Jonas is sent again to preach in Ninive. Upon their fasting and repentance, God recalleth the sentence by which they were to be destroyed.
Againe Ionas is commanded to preach in Niniue, that within fourtie dayes it shal be destroyed: 5. They al fast, and repent: 10. and God recalleth his sentence.
1And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time saying:Il Signore parlò la seconda volta a Giona, e disse:AND the word of our Lord was made to Ionas the second time, saying:Et factum est verbum Domini ad Jonam secundo, dicens: 2Arise, and go to Ninive, the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee.Alzati, e va a Ninive città grande, ed ivi predica quello, che io dico a te.Arise, & goe into Niniue the great citie: and preach in it the preaching which I speake to thee.Surge, et vade in Niniven, civitatem magnam, et prædica in ea prædicationem quam ego loquor ad te. 3And Jonas arose, and went to Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: now Ninive was a great city of three days’ journey.E Giona si mosse, e andò a Ninive secondo l'ordine del Signore. Or Ninive era una città grande, che aveva tre giorni di cammino.And Ionas arose, & went into Niniue according to the word of our Lord: & Niniue was a great citie of three dayes iorney.Et surrexit Jonas, et abiit in Niniven juxta verbum Domini: et Ninive erat civitas magna, itinere trium dierum. 4And Jonas began to enter into the city one day’s journey: and he cried and said: Yet forty days and Ninive shall be destroyed.E Giona cominciò a scorrere la città pel cammino di un giorno; e gridava, e diceva: Ancora quaranta giorni, e Ninive sarà atterrata.And Ionas began to enter into the citie on dayes iorney: & he cried, and sayd: As yet fourtie dayes, and Niniue shal be subuerted.Et cœpit Jonas introire in civitatem itinere diei unius: et clamavit, et dixit: Adhuc quadraginta dies, et Ninive subvertetur. 5And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.E i Niniviti credettero a Dio, e intimarono il digiuno, e si vestiron di sacco i grandi, ed i piccoli.And the men of Niniue beleued in God: and they proclamed a fast, and were clothed with sackcloths from the greater to the lesser.Et crediderunt viri Ninivitæ in Deum, et prædicaverunt jejunium, et vestiti sunt saccis, a majore usque ad minorem. 6And the word came to the king of Ninive: and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed in sackcloth, and sat in ashes.E fu portata la nuova al re di Ninive, ed egli si levò dal suo trono, e gettò via le sue vesti, e si vestì di sacco, e si assise sopra la cenere.And the word came to the king of Niniue: and he rose vp out of his throne, and cast away his garment from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sate in ashes.Et pervenit verbum ad regem Ninive: et surrexit de solio suo, et abjecit vestimentum suum a se, et indutus est sacco, et sedit in cinere.
7And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Ninive, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying: Let neither men nor beasts, oxen, nor sheep taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water.E pubblicò, e intimò in Ninive quest'ordine fatto dal re, e da' suoi principi; Uomini, e bestie, bovi, e pecore non mangino niente, non vadano al pascolo, e non bevano acqua.And he cried, and sayd in Niniue from the mouth of the king & of his princes, saying: Men, and beasts, and oxen, and cattel let them not taste any thing: nor feede, and let them not drinke water.Et clamavit, et dixit in Ninive ex ore regis et principum ejus, dicens: Homines, et jumenta, et boves, et pecora non gustent quidquam: nec pascantur, et aquam non bibant. 8And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.E si cuopran di sacco gli uomini, e gli animali; e gridino con tutta la loro forza verso il Signore, e si converta ciascuno dalla sua cattiva vita, e dalle sue opere inique.And let men, and beasts be couered with sackcloths, and crie to our Lord in strength, and let euerie man conuert from his euil way & from the iniquitie, that is in their handes.Et operiantur saccis homines et jumenta, et clament ad Dominum in fortitudine: et convertatur vir a via sua mala, et ab iniquitate quæ est in manibus eorum. 9Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish?Chi sa, che Dio non si ritratti, e ci perdoni, e calmi il furore dell'ira sua, onde non ci faccia perire?Who knoweth if God wil conuert, and forgeue: and wil returne from the furie of his wrath, and we shal not perish?Quis scit si convertatur et ignoscat Deus, et revertatur a furore iræ suæ, et non peribimus ? 10And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.E Dio vide le opere loro, e come si erano convertiti dalla mala loro vita, e Dio ne ebbe compassione, e non fece loro il male, che avea detto di fare.And God saw their workes, that they were conuerred from their euil way: and God had mercie on the euil which he had spoken, that he would do to them, and he did it not.Et vidit Deus opera eorum, quia conversi sunt de via sua mala: et misertus est Deus super malitiam quam locutus fuerat ut faceret eis, et non fecit.
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Calmet
Bid thee before, or when thou shalt be there. (Calmet)
Menochius
He seems to have retired to Jerusalem. (Menochius)
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Challoner
Journey. By the computation of some ancient historians, Ninive was about fifty miles round: so that to go through all the chief streets and public places, was three days' journey. (Challoner)
Worthington
Diodorus (III. 1.) says Ninive was 150 stadia or furlongs in length. It must have been therefore 480 round; and as each furlong contains 125 paces of 5 ft. each, the compass would be "60 Italian miles, (about 50 English)" which would employ a person three days to go through the principal streets. (Worthington)
Strabo xvi
Ninive "was much larger that Babylon." (Strabo xvi.)
Hebrew, "a great city of God," etc., denoting its stupendous size.
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Journey. He records what he said the first day, though he seems to have preached many (Theodoret) even during forty days, after which time (Haydock) he expected the city would fall, and therefore retired out of the walls, Jonas 4:
Calmet
Forty. Septuagint three. St. Justin Martyr, (Dialogue with Trypho) "three, or forty-three." Theodoret thinks that the mistake was made by some ancient transcriber, and has since prevailed in all the copies of the Septuagint. All the rest have forty. St. Augustine (City of God 18:44.) believes the Septuagint placed three for a mysterious reason. Origen (hom. xvi. Num.) suggests that the prophet determined the number, and hence God did not execute the threat. (Calmet)
Worthington
This and many other menaces are conditional. If men repent, God will change his sentence. (St. Chrysostom; St. Gregory, Mor. 16:18.) (Worthington)
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Calmet
God. They were convinced that he had wrought such wonders in the person of Jonas, with a desire of their welfare, particularly as he allowed them some delay. Accordingly they did penance for about forty days, and their conversion was so sincere, that Christ proposes it to his disciples, Matthew 12:41. (Calmet)
St. Augustine
Thus "the city was overturned in its perverse manners." (St. Augustine, City of God 21:24., and Psalm l.)
Haydock
They were at an end, and the city was renovated. (Haydock)
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Princes. Their consent was requisite, to form an irrevocable edict, Daniel 6:8.
