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.
Ver. 4. And Jonah began to enter into the city] Having seen God he now fears no colours, dreads no danger; as neither did Moses, Micaiah, Isaiah, Isaiah 6:9,12, Paul, Acts 21:13, Luther going to Worms. "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men," 2 Corinthians 5:11, we forewarn them to flee from the wrath to come, Matthew 3:7, we pull them out of the fire of hell, as firebrands, Judges 1:23 .
A day's journey] One of the three days, John 3:3. Not all the three in one day, for haste, as Jerome would have it.
And he cried, and said] Not fearfully muttering his message, but delivering it with a courage, Boanerges-like, able almost to make his hearers' hearts fall down and hairs stand upright, as one saith of Master Perkins.
Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown] The word properly noteth a sudden, inevitable, and perpetual destruction, such as was that of Sodom and her sisters, Gen 19:25 Jeremiah 20:16 Isa 13:19 Amos 4:11. Now we must not think that Jonah said no more than is here set down; that he expressed no condition, such as was that, Revelation 2:5, "except ye repent"; or that like a madman he ran up and down the city (as one did once about Jerusalem, and another lately about London), repeating and thundering out these words only, inconditis et ineptis clamoribus, with harsh and hoarse outcries. God therefore threateneth that he may not punish, and all his threats are conditional, Jeremiah 18:8, if they repent, he will also. This, if Jonah expressed not, yet the Ninevites understood; for else they would never have repented, but despaired (as Judas with his poenitentia Iscariotica), and defied Jonah as an evil messenger sent against them. They might well enough think that if God had not meant them mercy he would never have forewarned them, never have given them forty days' respite: the Septuagint cannot be refused for rendering it three days' (though some have attempted it). It is probable that Jonah omitted nothing that pertained to the preaching of repentance, though here we have it set down in some only. The Hebrews tell us that the mariners also went to Nineveh; and, telling what had befallen Jonah at sea, confirmed his doctrine and sentence against the Ninevites, who thereupon repented. But these, as they affirm without reason, so they may be dismissed without refutation.