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Jonah 3:1–4, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Jonah 3:1–4
The Commission Returns, and Jonah Proclaims Overturning
The same word comes a second time, and Jonah goes
The word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.
God recommissions the same resistant prophet. The message remains the LORD's, not Jonah's invention. Going and speaking are obedience here; the later chapters will still expose his heart.
Forty days, a great city, and a warning of overthrow
Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. Jonah begins to enter a day's journey and cries, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. The compact warning is serious. Overturn can also describe reversal, but the announced threat is not a riddle that makes disaster optional in the speaker's mouth.
The three-day phrase and the city's greatness do not yield a reliable formula for Nineveh's ancient population or physical diameter. Do not convert idiom into archaeology, and do not treat Nineveh as a license to hate modern Iraqis or any living people.
How this should shape us
Give a necessary warning clearly, without fake measurements and without hunger for ruin. Leave room for a response that would make you glad if disaster is withheld.
Teach it back
Explain Jonah 3:1–4 in your own words. Include the scene's movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, and one misuse the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters debate the three-day formula, whether 'overturn' includes a deliberate double sense, and whether the recorded proclamation is a summary or the whole sermon. Strongest confidence belongs to renewed commission, Jonah's going, a serious forty-day warning, and the response it evokes.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Jonah 3:1–4, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew forms, morphology, repeated roots, clause relationships, names, and the base wording behind translation discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Jonah.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 3:1–4
Supports: Material lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, seafaring, city, repentance, and divine-relenting notes within the unit.
NET Bible Jonah PDF, printed pp. 1735–1737, translation and translator notes on 3:1–4
Supports: Current critical literary framing, section scope, and exposed summary claims; no unexposed paywalled detail is attributed.
Niditch, Jonah: A Commentary, JSTOR record and exposed section summary for pp. 86–90, section Jonah 3:1–4
Supports: A documented modern satire/novella reading, narrative contrasts, outsider theme, and a clearly bounded fifth-century proposal.
Spangenberg, 'Reading the Old Testament in the 21st century,' article pp. 6–9, Jonah case study
Supports: Whole-book structure, genre and historicity survey, insider-outsider dynamics, social-value analysis, and stated cautions about Nineveh size and population claims.
Schader, doctoral thesis, pp. 254–257 (Jonah 3 structure) and 273–280 (number-of-days discussion)
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Jonah 3:1–4, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Jonah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew forms, morphology, repeated roots, clause relationships, names, and the base wording behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Jonah.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 3:1–4
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Jonah with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Material lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, seafaring, city, repentance, and divine-relenting notes within the unit.
Exact location: NET Bible Jonah PDF, printed pp. 1735–1737, translation and translator notes on 3:1–4
Open source ↗modern critical commentary record
Jonah: A Commentary
Susan Niditch
Fortress Press, Hermeneia, 2023
Supports: Current critical literary framing, section scope, and exposed summary claims; no unexposed paywalled detail is attributed.
Exact location: Niditch, Jonah: A Commentary, JSTOR record and exposed section summary for pp. 86–90, section Jonah 3:1–4
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access article
Reading the Old Testament in the 21st century using the Book of Jonah as reference
Izak J. J. Spangenberg
Verbum et Ecclesia 34.2, 2013
Supports: A documented modern satire/novella reading, narrative contrasts, outsider theme, and a clearly bounded fifth-century proposal.
Exact location: Spangenberg, 'Reading the Old Testament in the 21st century,' article pp. 6–9, Jonah case study
Open source ↗open access doctoral thesis
A literary-exegetical and social-scientific analysis of the book of Jonah: an exposition of its ancient social values
Jo-Mari Schader
University of Pretoria, 2016
Supports: Whole-book structure, genre and historicity survey, insider-outsider dynamics, social-value analysis, and stated cautions about Nineveh size and population claims.
Exact location: Schader, doctoral thesis, pp. 254–257 (Jonah 3 structure) and 273–280 (number-of-days discussion)
Open source ↗