Theodoret
Men. Even infants, according to the Fathers, Joel 2:16. St. Basil adds also, the young of cattle. This was done to excite rational beings to repentance. (Theodoret)
Calmet
We do not find that cattle were deprived of food on such occasions among the Jews. But Virgil specifies that this was the case at the death of Caesar, (Ecl. v.) as it was in droughts among some nations of America. (Horn 2:13.) (Calmet)
Worthington
When people are greatly moved by repentance, they exceed in austerity; but if this be not indiscreet, God accepts of their good intention. (Worthington)
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Haydock
Mercy. Hebrew, "repented," as some copies of the Septuagint read, while others have, "was comforted." (Haydock)
God suspended the stroke. But as the people soon relapsed, Sardanapalus burnt himself to death, and the city was taken, (St. Jerome) thirty-seven years after Jeroboam. (Year of the world 3257, Usher)
Yet this was only a prelude to its future ruin, foretold by Tobias, (xiv. 5. in Greek) and effected by Nabopolassar and Astyages. (Calmet) (Year of the world 3378, Usher)
Haydock
The vestiges did not appear in the days of Lucian, (Charon.; Calmet) soon after Christ. (Haydock)
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Of three days’ journey.... By the computation of some ancient historians, Ninive was about fifty miles round: so that to go through all the chief streets and public places was three days’ journey.
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Diodorus Siculus, li. 3. c 1. VVriteth that Niniue was in length, 150. stadia or forlōgs, in breadth. 90. so it was in citcuite of the vvalles. 480. And euerie forlong hauing 125. paces of fiue foote the pace, the compasse vvas 60. Italian myles, about 50. or 48. English myles; a sufficient trauel of three dayes, to passe through the principal streates, and more publique places therof.
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As vvel this, as manie other like prophecies, shevv that Gods threates are conditional, if sinners vvil repent: for then God changeth his sentence. S. Chrys. ho. 5. ad popul. S. Iero, in hun:. locum. S. Greg. li. 16 c. 18 Moral. The same is also clere. Iere 18. v. 8.
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Great remorse & detestation of sinne maketh penitents to excede in austere vvorkes, vvhich being vvel meant is accepted at Gods handes, so it be not indiscreete.
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Concordance Iere. 18.
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Ioel. •.
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 3.12
… For instance, in his commentary on the prophet Jonah, when he comes to the passage where the infants were mentioned as chastened by the fast, he says: “The greatest age comes first, and then all the rest is pervaded down to the least.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall 1
… though you should any number of times be affected in this way; for it may be, that there will be some return to virtue, and to restoration to thy former manner of life. And now hear what follows: The Ninevites when they heard the prophet vehemently declaring, and plainly threatening; “yet three days and Nineveh shall be overthrown,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Treatise to Prove that No One Can Harm the Man Who Does Not Injure Himself 14
… although a barbarous and foreign people who had never participated in any of these benefits, small or great, neither words, nor wonders, nor works, when they saw a man who had been saved from shipwreck, who had never associated with them before, but appeared then for the first time, enter their city and say “yet three days and Nineveh shall be overthrown,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 15
… But what saith he? “That he may be saved in the last day.” For he conducts him on unto that time in order to make him full of anxiety. And what favors he intended him after the repentance, he reveals not, imitating his own Master. For as God saith, (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 10
… For need is there indeed of His hand, that mighty, that marvelous hand. Greater things are required of us than of the Ninevites. “Yet three days,” said the prophet, “and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on 1 Timothy 15
… Let us not think it a matter of cruelty, but of pity and mercy; of God’s concern and love for us. If in the days of Jonah the destruction of Nineveh had not been threatened, that destruction had not been averted. Nineveh would not have stood but for the threat, “Nineveh shall be overthrown.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 3.6
… but God inasmuch as He is God, foreknew what Adam would do of his own free choice. You may as well accuse God of falsehood because He said by the mouth of Jonah:
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 18.44
But some one may say, “How shall I know whether the prophet Jonah said to the Ninevites, ‘Yet three days and Nineveh shall be overthrown,’ or forty days?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 51.11
… What “uncertain things”? Because God pardoneth even such. Nothing is so hidden, nothing so uncertain. For this uncertainty the Ninevites repented, for they said, though after the threatenings of the Prophet, though after that cry, “Three days and Nineve shall be overthrown:”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 17.25
… In the same way too the Divine sentence says to the men of Nineveh: “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown;”
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St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Funeral Oration on Meletius 1
… For when the news of our calamity shall have been spread abroad, then will the ways be full of mourning crowds, and the sheep of his flock will pour themselves forth, and like the Ninevites utter the voice of lamentation
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 2.6
48. So, too, did the people of Nineveh mourn, and escaped the destruction of their city.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 25
… to be in earnest, and do not even do as much as those barbarians, for they, though they were ignorant of everything, when they heard that the city was to be destroyed, were so far from disbelieving, that they even groaned, and girded themselves with sackcloth, and were confounded, and did not cease to use every means until they had allayed the wrath. (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 16
1. By her importunity the widow in the gospel at last gained a hearing, and by the same means one friend induced another to give him bread at midnight, when his door was shut and his servants were in bed. The publican’s prayers overcame God, although God is invincible. Nineveh was saved by its tears from the impending ruin caused by its sin.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 77.4
… Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days.” O happy penitence which has drawn down upon itself the eyes of God, and which has by confessing its error changed the sentence of God’s anger! The same conduct is in the Chronicles attributed to Manasseh, and in the book of the prophet Jonah
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Correction of the Donatists 5
… Even as Hezekiah served Him, by destroying the groves and the temples of the idols, and the high places which had been built in violation of the commandments of God; or even as Josiah served Him, by doing the same things in his turn; or as the king of the Ninevites served Him, by compelling all the men of his city to make satisfaction to the Lord;
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 39.5
… Yes, and I know of a Fifth also, which is that of tears, and is much more laborious, received by him who washes his bed every night and his couch with tears; whose bruises stink through his wickedness; and who goeth mourning and of a sad countenance; who imitates the repentance of Manasseh and the humiliation of the Ninevites
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 3.9
9. Let us see then how the Ninevites fasted, and how they were delivered from that wrath—“Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything,”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.20.1
… to the Lord, who would deliver them from death, having been struck with awe by that portent which had been wrought in Jonah’s case, as the Scripture says of them, “And they returned each from his evil way, and the unrighteousness which was in their hands, saying, Who knoweth if God will repent, and turn away His anger from us, and we shall not perish?”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.11
… To none other than Him is it suitable, who is also “the Father of mercies,” and (in the prophets) has been described as “full of compassion, and gracious, and plenteous in mercy.” In Jonah you find the signal act of His mercy, which He showed to the praying Ninevites.
John Cassian † AD 435 The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults 1.2
… or that the Ninevites, in order to mitigate the sentence of God, which had been pronounced against them by the prophet, were clothed in rough sackcloth.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall 1
… “Who knoweth whether God will repent and be entreated, and turn from the fierceness of His wrath, and that we perish not? And God saw their works that they turned from their evil ways, and God repented of the evil which He said He would do unto them and He did it not.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 5.17
… They repented even on uncertain grounds! For the sentence had no such clause, “If ye turn and repent, I will set up the city;” but simply, “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 51.11
… For this uncertainty the Ninevites repented, for they said, though after the threatenings of the Prophet, though after that cry, “Three days and Nineve shall be overthrown:” they said to themselves, Mercy must be implored; they said in this sort reasoning among themselves, “Who knoweth whether God may turn for the better His sentence, and have pity?”
