Ver. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time] Jonah is a sinner, but not a castaway. God lays him not by as a broken vessel, treads him not to the dunghill, as unsavoury salt; but receives him upon his return by repentance, and restores him to his former employment, gives him yet a name and a nail in his house; yea, sends him a second time on his message to Nineveh; and counting him faithful, puts him again into the ministry, who was before a runagate, a rebel, &c. But he obtained mercy, 1 Timothy 1:13, as did likewise the apostles, after that they had basely deserted our Saviour at his passion; and Peter, after he had denied him, see John 20:22,23 21:15-17. The penitent are as good as innocent, Quem poenitet peccasse, pcene est innocens (Sen. Agam.). “Return, ye backsliding children” (saith the Father of mercies), “and I will heal your backslidings,” Jeremiah 3:22. The Shulamite returning is as lovely in Christ’s eye as before; and all is as well as ever between them, Song of Solomon 6:4. There is a natural Novatianism in the timorous conscience of convinced sinners to doubt and question pardon for sins of apostasy and falling after repentance; but had they known the gift of God, and who it is that saith to them, “Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee,” they would have conceived strong consolation.
Ver. 2. Arise, go unto Nineveh] Begin again, and take better heed; as that Nazarite was to do that had defiled the head of his consecration, Numbers 6:9,12. Unto Nineveh, that great city] [See Trapp on “Jon 1:2”] There was no city since, by the estimation of Diodorus, had the like compass of ground or stateliness of walls; the height thereof being a hundred feet, the breadth able to receive three carts abreast, adorned with fifteen hundred turrets. Some think (as Annius and Berosus) that those three cities spoken of, Genesis 10:11,12, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen, were all included in Nineveh, and they conceive it thus; that when Nimrod had built Babylon, Ninus, disdaining his government, went into the fields of Asshur, and there erected a city after his own name. Raphael Volaterranus saith it was eight years in building, ten thousand men working at it. Quintilian saith, that great Milan, ancient Ravenna, brave Bononia, noble Naples, and other great cities of Italy, are but towers to Rome: but what was Rome to Nineveh? and yet Lipsius hath written a treatise of Rome’s greatness; and when the Emperor Constantine came to Rome, and beheld the companies that entertained him, he repeated a saying of Cineas, the Epirote, that he had seen so many kings as citizens; but, viewing the building of the city, he thought, naturam vires omnes in urbem unam effudisse, that nature had showed the utmost of what she could do in that one great city. [See Trapp on “Jon 3:3”] And preach unto it the preaching] Heb. Proclaim unto it (or against it) the proclamation that I say to thee, that I have formerly put into thy mouth, and do now so again, sc. that their wickedness is come up before me, and I am even upon the way toward them to punish it grievously. Flagitium et flagellum sunt sicut acus et filium, Who ever waxed fierce against God and prospered? Job 9:4. This wicked men must be boldly told, Isaiah 3:11, however they take it; neither may God’s ministers steal away the word, Jeremiah 23:30, or keep back from the people any part of God’s counsel, Acts 20:27, “handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commend themselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God,” 2 Corinthians 4:2, as becometh his ambassadors.
Ver. 3. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh] He went not home first to bid them farewell, as Luke 9:61, neither went he another way, as once; it was enough of that once, and he had learned obedience by the things that he had suffered. To Nineveh he goes, though a mere and a lowly stranger, unknown, unregarded, and with a harsh message; such as he might fear would cost him his life from that fierce and furious people. But Jonah feared nothing now but disobedience; and seems to say, as afterwards Luther did, Inveniar sane superbus, excors et mode impii silentii non arguar, Let me be called and counted proud, mad, anything, everything that naught is, so that I be not found guilty of sinful silence, and of betraying the trust committed unto me, by a dastardly deserting the cause of God. Jonah was now of another spirit, and fulfilled after God (implevit post me), as Caleb, Numbers 14:24; for what reason? he had now received not a “spirit of fear,” and of bondage (δειλειας, δουλειας, Romans 8:15), “but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind,” 2 Timothy 1:7; his Spirit of grace had sanctified to him his afflictions, which else would have been but as hammers to cold iron; as they were to Pharaoh, Ahaz, the railing thief. Aben Ezra saith that as soon as ever the whale had vomited up Jonah he got up and took the direct way to Nineveh; that if God should command him thither again he might be ready, and show his forwardness. It is a very good sign when men are the better for what they suffer; when thereby the iniquity of Jacob is purged, and this is all the fruit, the taking away of their sin, Isaiah 27:9. According to the word of the Lord] His call and command, which Jonah had formerly cast behind him, Sed Piscator ictus sapit, There shall be only fear to make you understand the hearing, Isaiah 28:19. Isaiah stood off till frightened; but then he offers his service; “Here I am, send me.” (Isaiah 6:8) Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city] Heb. a great city of God, or, to God; which some interpreted dear to God, and such as he would not destroy, Deo chara et cura. Others, a city not idolatrous, though otherwise vicious. Others, a city which God himself accounted great, and looked upon as such. But if to a great mind nothing is great, as Seneca saith (animo magno nihil magnum), what can be great to him who is great, Psalms 77:13, greater, Job 33:12, greatest, Psalms 95:3, greatness itself, Psalms 145:3, and to whom all “nations are but as the drop of a bucket, or dust of the balance? behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing,” Isaiah 40:15. Oecolampadius applieth it to the Church of the Gentiles, that “city of the living God.” They do best that take it, as we read it, for “an exceeding great city”; like as elsewhere tall mountains and cedars are called mountains of God, Psalms 36:7, and cedars of God, Psalms 80:10 &c., and excellent wrestlings are wrestlings of God, Genesis 30:8. See Genesis 23:6. So the Greeks and Latins call great things divine; God being the measure of all true greatness, διος Αχιλλευς, λακεδαιμονα διαν (Homer). Nineveh, since it was a very great city (of fifty miles around, as Herodotus and Diodorus), so Jonah is often told so; that he might come to it well prepared and resolved; since he was to have a great task and a hard tug of it, see Jonah 3:2 Jon 1:2. Of three days’journey] Not such a journey as a traveller could despatch in no less time; but such as a preacher, pedetentim obambulando, by leisurely walking, might in three days go through (Theodoret); see Jonah 3:4. This is added to set forth further the greatness of the city.