B.C. At one time it held sway from the Mediterranean to the Caspian, from the Persian Gulf to Armenia. In Jonah's time it was the great object of men's thoughts and fears. Geikie. The fall of Assyria, prophesied by Isaiah (Isa. 10: 5-19), was effected by the growing strength and boldness of the Medes, about B.C. 625.

NINEVEH.-The capital of Assyria. It was situated on the Tigris, and was founded by Asshur (Gen. 10:11; marginal, Nimrod). It was to Western Asia what the Paris of Louis XIV. was to Europe: not to imitate it was to be provincial. Geikie. Against its luxury and corruption the prophets testify, Isaiah, Jonah, Nahum, and Zephaniah. Rawlinson fixes the date of its downfall, 625; Layard, 606 B.C. A great flood in the Tigris undermined the wall (Nahum 2: 6). The king, Sardanapalus VII., after a stout defence against his enemies, destroyed himself with his wives and treasures. So completely did it fall into decay before the historic era, that no trustworthy ancient description of it or its monuments is found. The ruins of Nineveh. — The city may almost be said to stand before us again in the light of the remains restored by modern discovery.-H. B. Hackett. Excavations made by Layard, Botta, and others, have revealed buildings, obelisks, sculptures, colossal figures, pottery, ornaments, cylinders, seals. Many inscriptions have come to light, including whole libraries of baked clay cylinders and stone tablets. All these discoveries of things hidden for ages confirm the Bible. Religion. —A sort of star or sun-god worship; like the religion of all of Western Asia, it was profoundly gross and sensual. Their chief divinity was the deified patriarch, Asshur. Character. The race was warlike, cruel, treacherous,

proud, and insolent.

INTRODUCTION.

We know little of the three days and nights of darkness which Jonah spent after he was swallowed by the fish; but we are told he prayed (Jonah 2: 1). Doubtless, like Saul of Tarsus, he meditated much, repented much, proposed future obedience, adored God with wondering awe. — - Pusey. Every place may serve as an oratory. No place is amiss for prayer. Pocket Com. After three days and three nights Jonah was cast by the fish, alive and uninjured, upon the shore. Not long after, the call of God came the second time to Jonah to go to Nineveh. This time he obeyed.

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1. And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 2. Arise, go unto 1 Nineveh, that great city, 2 and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

1 Gen. 12:14; 25: 18. Num. 24: 22. Ps. 83:8.

EXPLANATORY.

2 Mark 16: 15; 13:11.

I. The Prophet Restored. Vers. 1-4. 1. The word of the Lord came. Probably by an internal impulse. - Todd. The second time. The first time he disobeyed the word of the Lord. Now, humbled, repentant, he is much better fitted to do the work appointed him. God gave to Jonah what he often withholds from others, - a second opportunity to perform a neglected duty. - Keil. Like St. Peter (John 21: 15-17), Jonah is not only forgiven, but restored to his office, and receives anew his commission. -Perowne. As St. Peter was the first Christian apostle to the Gentiles, so Jonah may be called the Old Testament apostle to the Gentiles. He had new qualifications; he knew the sinfulness of sin and the depths of forgiveness. He had formed new habits of prayer; he had experienced a sanctified affliction. B. He shall best preach salvation who has known his own need of it. The result of Jonah's experience under trouble was, Salvation is of the Lord (2:9). Spurgeon.

2. Unto Nineveh (see Introduction), that great city. It was at that time the greatest city in the known world. It exceeded Babylon in extent and in population; and according to the account here given of it, had more inhabitants than Rome in later times. We judge this from the number (60,000) of infants there were then within its walls, and for whose sake the Lord spared the city.-Lewis. That great city. Calvin explains this repeated expression as intended to prepare Jonah for the magnitude of the task before him. But perhaps the true key is to be found in Jonah 4: 11, where the same expression occurs as an argument for God's compassion. Perowne. One's only comfort in reading the daily reports of crime, or stories of brutal war among far-off nations, is the thought that God knows all about them all, and will surely appear for them at the right moment. Preach unto it the preaching. "Cry to it the crying." That I bid thee. Unconditional obedience is required.

