repented. But we are to learn from other parts of Scripture how God becomes gracious to us, and how we obtain pardon with him, and whether this comes to us for our merits and repentance or whether God himself forgives us freely. Since the whole Scripture testifies that pardon is gratuitously given us, and that God cannot be otherwise propitious to us than by not imputing sins, there is no need, with regard to the present passage, anxiously to inquire why God looked on the works of the Ninevites, so as not to destroy them: for this is said merely as a consequence. Jonah then does not here point out the cause, but only declares that God was pacified towards the Ninevites, as soon as they repented. But we shall speak more on this subject.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) And God repented.See Note, Gen. 6:6.
And he did it not.As we are entirely ignorant of the nature of the threatened destruction, so are we also of the mode in which it was averted. Possibly some inscription throwing light on the book of Jonah may yet be discovered.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. When God beheld their sincere repentance he stayed the judgment (see on Jon 3:4, and Amo 9:15).
God repented See on Joe 2:13 (compare Amo 7:3).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil which he said he would do to them; and he did not do it.’
And when God saw their change in behaviour, in that they turned from their evil ways, He ‘repented’ (altered His approach because they were now changed people) of the evil things that He had intended to bring on them, and did not allow them to happen. In other words He showed mercy towards them because of their repentance.
It is, of course, impossible to say how long their repentance lasted. For some perhaps it was permanent. For others it would be comparatively short-lived (compare the parable of the sower). But there was no doubt that for a period at least they had experienced a real change of heart that Jesus said might well stand them in good stead when they appeared before God for judgment (Mat 12:41). What, however, was more important was that the seed had been sown in their hearts of the need to seek to the God of Israel. It would be up to them how they responded.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Who but must admire and adore the goodness and mercy of the Lord in this pardon to Nineveh. The change here mentioned is not in the Lord’s mind, but in the Lord’s providence. What is said through all the scriptures concerning the Lord’s repenting of what he had before said he would, and doing it not, is meant to show the change by his grace wrought in man, and not the least, change in himself. See this doctrine more fully explained in my Commentary on Gen 6:6 and Jer 18:7-10 .
REFLECTIONS
READER! mark with me the wonderful properties of grace, both in the heart of the Prophet and of the people. See the change in Jonah! behold the change in the Ninevites. What cannot God accomplish, when by the sovereign act of his love he inclines the sinner’s heart, and turns the whole tide of the affections back again.
But here, Reader, as in all other instances, do not forget to behold the blessed cause in the provision made for Prophet, Priest, and People, in the person, and by the one all-sufficient sacrifice, of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. To this, and this alone, God hath respect in all his dispensations, both in providence and grace. It is for Jesus’ sake sin is pardoned, and the sinner forgiven and received into favor. Christ is both the mercy seat, and propitiation; and we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jon 3:10 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.
Ver. 10. And God saw their works ] i.e. He noted and noticed them to others; or, he saw them, that is, he approved of them. Videre Dei, est approbare. Let God but see repentance as a rainbow appearing in our hearts and lives, and he will never drown us in destruction. But unless God sees turning, he sees no work in a fast, saith one upon this very text. God may say to impenitent fasters, saith another, as Isaac did to his father, “Behold the fire and wood, but where is the lamb?” Or as Jacob did concerning Joseph, “Here is the coat, but where is the child? Get thee behind me,” saith Jehu to the messengers, “what hast thou to do with peace?” Confessions and humiliations are our messengers; but if the heart be not broken, if the life be not amended, what peace? The Talmudists note here, that God is not said to have seen their sackcloth and ashes, but their repentance and works, those fruits of their faith, truth in the inward parts, which God eyeth with singular delight, Jer 5:3 ; as the work of his own Spirit, Eph 2:10 . Certum est nos facere quod facimus; sed ille facit ut faciamus (August.); and he is pleased to call his grace in us our works, for our encouragement in well doing, and freely to crown it in us, without any merit on our part.
That they turned from their evil way
And God repented
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jon 3:10
10When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.
