CHAPTER 3 Dec. 2 
To Nineveh after All 
The word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time saying, 2Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.  3So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across. 4Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out and said, In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!  5The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. 6The news reached the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; 8but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn each one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. 9Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we might not perish? 10God saw their works, that they turned from their
3:3 It took Jonah three days to walk through Nineveh (3:3). On the first day in the city, he told them that in 40 days God would destroy them (3:4); it follows that by the time he was in the middle of the city he was telling them that they had 37 days left. So too the Jews had between 37 and 40 years notice of the destruction of Jerusalem. It is a worthwhile speculation that for Jonah to be a sign to the Ninevites by reason of being three days in the whale (Mt. 12:38-40), he must have borne in his body the marks of his experience for all to see, as our Lord did. Being inside the fish for that period may have made his flesh change colour or bear some other physical mark so that he could be a sign to them of what had happened. Doubtless he recounted his story to them- so that they were encouraged by the fact of God's love to the resurrected Jonah to repent and likewise throw themselves on God's mercy. In all this we see Jonah as a type of Christ. They would have looked upon that man as we look upon Jesus, to see the love of God manifested in him; they responded by repenting in sackcloth, casting off their materialism, and living in a way that showed their complete belief that "the judge stands before the door" . What is our response to Jonah/Jesus? 
3:4 No conditions were given; but God changed His stated purpose because He is so sensitive to human repentance. way. God relented of the disaster which He said He would do to them, and He didn’t do it.

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