3. So Jonah1arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three 2 days' journey. 4. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he 3 cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be 5 overthrown.

5. So the people of 6 Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

11:3. Matt. 21:28, 29. 5 Luke 13:5.

3.

8

2 Luke 2:44.

3 Isa. 58:1. John 7: 37. John 3:18. Acts 16: 31. Rom. 4: 4.

7 Ezra 8: 21.

4 Gen. 7:4. Mark 1:13. 8 Rom. 3: 23..

So Jonah arose, and went. As ready to obey, as before to disobey. - Pusey. "A living exemplification of God's judgment and mercy." Unto Nineveh. A journey of several weeks. According to the word of the Lord. A good motto for every teacher. An exceeding great city. Literally, "great city to God." A Hebrew form of expression, equivalent to an intense superlative. The Hebrews associated all greatness with God (comp. Ps. 36:6; 80: 10). Three days' journey. About 60 miles. This must refer to the circumference of the city and not to the length. Two ancient historians have described Nineveh as 50 miles in circumference, and surrounded with a wall so thick that six chariots could be driven abreast upon its top, and having 15,000 towers, each nearly 240 feet in height. These statements have been supposed to be gross exaggerations, especially as these historians have been convicted of misstatements on other points; but the present indications are that the statements of these historians are not altogether unworthy of respect. Four great heaps of ruins, two of them 20 miles apart, have been explored; and there has been much discussion as to which of them represents Nineveh. The latest tendency of scholars is toward the belief that they were different palaces included within the same city limits. Rawlinson himself admits that all the ruins may have formed part of "that group of cities which in the time of the prophet Jonah was known by the common name of Nineveh." The circumference of the area within which these heaps of ruins lie is nearly 60 miles; this exactly corresponds with the statement of Diodorus Siculus, that the circuit of the walls was nearly 60 miles. - Todd.

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4. And Jonah began to enter into the city. He must have been the subject of strange and conflicting emotions, when he entered the gates of that proud city. The wealth and luxury, the pleasure and wickedness, on every hand, must have amazed and perplexed the prophet, conscious of his utter loneliness amidst a mighty population, of his despicable poverty amidst abounding riches, of his rough and foreign aspect amidst a proud and polished community: there was enough to shake his faith. Yet he dared not a second time abandon his mission. Blackburn. He was but the voice of one crying in the wild waste of a city of violence. It was indeed to "beard the lion in his den" (Nahum 2: 11). A day's journey. Hither and thither, as far as was possible, the first day. — Maurer. A day's journey was reckoned by the Jews at 20 miles. At first glance, the meaning would seem to be, that Nineveh was three days' journey, or 60 miles, in diameter; and that the prophet penetrated into it one day's journey, or 20 miles, or one-third of the way through it. It is not necessary, however, to take "one day's journey," in this verse, as the ordinary measure of distance. It means merely, that Jonah journeyed into the city for one day. Preaching as he went, and hindered by the crowds and excitement caused by that preaching, he would necessarily make but slow progress, and accomplish but a small distance one day. Todd. Cried, and said. A personification of wisdom (Prov. 1: 20). He delivered his message openly, fearlessly, emphatically. His utterance, like that of the wild preacher in the last days of the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, is one piercing cry from street to street and square to square. It reaches at last the king on his throne of state. The remorse for the wrong and robbery and violence of many generations is awakened. — Stanley. Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Day after day he stood and preached that terrible word of the Lord. Ah! the Jonah who at last went to Nineveh was a glorious man, a sublime man, a giant in moral stature, and should fully atone in our regard for all the defects of the Jonah who did not go at first, and who afterward exhibited human weakness. Twitchell. Nineveh shall be overthrown. No hint was given of the means. On the one hand the warning was more incredible, but on the other hand it was more appalling and effective, for this mystery. - Todd. It is observed of men, that they are long in making anything, but very quick in marring of it. Only God is quick in making, but pauseth upon destroying. Abbott. The words came with unusual force, at this time, when rebellion was chronic in many provinces, and conquest was for the time giving way to defence. - Geikie. II. The People Repentant. — Vers. 5-9. 5. Believed God. Different nations

6. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in 2 ashes.

7. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

1 Jer. 13: 18. 2 Esther 4:1. Job 2:8. Ezek. 26: 16.

so far respected each other's religion, that there is nothing at all improbable in the acceptance, by the Ninevites, of the preaching of a strange prophet (comp. 1 Kings 20: 23-26; 2 Kings 5: 3-5; 8:7-10; 16: 10-15). · Todd. It was not necessary to the effect of his preaching, that Jonah should be of the religion of Nineveh. I have known a Christian priest frighten a whole Mussulman town to tears and repentance by publicly proclaiming that he had received a divine commission to announce a coming earthquake or plague. Layard. Three things their faith certainly embraced. They believed in the God of the Hebrews, as the true God. They believed in his power to execute the threat which he had held out. They believed in his mercy and willingness to forgive the penitent. "So great faith" had not been found, “no, not in Israel.” — Perowne. Their consciences responded to the charge of guilt. Remorse for the wrong and robbery and violence of many generations was awakened. -Stanley. "A sense of God filled the city." Proclaimed a fast. It seems to be in all ages and nations the natural expression of mourning and repentance (see Joel 2). In this case, the people were first impressed, and then their rulers. The tide of penitence rose higher and higher, till it included the court, and what had been done spontaneously or by local authority, received the sanction of government. - Perowne.

6. Word came unto. The matter reached. The king of Nineveh. It is impossible, at this time, to declare unerringly this king's name. According to George Smith, in his Chaldean account of Genesis, Rimmon Nirari was king of Nineveh about this time. Probably Sardanapalus. Todd. The king believed Jonah to be a minister from the Supreme Deity of the nation. - Layard. He had heard of his wonderful deliverance. Dean Jackson. The kings of Assyria were religious according to their light: they ascribed all victories to their god, Asshur. And when this one came to hear of One who had a might such as he had not seen, he believed in him. -Pusey. He arose from his throne. With haste. The thrones, or arm-chairs, supported by animals and human figures, resemble those of the ancient Egyptians. They remind us of the throne of Solomon (1 Kings 10: 19, 20). Layard. His robe. The same word is used of Achan's "goodly Babylonish garment," which this may have resembled. But it is also used of Elijah's hairy "mantle," or cloak. The root-meaning is size, amplitude. — Perowne. In one bas-relief, the dress of a king consisted of a long, flowing garment, edged with fringes and tassels, descending to his ankles, and confined at the waist by a girdle, and over this a second, similarly ornamented and open in front. From his shoulders fell a cape or hood, also adorned with tassels, and two long ribbons or lappets. He wore the conical mitre, or tiara, which distinguishes the monarch in Assyrian bas-reliefs. Around his neck was a necklace. He wore ear-rings, and his bare arms were encircled by armlets and bracelets remarkable for the beauty of their forms. — Layard. Sackcloth. A coarse, dark cloth, made of goats' hair, used for mourning. Ashes. Emblem of the deepest humiliation. This is the more remarkable both because of his characteristic pride as "the great king" (2 Kings 18: 19, 28), and because of his ordinary pomp and luxury. No greater contrast could well be conceived than between the royal "robe" and "sackcloth," or between the heap of "ashes" and the king's "throne.". Perowne.