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Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.17
… Nay, this very long-suffering of the Creator will tend to the condemnation of Marcion; that patience, (I mean,) which waits for the sinner’s repentance rather than his death, which prefers mercy to sacrifice, averting from the Ninevites the ruin which had been already denounced against them,
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.24
… Look here then, say you: I discover a self-incriminating case in the matter of the Ninevites, when the book of Jonah declares, “And God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 4.10
… I see how the Ninevites obtained forgiveness of their sins from the Creator
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Miscellaneous Letters 7.77
… Moses also was praised because he slew the Egyptian that oppressed the Israelite; but he was more admirable because he healed by his prayer his sister Miriam when she was made leprous for her murmuring. Look also at what follows. The people of Nineve are threatened with an overthrow, but by their tears they redeem their sin.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Treatise to Prove that No One Can Harm the Man Who Does Not Injure Himself 14
… “For,” we read, “God saw that every man turned from his evil way, and was converted to the Lord.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 3.8
… since that Pharisee also fasted, but afterwards went down empty, and destitute of the fruit of fasting. The Publican fasted not; and yet he was accepted in preference to him who had fasted; in order that thou mayest learn that fasting is unprofitable, except all other duties follow with it. The Ninevites fasted, and won the favour of God.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 3.10
… We say not so; but the change of their whole life. Whence does this appear? From the very language of the prophet. For he who hath discoursed of the wrath of God, and of their fasting, himself too, when speaking of the reconciliation, and teaching us the cause of the reconciliation, speaks to this effect; “And God saw their works.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 20.21
… But whence does this appear, says some one? From the words of the prophet; for the same who had been their accuser, and who had said, that “the cry of their wickedness hath ascended up even to heaven:” himself again bears testimony of an opposite kind, by saying, “God saw that every one departed from their own evil ways.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 2
… 11 .) Then lest thou think He respecteth the multitude only, He saith, “Though the number of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.” ( Isa. x. 22 .) How then saved He the Ninevites? Because in their case, there was not only a multitude, but a multitude and virtue too. For each one “turned from” his “evil way.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 4
… for He will not hide it from us, but will even eagerly disclose it. Rather that none may be ignorant, nor need to ask, He hath even set down in writing the medicine that restored them. What then is this? “God,” saith He, “saw that they turned every one from his evil way, and He repented of the evil that He had said He would do unto them.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 10
… and why? nay more, I do not now proclaim a fast only, but I suggest to you the remedy which raised up that city also when falling. And what was that? “God saw their works,” saith the prophet, “that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil which He said He would do unto them.” (
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 6.6
… for what son is there whom the father doth not correct?” And so evils are sometimes wont to stand for afflictions, as where we read: “And God repented of the evil which He had said that He would do to them and He did it not.”
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1. AND THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO JONAS A SECOND TIME. — It appears that Jonas, having been freed from the whale, immediately went to Jerusalem and the temple, so that he might pay his vows to God: at the same time he hoped that God would be satisfied with this punishment and penance of his, and would not urge him further to go to Nineveh, when behold God sends him a second time, and says:
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2. ARISE, AND GO TO NINEVEH: AND PREACH IN IT THE PREACHING (threats of destruction) WHICH I SPEAK; — The Septuagint, I have spoken, chapter I, 2. Allegorically, just as Jonas rising as it were from the whale preached to the Ninevites, so Christ after his resurrection preached to the gentiles through the Apostles. Thus St. Augustine, whose words I recited chapter II, verse 11.
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3. And Nineveh was a great city. — The Hebrew and Septuagint, great to God; the Chaldean, great before the Lord, that is, truly great, and very great, as Pagninus translated it; for it is great, not to men who marvel at small things, but what appears great to God the best and greatest; and therefore God made so much of Nineveh and its salvation, that for this reason he sent Jonas there, and spared the penitent, as he himself says chapter IV, 11. Thus Theodoret. Suidas errs, in the entry Semiramis, where he says Nineveh is the same city as Babylon: for Nineveh was the royal city of the Assyrians, adjacent to the Tigris; Babylon of the Chaldeans, adjacent to the Euphrates. St. Jerome translated: Nineveh was a great city of God, that is, the greatest. For those things which are God's are the greatest: thus the cedars and mountains of God are called, that is, the greatest and highest. Otherwise from Castro: Of God, he says, that is, divine, that is, perfect in every respect, just as nothing is lacking to God, and he is absolute and perfect in every way. A JOURNEY OF THREE DAYS. — Thus also the Syriac, and both the Arabic versions. First, St. Jerome, Haymo and Remigius understand this of the circumference of Nineveh. For it was, says St. Jerome, "of such extent that it could scarcely be traversed in a journey of three days." Second, as if to say, A journey of three days was necessary for this, so that someone might traverse all its villages and streets. Whence from the Hebrew it can be translated: Nineveh was a city of three days' journey. Thus Theophylactus, Lyra, Vatablus and others. But this seems too slight a reason for Nineveh to be called a great city of God, since there are still many cities not so large which have so many turnings and windings; so many streets, lanes, forums, temples, circuses, mountains, etc., that if resurrection I would prefigure. Thus Pineda in Job, chapter XIX, 26, where from those words of Job: "And again I shall be clothed with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see God my saviour," he probably gathers that Job rose with Christ. For this is Jesus, that is, saviour, whom he predicts he will see, on account of the merit of so many and so great afflictions, by which he represented Christ suffering. Anagogically from Jonas alive again from the whale, St. Irenaeus proves the resurrection of bodies, book V Against Heresies, chapter V, and book III, chapter XXII, where at the same time from the same he shows the magnificence of God to be perfected in the weakness and obedience of man: "For just as," he says, "God patiently endured Jonas to be swallowed by the whale, not that he might be swallowed and perish entirely, but that being vomited forth he might be more subject to God, and might glorify God more, who had given him unhoped-for salvation; and might make firm penance before his enemies so that they might turn to the Lord, who would free them from death, terrified by that sign which was done concerning Jonas, as Scripture says of these: And they turned every one from his evil way, etc. Thus from the beginning patient God endured man to be swallowed by the great whale, which was the author of transgression, not that he might be swallowed and perish entirely, but preparing and making ready the discovery of salvation, which was made by the Word through the sign of Jonas to those who had the same opinion of God as Jonas, and confessed and said: I am the servant of the Lord, and I worship the Lord God of heaven; so that man receiving unhoped-for salvation from God, might rise from the dead and glorify God," etc. And below: "This therefore was the magnanimity of God, that man passing through all things, and receiving knowledge of customs, then coming to resurrection, and learning by experience whence he was freed, might always be grateful to the Lord. But let him know himself, that he is mortal and weak; and let him understand also the Lord, that he is so immortal and powerful, and that he gives immortality to the mortal, and eternity to the temporal." Thus also Tertullian, book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter LVIII, proves the same by the example of Jonas, who lived in the belly of the whale, "in which," he says, "shipwrecks were digested;" and of the three youths, who in the Babylonian furnace remained unharmed by fire; and of Elisha and Enoch: "Who," he says, "not yet distinguished by resurrection, because they have not yet undergone death; and by this very fact already candidates for eternity, learn immunity of