In the zany world of the prophet’s futile flight from God, Jonah travels in a fully-submerged enclosed vessel (the fish, Jonah 1:17) and from there is short-orbited through the air to a safe landing (2:10).

That’s when his second chance comes, and the third chapter of Jonah is the only one where things seem to be working right—and even then, the nose-out-of-joint is Jonah’s (4:1–3). (Click here to view Jonah 3–4, this Sunday’s Old Testament reading.)

Last time (that is, the first time), God didn’t tell Jonah what to say. This time, he’s not taking any chances—“Proclaim to Nineveh what I tell you” (3:2)—and Jonah heads east. It’s true, God gives second chances… and thirds, and fourths… as long as there is some openness in us to his will—and thank God for that!—but circumstances may change between the offers, and we have to remember that to be forgiven is never the same as to be innocent.

It was a long walk to where Assyrian lions guarded the royal palace, but this time Jonah obeyed the Lord and headed for Nineveh. Its location was not far from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, mentioned almost daily in dispatches in our own newspapers. His only preached word comes in 3:4: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”—only five words in Hebrew.

Things seem to be working right because the citizens believe God and adopt dress and discipline suitable to repentance (3:5). For “sackcloth,” think of underwear made from gunny sacks. Sometimes the citizens get it right, and a smart king will take note. Nineveh’s did, as we hear in a fine chiasmus:

He arose from his throne		removed his robe
	X
put on sackcloth		sat in ashes (v 6).

These are symbolic actions: Leaving his throne and removing his robe testifies that before God his royal majesty cannot save him. Like the people, he must fast and repent. A public proclamation sends his example down upon the whole country, humans and animals alike. None of them to eat, all of them to wear sackcloth. Even the cattle must fast, even the flocks put on burlap (vs 7–8).

And not just symbolic actions—all this is to lead to turning—that saving about-face we call “repentance.” The king uses the word three times:

“Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (3:8b–9 and again in v 10).

If people will turn from their sins—the Hebrew word actually means “return,” implying not just an about-face, but one that heads us back where we belong—if people will turn from their sins, maybe God will turn from the punishment we deserve.

And that is how it happens. As the people re-turn, God turns back from anger to grace. Nineveh is forgiven, spared.

This chapter says powerfully that all nations are accountable to the God of Heaven, that God longs to see both acts of penitence and the change of heart and life that betokens true trust in him. Moreover, as in the stories of Daniel 1–6, so here: God desires the conversion of Gentile monarchs, so that whole cities may be called to turn away from the old and tired gods of idolatrous society to the Creator of the sea and the dry land, the one God who reveals and who saves!

This is the marvel that follows Jonah’s five-word declaration. How Jonah reacts belongs to the next chapter, to which I return on Aug. 15 under the title “Unfinished Story.”

The color illustrations of Jonah are by Niko Chocheli, an artist with special interests in Orthodox iconography, and are found in The Book of Jonah Illustrated for Children, published by St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press (2000). The woodcuts are by Jacob Steinhardt.