Jonah 3 Footnotes

3:10 Jonah announced that “in forty days Nineveh will be demolished” (v. 4), but God did not overthrow Nineveh in forty days. He “relented” in response to the repentance of the Ninevites. Since Jonah prophesied something that failed to occur, did this make him a false prophet (see note on Dt 18:22)?

Some have suggested the solution lies in the ambiguous nature of the Hebrew word translated “overthrown.” While the verb could have that meaning, it can also have the sense of “turn around” or “be changed” (see Ezk 4:8; Hs 11:8). Nineveh would be either destroyed or changed, and when the people repented it indeed was changed. An objection to this view is that the Ninevites understood the message as a threat of destruction. Further, according to Jnh 3:10, “God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with.”

A better solution considers the nature of a prophecy of judgment. If God was concerned enough about Nineveh—capital city of the feared Assyrian Empire—to send Jonah to preach repentance, such a message must be understood as a warning. Jonah’s prophecy to the Ninevites was therefore conditional, not absolute. If the people repented, the Lord might not bring the judgment. Jonah recognized this even before he gave the message; he fled from the Lord initially because he knew that God might relent (4:2).