the flesh from all vice, and from all damage, and from all injury and insult, to what faith do they set their seal of testimony, except that these ought to be believed to be documents of future integrity?" Wherefore St. Maternus, a disciple of St. Peter, was similar to Jonas buried in the whale and rising thence, who being sent by him with St. Eucharius and Valerius to evangelize Trier, on the very journey was seized by a severe fever near Selestadium and died. His companions returned to St. Peter and received from him a staff, which St. Maternus applied on the fortieth day after his death— you," II Kings XIII, 28. St. Paul knew this, and therefore fearlessly exposed himself to dangers, saying: "Our sufficiency is from God, who hath made us fit ministers of the new testament," II Corinthians III, 5. For God is able to deliver us from all danger, as He delivered David, Psalm V, 13: "O Lord, Thou hast crowned us with the shield of Thy good will;" and St. Paul, II Corinthians I, 4, and Daniel from the lion's den, and the three youths from the Babylonian furnace, and Jonah from the belly of the whale. Secondly, because a greater danger from God the judge threatens us if we flee His calling, as Jonah did; if we do not use the talents entrusted to us by Him for His will and glory. The parable of the servant who buried his talent is well known, who condemned by the Lord heard: "Out of thy own mouth I judge thee, wicked servant, etc., why didst thou not give my money to the bank, that at my coming I might have exacted it with usury?" Luke XIX, 22, concerning which see St. Augustine, book On Faith and Works, chapter XVII. To this pertains that saying of St. Ambrose, book I of Duties, chapter III: "Let us see that we do not render account for idle silence. For there is also a busy silence," as was that of Susanna silently invoking God, Daniel, chapter XIII, 35: "And there is idle silence," as is that of those who are bound to speak, teach, reprove, exhort others. Just as therefore liberty is lost by liberty, rest by rest, idleness by idleness; so on the other hand danger is repelled only by danger, and peace among enemies is prepared only by war, and idleness by business. Vomited forth. – This word signifies that Jonah so weighed upon, constricted, impeded the breathing, and afflicted the belly of the whale, that he forced it to vomit him forth, just as the stomach rejects noxious food from which it is lacerated and afflicted, casting it forth violently. Thus Christ descending into death and hell so afflicted them, that He not only forced them to remove themselves, but also killed them, just as the ichneumon entering through the mouth into the belly of the crocodile, erodes and kills it, as Pliny testifies, book VIII, chapter XXV. This is what Hosea says, chapter XIII, 14: "I will be thy death, O death; thy sting will I be, O hell." From this place some believe that Jonah was one of the Saints who rose with Christ, and with Him both in body and soul gloriously ascended into heaven, Matthew XXVII, 52. For if Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Job rose again; therefore also Jonah. For he alone among others prophesied that Christ would rise on the third day, and in fact represented it, when on the third day from the belly of the whale, as from a sepulcher, he rose again alive. He therefore was most fit to be a witness of Christ's resurrection, and could say to the Jews: I am Jonah, who once foretold Christ's resurrection, and therefore am sent by God to testify that this has now been accomplished. I testify therefore that this is the Christ foretold by me, and that He was truly raised from death on the third day, as I was raised on the third day from the belly of the whale, so that I might of Sigebert, book III of Chronicles, chapter XV, who however puts 33 days instead of 40. Just as therefore Jonah cast forth from the whale for 40 days to the Ninevites, so St. Maternus rising preached for 40 years penance to the Treveri and other Germans and Gauls. them, he raised him up; and afterwards he himself survived for the same number of years, and was an apostle and bishop of the Treveri and Cologne, for as many days as he had lain in the sepulcher, namely forty. Thus his Life and the Chronicle of the Liegois have it, and Otto of Freising, Jonah preaches: Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed. The Ninevites with their king do penance in fasting, sackcloth and ashes. Hence God spares them. 1. And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying: 2. Arise, and go to Ninive, that great city: and preach in it the preaching that I speak to thee. 3. And Jonas arose, and went to Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: and Ninive was a great city of three days' journey. 4. And Jonas began to go into the city one day's journey, and he cried, and said: Yet forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed. 5. And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. 6. And the word came to the king of Ninive: and he rose out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7. And he cried, and said in Ninive, by the decree of the king and of his princes, saying: Let neither men nor beasts, nor oxen, nor sheep taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water. 8. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let every one turn from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands. 9. Who knoweth if God will turn and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish? 10. And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not. 1. And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time. – It appears that Jonas, having been freed from the whale, immediately went to Jerusalem and the temple, so that he might pay his vows to God: at the same time he hoped that God would be satisfied with this punishment and penance of his, and would not urge him further to go to Ninive, when behold God sends him a second time, and says: 2. Arise, and go to Ninive: and preach in it the preaching (threats of destruction) that I speak; – The Septuagint, I have spoken, chapter I, 2. Allegorically, just as Jonas, rising as it were from the whale, preached to the Ninevites, so Christ after his resurrection preached to the gentiles through the Apostles. Thus St. Augustine, whose words I have recited in chapter II, verse 11. 3. And Ninive was a great city. – The Hebrew and Septuagint, great to God; the Chaldean, great before the Lord, that is, truly great, and very great, as Pagninus translated it; for it is great, not to those men who marvel at small things, but to God the best and greatest it seemed great; and therefore God made so much of Ninive and its salvation, that for this reason he sent Jonas to it, and spared the penitent, as he himself says in chapter IV, 11. Thus Theodoret. Suidas errs, in the word Semiramis, where he says Ninive is the same city as Babylon: for Ninive was the royal city of the Assyrians, adjacent to the Tigris; Babylon of the Chaldeans, adjacent to the Euphrates. St. Jerome translated: Ninive was a great city of God, that is, the greatest. For those things which are God's are the greatest: thus cedars and mountains of God are called, that is, the greatest and the highest. Otherwise from Castro: Of God, he says, that is, divine, that is, perfect in every respect, just as nothing is lacking to God, and he is absolute and perfect in every way. A journey of three days. – Thus also the Syriac and both the Arabic versions. First, St. Jerome, Haymo and Remigius understand this of the circumference of Ninive. For it was, says St. Jerome, "of such extent that it could scarcely be traversed in a journey of three days." Second, as if to say, A journey of three days was necessary in order that one might traverse all its villages and streets. Whence from the Hebrew it can be translated: Ninive was a city of three days' journey. Thus Theophylactus, Lyra, Vatablus and others. But this seems too slight a reason for Ninive to be called a great city of God, since there are still many cities not so large which have so many turnings and windings; so many streets, lanes, forums, temples, circuses, mountains, etc., that if anyone wishes to traverse all these things, he can easily spend three days. Hence thirdly, Sanchez and others hold that Nineveh, namely the city together with its suburbs, which on both sides are accustomed to be very extensive in great cities, was so large that to traverse it from one extremity to the other by a straight road, a journey of three days was necessary. For these words plainly signify this: "Nineveh was a great city of three days' journey," namely going from one extremity through the middle to the other extremity. Whence also "Jonas began to enter into the city by a day's journey." Note the phrase "began to enter," namely in a straight line, not by the windings and turnings of streets, much less by a circuit of the walls; for Jonas preached not on the walls, but in the streets of the city. For Nineveh was greater than Babylon and all other cities which were built before or after it, as Ptolemy and Strabo say, and therefore it is called "the great city of God." Hence also Diodorus Siculus, book III, chapter I, says that it, when first founded by Ninus, had in circumference 480 stadia, that is 60 miles, which make up 20 Gallic leagues; that its walls were 100 feet high, and so wide that three chariots could travel upon them