7. Wherever the prophet's cry had reached the king's proclamation followed. Proclaimed and published. Made public. The decree. The word here used is not properly a Hebrew word. It occurs frequently in the Chaldee of Daniel and Ezra to denote a mandate of the Babylonish and Persian monarchs. Perowne. Its use is a proof of Jonah's accuracy as a writer. - Pusey. And his nobles. His great men (comp. the decree of Darius, Dan. 6:7). Apparently, a voluntary act on the king's part, that the nobles were associated with him in his edict, for we know from the monuments and from history that the Assyrian monarch was a thorough Eastern despot, unchecked by popular opinion. — Layard. Man nor beast, herd nor flock. The Hebrew word for “beast” here means tame or domestic animals. "Herd and flock" is an additional clause. The covering with sackcloth is thus confined to those animals which were in man's more immediate use, and had

8. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and 2 cry mightily unto God: yea, 3 let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the 4 violence that is 5 in their hands.

9. 6 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

10. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God 7 repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

been the ministers of his pomp and pride, or the instruments of his "violence." — Perowne. Let them not feed, nor drink water. The cattle were not driven to pasture. They prob ably fasted each day "until the evening." Man's fall brought misery on unoffending animals (Gen. I: 26, 28), and their destiny is inseparably connected with his (Rom. 8: 20, 22).

8. Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. This fast has probably no exact parallel in history. Yet in all ages men have been wont to extend the outward signs of their joy or sorrow to everything under their control, — dress, equipage, etc. The gorgeous caparison of horses, mules, and camels was part of the Eastern magnificence. Men forget how, at the funerals of the rich, black horses are chosen, and are clothed with black velvet. Pusey. When the Persian general Masistias was slain, the horses and mules of the Persians were shorn as well as themselves. And cry mightily unto God (Hosea 6:1). "Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" The Ninevites felt that the cry of the poor brutes would be heard by God. That judgment was confirmed by God, who assigns the much cattle (Jonah 4:11) as a ground for pity. — Pusey. Cry... turn. Prayer without reformation is a mockery of God. Neither is there true reformation without prayer. Let them turn. The prominence of the moral element in this repentance is very striking, and to this it was that God had respect, as we see in ver. 10. Compare it with the formal fasting and mourning of the Israelites (Isa. 58: 5-7; Zech. 7:5-10). Every one from his evil way. All were to return by forsaking, each, one by one, his own habitual, favorite sin. — Pusey. The violence that is in their hands. "Violence" was their chief sin (comp. Nahum 2: 11, 12; 3: 1; and Isa. 10: 13, 14). In their hands. The hand is the instrument of violence. - Perowne. They were also to make restitution for the gains taken by violence. "Keep the winning, keep the sinning." The honor of a fast is not in abstinence from food, but in avoidance of sin. Fastest thou? Shew it me by its works. What works, askest thou? If you see a poor man, have mercy; if an enemy, be reconciled; a friend doing well, envy him not. Let not the mouth alone fast; let eyes too, and hearing, and feet, and hands, and all the members of our bodies. Let the mouth fast, too, from foul words and reproaches. St. Chrysostom.

9. Who can tell? Jonah had preached God's justice; he had not proclaimed salvation. They had no other Ninevite to look to who had repented and been saved. Could they repent unfeignedly, and yet doubt of the grace of God? We are not justified by hope. That is not the ground of pardon. There may be faith where hope seems out of the question. Dr. N. Adams. God. The one supreme God. That we perish not. They had to break through old prejudices; their only encouragement lay in the fact that they had been warned instead of destroyed. Hence our Lord calls them as witnesses against the generations which heard his gracious words. Nineveh is one vast temple of penitence and prayer. - Perowne. What grief is like that when the creature, who might have been assured thereof, shall doubt the mercy of his Maker? It is not well when the heart can go but so far, "Who knoweth?"

