second time, saying,
2. Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the
preaching that I bid thee. 3. 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. 4. And Jonah began to
enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet
forty days, and Nineveh shall he overthrown. 5. So the people of
Ninoveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth,
from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6. For word
came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he
laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in
ashes. 7. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through
Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let
neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not
feed, nor drink water: 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. 9.
Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His
fierce anger, that we perish not? 10. And God saw their works, that
they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that
He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.'--JONAH
iii. 1-10.

This passage falls into three parts: Jonah's renewed commission and new
obedience (vs. 1-4), the repentance of Nineveh (vs. 5-9), and the
acceptance thereof by God (ver. 10). We might almost call these three
the repentance of Jonah, of Nineveh, and of God. The evident intention
of the narrative is to parallel the Ninevites turning from their sins,
and God's turning from His anger and purpose of destruction; and if the
word 'repentance' is not applied to Jonah, his conduct sufficiently
shows the thing.

I. Note the renewed charge to the penitent Prophet, and his new
eagerness to fulfil it. His deliverance and second commission are put as
if all but simultaneous, and his obedience was swift and glad. Jonah did
not venture to take for granted that the charge which he had shirked was
still continued to him. If God commands to take the trumpet, and we
refuse, we dare not assume that we shall still be honoured with the
delivery of the message. The punishment of dumb lips is often dumbness.
Opport