Jonah 3:8 - John Trapp Complete Commentary

Bible Comments

But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that [is] in their hands.

Ver. 8. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth] Let all best means be used for the humbling of the heart; without which what is a humbling day but a religious incongruity (saith one) and a very high provocation; like Zimri's act, when all the congregation were weeping before the door of the tabernacle? The beasts covered with sackcloth were as a house hung with black, to move men to mourn the more. Chrysostom tells us of a custom in his time (and it is still in use among us), that when great men were buried their horses followed the hearse clothed in black, as seeming to mourn for their masters. The coarsest weeds are fittest for fasting days; to show that but for shame we would have none, as having forfeited all; and that we look upon our better apparel but as finer covers of the foulest shame.

And cry mightily unto God] Cry with a courage; let the beasts roar lustily and rend the clouds, as it were, with their clamours; want of food will make them do so. And as God can so speak as that the brute beasts shall understand him, Joe 2:11 Amos 5:8; Amo 9:4 John 2:10; so can they, after a sort, so speak or moan that he can understand them, Joel 1:20 Hos 2:21 Psalms 147:9 : he heareth the young ravens that cry unto him, though but with a hoarse and harsh note; whence also they have their name in Hebrew. Much more will he hear men that cry unto him, if they cry mightily with intention of spirit, and extension or rather contention of speech; if they set up their note, as the noise of many waters, Revelation 19:6; if they thunder and threaten heaven, as Nazianzen saith his sister Gorgonia did; if they bounce hard at heaven's gates, and resolve to wring mercy from God by a holy violence, as Tertullian saith the good people of his time did, Preces fundimus, coelum tundimus, misericordium extorquemus (Tert.). "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much"; but then it must be the working, stirring, labourful prayer, as the word ενεργουμενη, James 5:16, signifieth; that strives and struggles, and strains every vein in the heart (as Elias seemed to do by that posture in prayer of "putting his head between his legs," 1Ki 18:42); that sets to work all the faculties of the soul and all the graces of the spirit; that stirs up dust, as Jacob did; maketh a man sweat, as our Saviour; who, being in "an agony, prayed the more earnestly," Luke 22:44; not without strong crying and tears, and was heard in that he feared, Hebrews 5:7. For such a prayer, when a man cries to God, εξ ισχυος αυτου, mightily, or with all his strength, πολυ ισχυει, it availeth much, it can do anything, as Paul, using the same words, saith, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me," Philippians 4:13 .

Yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, &c.] For else prayer profits not, humiliation is to no purpose without reformation; repentance for sin, without repentance from sin; there must be fruits meet for repentance, answerable to amendment of life, tantamount as repentance, and that weigh just as much as it, αξια; for, Optima et aptissima poenitentia est nova vita, saith Luther, the best and truest repentance is a new life; and if God's people will humble themselves, and pray and seek his face, and also turn from their evil ways, then he will do much for them, 2 Chronicles 7:14 .

And from the violence that is in their hands] Heb. In the hollow of their hands, where it lay hidden, as it were, but not from God, who here bids them turn from their wrong dealing and rapacity. This was their special sin (ut in magnis imperiis et emporiis magnae sunt rapinae), therefore are they charged to relinquish it. It is a speech, saith Mercer, like to that of our Saviour, "Go, tell my disciples and Peter," &c. Tell them all, but be sure you tell Peter. So here, turn from all your evil ways, but especially from the violence that is in your hands. See Isa 59:6 Eze 23:27 Psalms 7:4. The Hebrews understand this text of restitution to be made of ill-gotten goods, or wrongfully detained from the right owners. This, say they, must be done, or the party can be no more renewed by repentance than a man could be legally purified by the washing of water, when he continued to hold in his hand an unclean thing. That of Austin is well known. The sin is not remitted till that which hath been ill-gotten from another be restored, Non remittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum (Aug.). And that of Father Latimer: "Restore, or else you will cough in hell, and the devils will laugh at you. Gravel in the kidneys will not grate so upon you as a little guiltiness of this kind will do upon your consciences." The same Latimer tells us, in a sermon before King Edward VI, that the first day that he preached about restitution there came one and gave him twenty pounds to restore; the next time another, and brought him in thirty pounds; another time another gave him two hundred pounds ten shillings. The law for restitution, see Numbers 5:6,7; the party must not only confess but restore, or he is not a true convert. And this will well appear when death comes to draw the curtain, and look in upon a man. Hence our Henry VII in his last will and testament, after the disposition of his soul and body, he willed restitution should be made of all such monies as had unjustly been levied by his officers. And the like we read of Selimus, the Grand Signior, in the Turkish history.

Jonah 3:8

8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.