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Jonah 3 General Notes
Structure and formatting
This chapter returns to a narrative of Jonah's life.
Special concepts in this chapter
Animals
According to the king's proclamation, the animals had to participate in the fast he ordered. This most likely reflects their pagan mindset. There was nothing in the law of Moses that instructed the people to have the animals participate in any religious acts. (See: rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/lawofmoses)
Other possible translation difficulties in this chapter
Size of Nineveh
When the author talks about the size of Nineveh, the measurements he gives are confusing. The phrase "three days' journey" is ambiguous in Hebrew, as many scholars have remarked. In Jonah's day, cities were not as big as they are today. So although Nineveh was a big city, it was not as big as most modern cities.
God repenting or relenting
The last verse of this chapter says, "So then God changed his mind about the punishment that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it." This concept of God changing his mind may be troubling for some translators and people may struggle to understand it. God's character is consistent. This whole book is written from a human viewpoint and so it is hard to understand the mind of God.
Yahweh is just and merciful so even though God did not follow through with a judgment in this instance, God's plan is always to punish evil. Later in history this nation did fall and was destroyed. (See: rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/justice, rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/mercy and rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/judge and rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/evil)