at the same time. If at the time of its first foundation it had in circumference twenty leagues, how much did it have after one hundred, two hundred, three hundred years, during which it always grew with the monarchs of the world residing in it? Let us grant that it had about twenty leagues in direct passage, it would have a journey of three days: for a pedestrian daily journey is seven leagues. Add that there were some cities which were long a three days' journey: therefore it is more to be attributed to Nineveh, which was the greatest. The antecedent is evident first in Rome, "whose walls Aurelian," says Vopiscus in his Life, "so enlarged, that nearly fifty thousand miles of its circumference are contained." If the circumference of the walls of Rome was fifty miles (a mile makes a thousand paces); therefore the diameter, which is as it were a third part of the circumference, was about seventeen miles: therefore the length (for this is the diameter) of Rome, from gate to gate through the middle of the city, was seventeen miles, that is about six leagues, which is about a day's journey. Now add the suburbs, which on both sides were so extensive, indeed greater, you will have Rome with its suburbs encompassed a journey of three days and more. Certainly Pliny says of Rome, "the spreading buildings added many cities, Tibur (which is distant from Rome nearly eighteen miles, that is six leagues), Ocriculum, Ariccia." Again, "Nero," says Suetonius, "intended to extend the walls as far as Ostia, and from there to bring the sea by a ditch to the old city," although he did not complete it: Ostia is distant from Rome fifteen miles. Moreover Dionysius writes of his own time "all places around the city inhabited without walls, into which if anyone looking wishes to inquire into the magnitude of Rome, he will labor in vain, and will be at a loss where the city ends, where it begins. So much do the suburbs," he says, "adhere to the city itself and are joined to it, and present the appearance of immense length to the beholder." Take the suburbs along the Flaminian Way as far as Ocriculum, it is a full day's journey; take from the opposite side along the Appian Way towards Naples, as much, indeed more (for that way on account of the delights of Campania was most inhabited, as is evident from the Appian Way paved with great flint as far as Naples), you will easily find in Rome and its suburbs a journey of three days. Wherefore from the suburbs extending so widely, the Suburbicarian regions appear to have been named; for thus were called all which were neighboring to Rome, contained within the hundredth mile from it, as our Sirmondus teaches learnedly, in his book on this matter, part I, chapter V. Hence Lucan asserts Rome to be "Frequent with conquered peoples and nations, and if the throng of mankind should gather, capable of containing it." And below: "One house is a city, a city contains many towns." Lampridius writes that Heliogabalus commanded his slaves to collect all the spiders in the city, and that they collected ten thousand pounds of them, and adds that Heliogabalus remarked, "from this alone it can be understood how great Rome was." Again Lipsius, book III On the Magnitude of Rome, chapter III, clearly proves that Rome easily had four million men, so that Italy was gradually depopulated, since, as Varro complains, many preferred "to move their hands in the theater, rather than in the plow." The same Lipsius, book II, chapter VII, from the stone of Ancyra, teaches that under Augustus there were censused "four hundred thousand heads of Roman citizens," that is four million, and moreover "sixty thousand." Under Claudius however Tacitus and others record "nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, and sixty-four thousand," that is nearly seven million. Consider how great was the city which held so many inhabitants, when Milan, Naples, Venice, and other large cities scarcely contain a third part of a million, namely three hundred thousand citizens. Europe, which our Jonas, that is Christ, converted to penance and salvation by himself and through the Apostles in their journeys. Tropologically, consider how great is the mutability and vanity of human things. Behold Nineveh, once the greatest, richest and most proud city, now lies so buried that one seeks to know where it stood. Wherefore you will scarcely find old Nineveh, nor anything but fields and ruins, "and the plains where Troy was." The Reverend Father John Anthony Marieti, who five years before was sent by the Supreme Pontiff through Syria and Mesopotamia, related to me at Rome that he had been in a city adjacent to the Tigris, named Mosul, which the natives said was Nineveh, and not far thence they showed him the sepulchre of Jonas (which they asserted was visited with great concourse and devotion of Christians flowing together from everywhere), so long and wide that from it one might gather that Jonas was almost a giant. Moreover, huge remains of walls are seen there, indices of ancient greatness. Furthermore, the city is inhabited by Christians, Turks and Arabs; yet the Turk so diminished the Armenians on account of their rebellion, that the city now lacks walls, and of five houses scarcely two or three are inhabited. It is possible that, with old Nineveh destroyed, a new city was built near it, called Mosul; as happened to Jerusalem, Tyre, Tusculum, and even in part to Rome, although we know not whether that tradition of the natives concerning Mosul is old and certain. Certainly, the sepulchre of Jonas does not exist in Nineveh, as they assert, but in Palestine, as Epiphanius, Dorotheus and Isidorus teach in the Life of Jonas, as I said in the Preface; unless you say that the Ninevites erected this sepulchre of Jonas, though he died and was buried elsewhere, as a mausoleum, for the perpetual memory of so great a man. But be it that Mosul is the same city as old Nineveh, it has nothing of its former greatness and magnificence. The same is true of Babylon, of Tanis, of Ecbatana, and other once most powerful cities. Thus passes the glory of the world, thus pass cities, thus pass kings, thus pass men. Platina relates concerning Pope Felix II that Constantius, son of Constantine the Great the emperor, when after receiving the empire he entered Rome in triumph in a golden chariot, was venerated by the citizens who came to meet him, and he used to say that saying of Cineas, the legate of Pyrrhus, was true: "That he saw as many kings in the city of Rome as there were citizens," and then seeing the palaces, the Pantheon, temples, columns, aqueducts, triumphal arches— the great Khan is valued, to ascend, salt excepted, to fifteen thousand thousands of gold pieces, and six hundred thousand, which sum is immense and unheard of. Smaller is Chambalu, that is the royal residence, or seat of the Khan, that is the prince (for thus the Tartars call their prince and emperor), which, as M. Paulus writes in book II On Eastern Affairs, chapter X, has 24 Italian miles in circumference. Others give it 28, others 32. Our Nicolaus Trigautius, in book IV On Chinese Affairs, chapter III, and book V, chapter XII, contends with strong conjectures that Chambalu is Peking, which is the royal residence of the king of the Chinese, and that Cathay is the kingdom of the Chinese. Thirdly, Babylon, says Diodorus in book II of the Library, chapter IV, had in circumference 360 stadia, that is 45 Italian miles, fifteen Gallic leagues. Another Babylon in Egypt, or Memphis, which is now called Cairo, exceeds Paris five times in magnitude, says Ortelius, and spreads very widely along the banks of the Nile, so much so that Selim, the emperor of the Turks, although it was taken by his forces in the year of the Lord 1516, did not dare to enter it. Concerning the same, Aristotle writes in the Politics, book III, chapter II, that when it was taken and the enemy held the first part of the city, those who dwelt in another part of the city did not know on the third day that the city had been captured. Thebes in Egypt, as witnesses Homer, Pliny, Strabo, Pomponius and others, had a hundred gates, or, as some wish, a hundred courts: as many once the houses of princes, and each one was accustomed, when need arose, to pour forth ten thousand armed men. Moscow is also celebrated for its greatness and multitude of houses. Sigismund the Free writes that their number was 41,500. Paris is also celebrated, where the ruins of the suburbs today exceed eight leagues in circumference. In America, the cities of Tenochtitlan and Panama excel in greatness. But if it seems to anyone that a journey of three days in the diameter of the length of one city of Nineveh is too much, let him add another diameter of the width, which intersects the former, and with it makes as it were a cross. For the magnitude of the city of Rome, for example, seems to be measured from two diametral lines intersecting each other; one would be that drawn from the Vatican and terminating at the Porta Pia, by which one goes to St. Agnes; the other would be drawn from the Porta del Popolo and terminating at the Porta Capena, by which one goes to St. Sebastian. This may be said more fittingly of Nineveh, because it was not round, but square, and therefore from two diameters intersecting each other at right angles, whose extreme parts terminate at the four angles of the square, its magnitude, that is its length and width, seems to be measured.