III. The Punishment Remitted. - Ver. 10. IO. God saw their works. Not their speech, but their deeds; not their tongues, but their hands. — Abbott. God repented of the evil. This was "a change, not in his unchangeable counsel, but in his act." "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world, and with him there is no variableness nor shadow of turning” (see also Num. 23: 19). Yet we find him presenting himself to human effort and prayer, "entreated of those who call upon him." When they repented, the position in which they stood towards God's righteousness was altered. So God's mode of dealing with them must alter accordingly if God is not to be inconsistent with himself. What was really a change in them and in God's corresponding dealings is, in condescension to human conceptions, represented as a change in God.-Fairbairn. 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. - Pusey. If these vast moral changes were represented as effected by merely moral means, it would be incredible; but it is put before us as a miracle of the Holy Spirit, under whose command Jonah was sent, and whose words were put into his mouth. Redford. There is nothing here to contradict their subsequent relapse into sin, and consequent destruction. The present story is complete in itself. Perowne. Jonah's errand of mercy is specially interesting, as the first prominent expression of the divine love to all mankind found in the Old Testament. Geikie. Israel had now a practical proof that he was the God of the heathen also, and could prepare for himself a people even among them." Of what was he a sign to the Ninevites? Of God's justice and God's mercy. The typical teaching of the book may be summed up in the words of St. Paul, "That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people (of Israel), and to the Gentiles."- Perowne. This second act, as we may call it, concentrates our attention on the repentance and salvation of Nineveh. There remains another act in which the prophet himself is again the chief character. Jonah displeased at the result of his mission, irritated and complaining, weary of life, and praying that he may die; Jonah sojourning in the hut which he has built him on the hill-side without the walls, watching thence with evil eye the fortunes of Nineveh; Jonah exceeding glad of the shady plant which God had mercifully prepared to overshadow his booth and screen him from the heat, vexed and angry even unto death again when that welcome alleviation is withdrawn; Jonah convinced and silenced by the divinely-drawn contrast between his own selfish sorrow for a plant, and God's large and liberal pity for the populous city of Nineveh. Finally, with noble disregard of self, he is content to pass out of view at the close of the book, silenced and disgraced, that so he may better point the moral with which he is charged.

cent.

I.

PRACTICAL.

"A good man is known, not only when he stands, but when he rises after falling." 2. God's discipline is intended to make not only models, but ministers.-M. R. Vin

3. soldered.

It is a great matter to have once cracked the conscience, which cannot be so easily - Abbott.

no false

4. There is nothing whatever that should keep you from always taking sides in such ways as you can against whatever you feel to be evil when you encounter it, humility, no assumption of the uselessness of such a course, no doubts on the score of propriety, nothing whatever. - 7. H. Twichell.

5. We never receive exactly the same invitation or command from God the second time.

6 He best preaches salvation who has experienced it.

7.

It is not enough to fast for sin; we must fast from sin. — Matthew Henry.

8. Prayer without repentance is mockery: repentance without prayer is hopeless. 9. We carry our disposition, temper, and manners even into our treatment of our God. How do we behave ourselves toward him? - Dr. Adams.

10.

God cares for the brute creation; so should we.

II. Christianity erased "barbarism" from the dictionary of mankind, and replaced it by the word "brother.” — Max Muller.

12.

Our hearts must take in the whole world if we would labor aright for Christ. — Mary Lyon.

SUBJECT,

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS.

REPENTANCE AND REMISSION OF SINS.

I. THE PROPHET RESTORED (vers. 1-4). Fix attention on Jonah, saved, forgiven, grateful, longing to proclaim abroad his new experience, that "Salvation is of the Lord,' yet fearing lest he had forfeited his privilege as a prophet. Enter into his joy at again receiving God's command, and his alacrity on entering upon his wearisome journey and braving the more cruel perils of the moral desert. The Lord had restored unto him the joy of his salvation.

Whether the words given in the chapter are merely the text of a longer sermon, or whether he reiterated this one sentence, he was preaching the preaching that God bade him. Illustration. For four years before the destruction of Jerusalem, a peasant proclaimed through its streets by day and by night, "A voice from the east, a voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, Woe, woe to Jerusalem.'”