Jonah 1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. The city to which he was com missioned was remarkable for its magnitude and its wickedness. 1. Nineveh was a great city in many respects. (1) It was of great antiquity (Genesis 10:9-12). (2) It was great in respect of its power. It was the chief city of the mightiest monarchy in the world. (3) In respect of its wealth. (4) In respect of its extent. Probably sixty miles in circumference. (5) In respect of its population. Probably 600,000 persons resided within its walls. 2. Nineveh was a guilty city. Cruelty was the characteristic vice. No man in Nineveh was secure from the violence to which its people were prone. 3. Nineveh was a Gentile city. It was this circumstance which chiefly rendered the commission addressed to Jonah so remarkable. It was so unusual that it startled Jonah. God displayed His interest in the welfare of mankind at large, even at that remote and unripe epoch. The Israelites were slow to learn that God did thus interest Himself in the welfare of the Gentiles. Now consider the disobedience of Jonah to the mandate addressed to him. The prophet's object was to flee from the presence of the Lord; i.e., to get as far as possible beyond the range of those manifestations of the Divine presence which were peculiar to Palestine and its neighbourhood. Jonah sought to escape from such a consciousness of the Divine presence as he had been accustomed to experience in his own country, and may have regarded as peculiar to it. The presence of the Lord had become intolerable to Jonah from the moment that his want of sympathy with the Divine will in relation to Nineveh had become apparent to himself. Moreover, Jonah was an official of high rank in the theocracy, and his words may mean, "I will resign my office rather than undertake this duty." But he had no right to resign the office he held in the service of Jehovah. His guilt and presumption are apparent; but have we not been as guilty and presumptuous as he; shrinking from duties that we knew were laid upon us? (Samuof Clift Burn.) Parallel Verses KJV: Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. |
    |