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Indeed Aristotle, in Politics III, chapter II, indicates that some cities are so large that they ought to be called not so much cities as regions surrounded by walls. Mystically, Nineveh containing a journey of three days represents three parts of the world, Asia, Africa, Secondly, the city of Tartary, which is called Quinsay, encompasses a journey of three days, and much more. For this is asserted by Marco Polo Venetus, an eyewitness, in book II On Oriental Matters, chapter LXIV, and from him by Ortelius in the Theatre of the World, in Tartary: "He writes," he says, "that Marco Polo, who is known to have dwelt there around the year of the Lord 1260, Quinsay comprehends a hundred thousand miles in circumference. The same Odoric asserts. It has twelve thousand stone bridges, and they are so high that great ships with mast erect pass under them. The Great Khan has there a standing garrison of thirty thousand: the city is very magnificent and pleasant: it has also derived its name from this, since Quinsay is interpreted as the city of heaven." The same, and from him Lipsius in the place cited, writes that Quinsay famously contains six hundred thousand families. The same Marco Polo, in the following chapter, says that the tribute which from the kingdom of Quinsay annually the Septuagint version, which Origen, Chrysostom and other Greeks follow, and the Arabic Alexandrian, has been corrupted. For it has: Yet three days; perhaps the scribes wrote τεσσαράκοντα, that is forty, by abbreviation; whence others copying read and wrote τρεῖς, that is three. Or by ciphers, namely by letters, they wrote μ, which is the sign for forty, and with one of its apexes erased or less apparent, for μ they read γ gamma, which is the sign for three: especially because there preceded mention of three days (for this was the journey of Nineveh) which by confusion of forms, or by the wandering of eyes, copyists thought were the same as these days of Jonah's preaching. For great is the ignorance of some writers, great the carelessness of others, great the fatigue of others in copying such great volumes, so that they easily substitute one thing for another and write it, as I myself experience daily. Some think that Jonah diminished the number on each day; namely that on the first day of his preaching he said: Yet forty days; on the second, Yet thirty-nine days; on the third, Yet thirty-eight days, and so consequently, until he arrived at the last three, then he said: "Yet three days," etc., namely: "I will wait for you, whether you will do penance," as Isidore of Pelusium says, book IV, epistle 149, and that the Septuagint knew this from tradition and wished to express it here. But this conjecture is at variance with the text, which consistently has: "Yet forty days;" and it is uncertain and not very probable. For the Ninevites do not appear to have delayed penance until the last three days. Wherefore Theodoret prudently: "It is credible," he says, "that even the Septuagint placed a number agreeing with the others (forty), but that those who first wrote erred in this, and thereafter the error remained in all manuscripts." Furthermore St. Augustine, in book XVIII of the City of God, chapter XLIV, thinks that the genuine reading is: "Yet forty days;" but that the Septuagint translated it: "Yet three days," in order to signify the mystery which lies hidden here concerning Christ: "Whether," he says, "by forty days, or by three days, Christ himself is signified by the same: by forty days, namely, because he spent so many days with his disciples after his resurrection, and ascended into heaven: but by three days, because on the third day he rose, as if to say, Seek him in forty days, in which you will also be able to find the three days: you will find that one in his ascension, this one in his resurrection: of which one through the prophet Jonah, the other through the prophecy of the Septuagint interpreters, yet one and the same Spirit spoke." For this reason perhaps St. Justin, Against Trypho, joined and mixed both readings. For he read: "Yet forty-three days," etc. Allegorically Jonah is Christ, the Ninevites are the Jews. Nineveh is Jerusalem, which in the fortieth year from the preaching of Christ was destroyed by Titus and the Romans; thus Eusebius in the Chronicle. phalibus, etc., been astonished, and finally said that "nature had poured forth all its forces into the city." Soon he asked his architect Hormisda what he thought of Rome, who replied that only this pleased him, "that he had learned that in Rome men die equally as elsewhere," having spoken as a philosopher should. Truly Seneca: "Ashes equal all; we are born unequal, we die equal." Wherefore St. Chrysostom wisely admonishes, homily 32 on the epistle to the Hebrews, in the moral sense, that we build houses not on earth soon to fall, but in heaven to last eternally: "No one," he says, "of sound mind builds in a city that is about to fall. Let us not build in this world; for after a little while it will fall, and all things will go to ruin. And why do I say that the world will fall? We ourselves will perish before its ruin, and will suffer severe torments," etc.
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4. Jonah began to enter into the city by a day's journey. – "Jonah," says St. Jerome, "mindful of the command and of his former shipwreck, completed a journey of three days' distance by the haste of one day." This saying of St. Jerome can be understood in two ways. First, that is to say, Jonah, being at a distance of three days' journey from Nineveh, in order to obey God most speedily, completed this entire journey in one day, and on the same day on which he departed from the place where the whale cast him up, he arrived and came to Nineveh. Second, that is to say, Jonah so hastily went about preaching throughout all Nineveh that he traversed it in one day, whereas others require three days for this. But neither sense fits this passage. Not the former, because the Phoenician shore, where Jonah was cast up by the whale, is distant from Nineveh by three hundred leagues: which journey is at least thirty days. If you say with Josephus that he was cast up into the Euxine Pontus, I reply: This Pontus is distant from Nineveh by one hundred thirty leagues, and that through difficult mountains; therefore it is distant from it by a journey of at least thirteen days. Not the latter, both because it is said: "He began to enter into the city;" therefore he did not then complete his ways, nor traverse it, but began to traverse it; and because according to that interpretation it should have been said: Jonah traversed the city in one day. But now this is not said, but the opposite, namely: "Jonah began to enter into the city by a day's journey." Wherefore St. Jerome adds another better interpretation, saying: "Although there are some who understand it thus simply, that he preached in only the third part of the city, and the word of preaching quickly reached the rest." The sense therefore is, that is to say, Jonah entered the first part of the city, which could be traversed in one day: Jonah, preaching, went through the third part of the city, and by preaching cleansed its streets and squares. Thus Remigius, Albert, Hugh, Lyra. Theodoretus, Vatablus, Arias and a Castro agree. But these think that Jonah did not proceed by a straight way, but wandered through the windings of the streets, and by going through the oblique lanes preached all around. Yet forty days. – Thus the Hebrew, Chaldean, Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion. Wherefore Mystically, the number forty is a symbol of penance, concerning which St. Augustine philosophizes subtly, book II of On Christian Doctrine, chapter XVI. Hence St. Gregory, in the plague and mortality of Rome, by which Pope Pelagius, to whom Gregory succeeded in the Pontificate, was destroyed, exhorted the people to penance by the example of Jonah and the Ninevites, and instituted public litanies, and those sevenfold, by which God being appeased stayed the plague. For an angel standing on the mole of Hadrian (where even now his place and image are visited, and from this the mole is called the Castle of St. Angel) was seen to sheathe in its scabbard the drawn sword with which he was striking the citizens; and whenever the image of the Blessed Virgin was carried in the procession, the thick, pestilent and fiery air was seen to be dispersed, purified and cleared. John the Deacon relates his exhortation word for word in his Life, book I, chapter XL, where among many things he says: "For the sluggish sins of the Ninevites were wiped away by three days' penance. Let us therefore change our hearts; the judge is bent to prayer more quickly if the petitioner corrects himself from his wickedness. Therefore with contrition and corrected works, let us come tomorrow to the sevenfold litany with devoted mind and tears; we who have all sinned together, let us all together bewail the evils which we have done, so that the strict judge, considering that we have punished our own sins, may himself spare us from the sentence of the damnation proposed." Again, St. Peter, an eminent preacher and martyr of the Order of St. Dominic, in the year of the Lord 1252, on the twenty-ninth day of April, on which the Church celebrates his feast in the divine office, constantly proposed this theme in his sermons: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed," and by such ardor and spirit inflamed the people that all everywhere did penance, and that public penance. For he said: You, O Milan, you, O Parma, you, O Cremona, are another Nineveh; if you do not do penance for your crimes, you will immediately see your ruin: the scourge of God hangs over you: turn yourself to God, and do penance. Thus Jonah teaches here, and from him St. Gregory and St. Peter the martyr, that preachers ought to propose to the people the threats and terrors of the wrath of God, of death, of judgment, of hell, and by these sharply urge sinners to penance and hatred of sin, that they may escape them and reconcile God to themselves. For these are the hammers that break the rocks. Other orators are like musicians, because they only soothe and tickle the ears.