Jon 3:10 God relented This is an anthropomorphic phrase which expressed God’s willingness to respond to His highest creationmankind, made in His image and likeness! Most of God’s relationships (not all, He has an eternal redemptive plan which is unaffected by human choice) with mankind are conditioned and affected by their faith and repentant (e.g., Exo 32:14; 1Sa 15:11; Jer 26:3; Jer 26:13) responses.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
repented. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia. App-6.
of = concerning
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
repented
(See Scofield “Zec 8:14”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
God saw: 1Ki 21:27-29, Job 33:27, Job 33:28, Jer 31:18-20, Luk 11:32, Luk 15:20
and God repented: Jon 4:2, Jer 18:8, Joe 2:13, Amo 7:3, Amo 7:6
Reciprocal: Gen 6:6 – repented Exo 32:14 – General Exo 33:3 – for I Num 14:19 – and as thou Jdg 2:18 – it repented 1Sa 15:11 – repenteth me 2Sa 12:22 – I fasted 1Ki 8:33 – turn again Isa 38:1 – for thou Isa 55:7 – the wicked Jer 20:16 – repented Jer 42:10 – for I Jon 3:4 – Yet 2Co 7:10 – repentance
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jon 3:10. Gad repented means he changed his mind or plan as at first threatened. However, even that was no change in His established principles of dealing with mankind. He has always given man the opportunity of repenting and “making his wrongs right, with the promise that if it was done, the punishment threatened would be remitted. The reader should see Jer 13:7-10 on this important subject.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jon 3:10. And God saw their works He not only heard their good words, by which they professed repentance, but saw their good works, by which they brought forth fruits meet for repentance. He saw that they turned from their evil way And that was what he looked for and required. If he had not seen that, their fasting and sackcloth would have been as nothing in his account. Observe, reader, God takes notice of every instance of the reformation of sinners, even of those instances which fall not under the observation of the world. He sees who turn from their evil ways and who do not; and meets those with favour that meet him in a sincere conversion. When men repent of the evil of sin committed by them, he repents of the evil of judgment pronounced against them. Thus he spared Nineveh, and did not the evil which he said he would do against it. Here were no sacrifices offered to God, that we read of, to make atonement for sin; but the sacrifice of God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, such as the Ninevites now had, is what he will not despise: on the contrary, it is what he will give encouragement to, and put honour upon.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3:10 And God saw their {h} works, that they turned from their evil way; and {i} God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did [it] not.
(h) That is, the fruits of their repentance, which proceeded from faith, which God had planted by the ministry of his Prophet.
(i) Read Geneva “Jer 18:8”
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
God noted the genuineness of the Ninevites’ repentance in their actions. These fruits of repentance moved Him to withhold the judgment that He would have sent on them had they persisted in their wicked ways. Repentance is essentially a change in one’s thinking. Change in one’s behavior indicates that repentance has taken place, but behavioral change is the fruit of repentance and is not all there is to repentance (cf. Mat 3:7-10). Nineveh finally experienced overthrow in 612 B.C., about 150 years later.
"We may know the character of God only from what he does and the words he uses to explain his actions. When he does not do what he said he would, we as finite men can say only that he has changed his mind or repented, even though we should recognize, as Jonah did (Jon 4:2), that he had intended or desired this all along." [Note: Ellison, "Jonah," pp. 383-84. Cf. Feinberg, p. 37. See also Thomas L. Constable, "What Prayer Will and Will Not Change," in Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost, pp. 99-113; and Robert B. Chisholm Jr., "Does God ’Change His Mind’?" Bibliotheca Sacra 152:608 (October-December 1995):387-99.]
"That God should choose to make his own actions contingent-at least in part-upon human actions is no limitation of his sovereignty. Having first decided to place the option of obedience and disobedience before nations, his holding them responsible for their actions automatically involves a sort of contingency. He promises blessing if they repent, punishment if not (cf. Jer 18:7-10). But this hardly makes God dependent on the nations; it rather makes them dependent on him, as is the point of the lesson at the potter’s house in Jer 18:1-11, and the point of the mourning decree in Jon 3:5-9. God holds all the right, all the power, and all the authority." [Note: Stuart, p. 496.]
"Helpful also is the analogy of the thermometer. Is it changeable or unchangeable? The superficial observer says it is changeable, for the mercury certainly moves in the tube. But just as certainly it is unchangeable, for it acts according to fixed law and invariably responds precisely to the temperature." [Note: Gaebelein, p. 111.]
Notice that in this section of verses (Jon 3:5-10) the name "God" (Heb. Elohim, the strong one) appears exclusively. However the name "LORD" (Heb. Yahweh, the covenant keeping God) occurs frequently earlier and later in the story. Jonah did not present God, and the Ninevites did not fear God, as the covenant keeping God of Israel but as the universal Supreme Being. Likewise God did not deal with the Ninevites as He dealt with His covenant people Israel but as He deals with all people generally. Thus the story teaches that God will be merciful to anyone, His elect and His non-elect, who live submissively to natural divine law (cf. Gen 9:5-6).
If such a remarkable turnaround really did occur in Nineveh, why is there no other historical record of it?
"First of all, the extant records are comparatively few. There are large segments of undocumented history. Second, there was a serious, pronounced bias in recording history that gave only the most favorable of impressions." [Note: Page, p. 265.]