Matthew 12:41 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The men of Nineveh, &c. “The Ninevites being judged at the same time with the men of that generation, and their behaviour being compared with theirs, should make their guilt appear in its true colour and condemn them. For though they were idolaters, they repented at the preaching of Jonah, a stranger, a poor person, one that continued among them only three days, and wrought no miracle to make them believe him. But the men of that generation, though worshippers of the true God by profession, could every day hear unmoved the much more powerful preaching of a prophet infinitely greater than Jonah, even the preaching of the eternal Son of God, who confirmed his doctrine by the most astonishing miracles.” Macknight. Of the reasons which might induce the Ninevites to repent, see note on Jonah 3:5-6.