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And Nineveh shall be overthrown, – with the kingdom and monarchy of the Assyrians, which shall be transferred to Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus, as the Septuagint has it, Tobias XIV, 6, that is to the Babylonians and Medes, as will be evident Nahum II, 8; whence Josephus, lib. IX Antiq. XI: "Jonas," he says, "preached in the midst of the city, because after a very short time they would lose the dominion of Asia." Note: This prophecy of Jonas was comminatory and conditional, that is to say Nineveh shall be overthrown, unless it repent, unless it change its ways, and thus obtain from God that this sentence of destruction be taken away or suspended; as indeed it did not obtain its removal, but its suspension, as I said in the Preface. Thus Origen, hom. 1 On Repentance, St. Jerome here, St. Gregory, XIX Moral. XVIII; St. Thomas, I part. Quest. XIX, art. 7, and others. Otherwise St. Gaudentius responds, tract. 3 to Neophytes: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Truly, he says, he predicted: "for its iniquity was overthrown, because it repented. As the heaven is distant from the earth, saith God to men, so are my thoughts distant from your thoughts, and my counsels from your counsels," Isaiah LV. The sense therefore is: Nineveh, not the city, but its iniquity shall be overthrown, so that there may be another and pious Nineveh. But this is tropological, not literal. Thus in the year of the Lord 396, Arcadius being Emperor, St. Augustine says in On the Destruction of the City, cap. VI: "Wishing to terrify the city of Constantinople, and by terrifying to amend it, by terrifying to convert it, by terrifying to cleanse it, by terrifying to change it, there came to a certain faithful servant of his, a military man, in a revelation, and said to him that the city would perish by fire coming from heaven, and he admonished him to tell the Bishop; it was told, the Bishop did not despise it, and he addressed the people. The city was converted to the mourning of repentance, just as that ancient Nineveh of old," etc. He then narrates how through repentance they escaped these threats. 5. And the men of Nineveh believed in God, – that is in God. Note: For the Hebrews to believe in God, or to believe in God, is the same as to believe God, as Ribera rightly observed. Whence the Hebrew יאמינו באלהים iaaminu belohim, you may translate in three ways, but signifying the same thing, namely: first, they believed in God; second, they believed in God; third, they believed God. For beth is a particle of contact, which the Hebrews use, so that they say to touch in the hand, that is, to touch the hand: to believe in God, or God, that is to believe God. For the Latins, however, to believe in God is more efficacious, and signifies more, than to believe God; namely not only to place faith, but also all hope and confidence joined with love in God; to commit themselves and their affairs to God's care, to resign all their things to faith in God, to entrust their salvation to God. Thus here the Ninevites, believing the preaching of Jonas, believed through faith that the God of the Hebrews, whom Jonas preached, was the true God, and therefore that these oracles of Jonas were true, and that Nineveh would truly be overthrown, unless they repented. Consequently they hoped in God, that He would admit them to repentance, and would spare the penitent, and would receive them back into favor; for unless they had had this hope, they would never have undertaken so difficult a repentance. You will ask, by what argument were the Ninevites moved to believe Jonas? For he is imprudent and rash who without reason and foundation believes someone to be a Prophet, or this or that to be an oracle of God, especially in a matter so grave and unheard of, such as was the destruction of the city and monarchy of Nineveh; whence the Apostles performed miracles and other signs, without which the gentiles were not bound, indeed they could not prudently have believed them. I answer: The Ninevites were moved to believe Jonas through the miracle of his being swallowed and his liberation from the belly of the whale, which Jonas set before them, and which had already been spread throughout the whole East by sailors. This is what Christ says in Luke XI, 30: "For as Jonas was a sign to the Ninevites, so shall the Son of Man also be to this generation." For this sign clearly demonstrated to them that Jonas was sent to them by God, and at the same time warned and terrified them lest, if they did not believe Jonas, they would be punished equally, indeed more than Jonas, and be swallowed up by water or earth. There was added the internal illumination and inspiration of God, which moved their souls to believe. The gravity, prudence, piety, abstinence and holiness of Jonas helped, which clearly showed that Jonas was not foolish, not frivolous, not a liar; but a serious, prudent, pious and trustworthy man. And they proclaimed (proclaimed) a fast, – through the magistrate, indeed through the king, as it appears; for the king proclaimed this fast in Nineveh, vers. 7, nor could anyone else proclaim this to all Nineveh except the king. There is therefore here a hysterologia. For this oracle of Jonas first reached the king, as follows vers. 6, before the fast was proclaimed, as this vers. 5 says; but Scripture wished to attach obedience to the preaching of Jonas, and the whole work of the Ninevites, namely that they believed and repented in fasting and sackcloth; and then to proceed to the king, and to narrate his mind and deeds, of which it subjoins: Vers. 6. 6. And it reached, – that is because it had reached: for it gives the reason for the public fast and repentance of the Ninevites, namely that the king, hearing the threatening oracle of Jonas, put forth and promulgated an edict of fasting and repentance throughout the whole city.
