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.
Ver. 3. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh] He went not home first to bid them farewell, as Luke 9:61, neither went he another way, as once; it was enough of that once, and he had learned obedience by the things that he had suffered. To Nineveh he goes, though a mere and a lowly stranger, unknown, unregarded, and with a harsh message; such as he might fear would cost him his life from that fierce and furious people. But Jonah feared nothing now but disobedience; and seems to say, as afterwards Luther did, Inveniar sane superbus, excors et mode impii silentii non arguar, Let me be called and counted proud, mad, anything, everything that naught is, so that I be not found guilty of sinful silence, and of betraying the trust committed unto me, by a dastardly deserting the cause of God. Jonah was now of another spirit, and fulfilled after God (implevit post me), as Caleb, Numbers 14:24; for what reason? he had now received not a "spirit of fear," and of bondage (δειλειας, δουλειας, Rom 8:15), "but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind," 2 Timothy 1:7; his Spirit of grace had sanctified to him his afflictions, which else would have been but as hammers to cold iron; as they were to Pharaoh, Ahaz, the railing thief. Aben Ezra saith that as soon as ever the whale had vomited up Jonah he got up and took the direct way to Nineveh; that if God should command him thither again he might be ready, and show his forwardness. It is a very good sign when men are the better for what they suffer; when thereby the iniquity of Jacob is purged, and this is all the fruit, the taking away of their sin, Isaiah 27:9 .
According to the word of the Lord] His call and command, which Jonah had formerly cast behind him, Sed Piscator ictus sapit, There shall be only fear to make you understand the hearing, Isaiah 28:19. Isaiah stood off till frightened; but then he offers his service; "Here I am, send me." Isa 6:8
Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city] Heb. a great city of God, or, to God; which some interpreted dear to God, and such as he would not destroy, Deo chara et cura. Others, a city not idolatrous, though otherwise vicious. Others, a city which God himself accounted great, and looked upon as such. But if to a great mind nothing is great, as Seneca saith (animo magno nihil magnum), what can be great to him who is great, Psalms 77:13, greater, Job 33:12, greatest, Psalms 95:3, greatness itself, Psalms 145:3, and to whom all "nations are but as the drop of a bucket, or dust of the balance? behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing," Isaiah 40:15. Oecolampadius applieth it to the Church of the Gentiles, that "city of the living God." They do best that take it, as we read it, for "an exceeding great city"; like as elsewhere tall mountains and cedars are called mountains of God, Psalms 36:7, and cedars of God, Psalms 80:10 &c., and excellent wrestlings are wrestlings of God, Genesis 30:8. See Genesis 23:6. So the Greeks and Latins call great things divine; God being the measure of all true greatness, διος Aχιλλευς, λακεδαιμονα διαν (Homer). Nineveh, since it was a very great city (of fifty miles around, as Herodotus and Diodorus), so Jonah is often told so; that he might come to it well prepared and resolved; since he was to have a great task and a hard tug of it, see 2 John 1:2 .
Of three days'journey] Not such a journey as a traveller could despatch in no less time; but such as a preacher, pedetentim obambulando, by leisurely walking, might in three days go through (Theodoret); see John 3:4. This is added to set forth further the greatness of the city.