Jonah 3 · Verse 4

Jonah 3:4

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Jonah 3:4, King James Version

Jonah 3:4 in other translations

BSB	On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”
WEB	Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
ASV	And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
YLT	And Jonah beginneth to go in to the city a journey of one day, and proclaimeth, and saith, ‘Yet forty days--and Nineveh is overturned.'
DARBY	And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!
BBE	And Jonah first of all went a day's journey into the town, and crying out said, In forty days destruction will overtake Nineveh.
Webster	And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

What does Jonah 3:4 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

4. a day's journey--not going straight forward without stopping: for the city was but eighteen miles in length; but stopping in his progress from time to time to announce his message to the crowds gathering about him. Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown--The commission, given indefinitely at his setting out, assumes now on his arrival a definite form, and that severer than before. It is no longer a cry against the sins of Nineveh, but an announcement of its ruin in forty days. This number is in Scripture associated often with humiliation. It was forty days that Moses, Elijah, and Christ fasted. Forty years elapsed from the beginning of Christ's ministry (the antitype of Jonah's) to the destruction of Jerusalem. The more definite form of the denunciation implies that Nineveh has now almost filled up the measure of her guilt. The change in the form which the Ninevites would hear from Jonah on anxious inquiry into his history, would alarm them the more, as implying the increasing nearness and certainty of their doom, and would at the same time reprove Jonah for his previous guilt in delaying to warn them. The very solitariness of the one message announced by the stranger thus suddenly appearing among them, would impress them with the more awe. Learning from him, that so far from lightly prophesying evil against them, he had shrunk from announcing a less severe denunciation, and therefore had been cast into the deep and only saved by miracle, they felt how imminent was their peril, threatened as they now were by a prophet whose fortunes were so closely bound up with theirs. In Noah's days one hundred twenty years of warning were given to men, yet they repented not till the flood came, and it was too late. But in the case of Nineveh, God granted a double mercy: first, that its people should repent immediately after threatening; second, that pardon should immediately follow their repentance.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 4 Yet forty days - Both the Septuagint and Arabic read three days. Probably some early copyist of the Septuagint, from whom our modern editions are derived, mistook the Greek numerals μ forty for γ three; or put the three days' journey in preaching instead of the forty days mentioned in the denunciation. One of Kennicott's MSS., instead of ארבעים arbaim, forty, has שלשים sheloshim, thirty: but the Hebrew text is undoubtedly the true reading; and it is followed by all the ancient versions, the Septuagint and Vulgate excepted. thus God gives them time to think, reflect, take counsel, and return to him. Had they only three days' space, the denunciation would have so completely confounded them, as to excite nothing but terror, and prevent repentance and conversion.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Jonah 3:1-4

God employs Jonah again in his service. His making use of us is an evidence of his being at peace with us. Jonah was not disobedient, as he had been. He neither endeavoured to avoid hearing the command, nor declined to obey it. See here the nature of repentance; it is the change of our mind and way, and a return to our work and duty. Also, the benefit of affliction; it brings those back to their place who had…

Read the full comment on Jonah 3:1-4 →

Jonah 3:4 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וַיָּ֤חֶלvai.Ya.cheland he beganH2490

יוֹנָה֙yo.NahJonahH3124

לָב֣וֹאla.Vo'to goH935

בָעִ֔ירva.'Irin the cityH5892

מַהֲלַ֖ךְma.ha.Lakha journey ofH4109

י֣וֹםYoma dayH3117

אֶחָ֑ד'e.ChadoneH259

וַיִּקְרָא֙vai.yik.Ra'and he proclaimedH7121

וַיֹּאמַ֔רvai.yo.Marand he saidH559

ע֚וֹדodyetH5750

אַרְבָּעִ֣ים'ar.ba.'ImfortyH705

י֔וֹםYomday[s]H3117

וְנִֽינְוֵ֖הve.ni.ne.Vehand NinevehH5210

נֶהְפָּֽכֶת\׃neh.Pa.khet[is] about to be overturnedH2015

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Jonah 3:4

Deuteronomy 18:22
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.
Jeremiah 18:7-10
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
2 Kings 20:1
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
Jonah 3:10
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
2 Kings 20:6
And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Yet.
10; De 18:22; 2Ki 20:1,6; Jer 18:7-10

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Jonah 3:3
So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.
Jonah 3:4
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Jonah 3:5
So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

Read all of Jonah 3

Jonah 3:4 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Y comenzó Jonás á entrar por la ciudad, camino de un día, y pregonaba diciendo: De aquí á cuarenta días Nínive será destruída.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Et Jonas commença à entrer dans la ville, le chemin d’un jour; et il cria et dit: Encore 40 jours, et Ninive sera renversée.
German Elberfelder 1871	Und Jona begann in die Stadt hineinzugehen eine Tagereise weit, und er rief und sprach: Noch vierzig Tage, so ist Ninive umgekehrt!
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Et cœpit Jonas introire in civitatem itinere diei unius: et clamavit, et dixit: Adhuc quadraginta dies, et Ninive subvertetur.