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You ask, who was this king? I answer: It is probable that he was Sardanapalus, whom Diodorus, Justinus and other pagan historians place as the last monarch of the Assyrians, from whom the monarchy was transferred to the Medes through Arbaces, prefect of Media. Thus Castro and Torniellus in the Annals, in the year of the world 3213, and others. St. Jerome favors this, in cap. I of Amos, vers. 1, where explaining the title of Amos, by which he says he prophesied in the days of Ozias king of Judah, and Jeroboam king of Israel, "when," he says, "among the Assyrians and the cities of Cilicia reigned Sardanapalus, of whom a notable orator said: 'More shameful in vices than in name'; and among the Latins Procas Silvius, to whom Amulius, having expelled Numitor, succeeded in the kingdom; when he was killed, Romulus, gathering a band of shepherds, founded a city of his own name." Therefore Amos, and consequently Jonas (for they were contemporaries) prophesied in the time of Ozias, Jeroboam and Sardanapalus (for these were equally contemporaries). Again, that Jonas prophesied in the time of Jeroboam, and consequently of Sardanapalus, is clearly stated in IV Kings cap. XIV, 25. St. Augustine also favors this, lib. XVIII De Civitate Dei, XXVII, where he teaches that Jonas, Amos and Osee prophesied under the end of the Assyrian empire, namely when it was falling, as Rome was beginning to be founded, because their prophecies concerning Christ suffering and rising again were written for the Romans and Gentiles to be converted to Christ. Eusebius also favors this in his Chronicle, who places Jonas under the time of Sardanapalus. You will say: Eusebius says Sardanapalus reigned for 20 years; and his twentieth and last year he places in the sixth year of Ozias king of Judah, which was the 18th year of Jeroboam king of Israel; but afterwards in the 17th year of Ozias, which was the 29th of Jeroboam, and the 11th of Arbaces reigning in Media, thus he writes: "The prophets Osee, Amos, Isaias and Jonas were prophesying among the Hebrews." Therefore Jonas prophesied 11 years after the death of Sardanapalus; therefore he did not prophesy while Sardanapalus was reigning. I answer, I deny the consequence. For "they were prophesying" does not signify the beginning of prophecy (for these four did not begin in the same year, namely the 17th of Ozias, to prophesy), but confusedly the time when these prophets flourished, as if to say: Under this time, namely before and after the 17th year of Ozias, Osee, Amos, Isaias and Jonas prophesied. For since it is established that they prophesied for many years, and it is not certain in what year each one began, Eusebius rightly says in general and confusedly that they prophesied at this time, that is, flourished. For when in chronology the time is recorded when some prophet, doctor or bishop flourished, the first year in which he began, or the last in which he ended, is not recorded; but rather the middle: for in the middle of the age of prophecy and teaching men are accustomed to flourish, both in grace, both in wisdom, both in authority. This opinion is confirmed first, because chronologists everywhere say that Sardanapalus was a contemporary of Jeroboam, under whom Jonas prophesied. I except one Genebrard, who thinks Sardanapalus was he who in Scripture is called Asarhaddon, and was the son of Sennacherib, after whom no king of the Assyrians is placed in Scripture. For Asarhaddon reigned long after Ozias and Jeroboam, under Ezechias and Manasses. But this opinion of Genebrard is everywhere rejected by other chronologists. Second, because these same agree that the monarchy of Nineveh and the Assyrians perished in Sardanapalus, and after it they place the kingdom of Arbaces and the Medes; but Jonas was sent to Nineveh, when it flourished in riches and kingdom: therefore not after Sardanapalus, but while he was reigning. Third, because Sardanapalus was most luxurious, and was dissolved in luxury and vices, his city Nineveh followed him: these therefore are the vices on account of which Jonas threatens destruction to the city. Fourth, because although shortly after Sardanapalus it is clear from Scripture that the kingdom was restored to Nineveh, and in it reigned Phul, Teglatphalasar, Salmanasar, Sennacherib and Asarhaddon; yet these did not reign with Ozias and Jeroboam, under whom Jonas prophesied, but after them. Again, in the destruction of Sardanapalus and the transfer of the monarchy, it seems that Nineveh was sufficiently punished, so that there was no need afterwards to send Jonas to it. Moreover, that Jonas was sent before its destruction is clear, because he was sent to threaten it and to preach it as if future. From what has been said it is gathered that Sardanapalus, hearing the oracles and threats of Jonas, was converted, and did penance with his Ninevites, but when he returned shortly after to his usual delights and vices, the Ninevites also returned to the same, as those accustomed to concubinage and other vices are accustomed to do. Whence then God stirred up Arbaces, who invaded Sardanapalus and Nineveh, and forced him to the burning of his palace and himself, and transferred the monarchy to the Medes; concerning which I have spoken in the Preface. And the king, namely Sardanapalus, rose up from his throne, and cast away his garment from him (Tigurina, his cloak, namely his imperial robe, diadem, scepter and other royal insignia), and was clothed in sackcloth (haircloth), and sat in ashes. – Note here that the habit and works of penance are not mere repentance, as Calvin wishes, but groaning, sackcloth, ashes, fasting. Thus Tertullian, Cyprian, Chrysostom, St. Augustine, Pacianus in the tract on Penance.
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St. Ambrose expounds this history of Jonah most excellently at the end of volume II: "The king of Nineveh, he says, surpassed his enemies in strength, but conquered God by humility. A wise king, I say, who confesses himself a sinner rather than a king for the salvation of his citizens. For he forgets that he is a king when he greatly fears God the king of all; nor does he remember his power when he acknowledges the power of divinity. A marvelous thing: while he does not remember that he is a king of men, he begins to be a king of justice. Therefore a religious prince did not lose his empire, but changed it. For he held his principate before by military discipline, now he holds the principate of heavenly disciplines." And further below: "That the whole city might fast, the king first imposed hunger upon himself; and alone among all he began to hunger before the soldier. For it was necessary that he who had been more powerful than all should become more devoted than all." 7. And he cried and said (supply herald, thus Vatablus; or "he cried and said," that is, he caused it to be proclaimed and decreed) from the mouth of the king,—that is, his own. It is a Hebraism. Whence the Chaldean translator renders it: And he commanded to proclaim by a herald and to say throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his princes. Thus also Pagninus. Let neither men, nor beasts, nor oxen, nor sheep taste anything.—St. Chrysostom gives the reason, homily 3 to the People: "And the brute beasts fast, and horses and mules are clothed in sackcloth. Indeed, he says: just as when some rich man dies, they clothe not only servants and handmaids, but also domestic horses in sackcloth, and deliver them to grooms to follow to the tomb, displaying the magnitude of calamity and drawing all to mercy; so also in that city (Nineveh) when it was in danger of perishing, they wrapped even the brute nature in sackcloth and subjected it to the yoke of fasting. It is not permitted to brutes to learn God's wrath by speech; let them learn the plague of hunger which is inflicted by God; for if, he says, the city were destroyed, not only of us inhabitants, but of these also there would be one grave. Therefore, those who ought to have a share in punishment also seek a share in fasting." He then gives another reason: When, he says, they were full of confusion and had nothing of excuse, "they resort to brutes, and bewailing their death, they make from these a miserable and mournful supplication, setting before themselves their perdition." And St. Ambrose, near the end of volume II: "For, he says, the satisfaction of sinners was not sufficient to appease God, unless the sins of the elders, the innocence of the little ones bewailed, and youth washed away its offenses with the tears of others." Note: It is probable that this rigid fast of the Ninevites lasted for some days, for example three, as St. Chrysostom holds in homily 1 On Penance, so that for three days neither man nor beast tasted anything of food or drink; then they continued this
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a fast of forty days, but in such a way that at their appointed time, for example in the evening, they took some bread and water to sustain their nature; otherwise indeed they could not have naturally prolonged life for forty days without food and drink; but their sackcloth, clamor and prayers continued for forty days. In a similar manner in the year of the Lord 1124, Christians in the Holy Land besieged by Saracens, following the example of the Ninevites, imposed a solemn fast even upon infant children and beasts, and thus obtained from God a miraculous victory over them. For when three thousand Christians, with the Patriarch bearing the cross, and an abbot of Cluny bearing the lance by which the side of Christ was pierced, went forth into battle against forty thousand Saracens; a splendor from heaven fell upon the Saracens and so weakened them that they were slaughtered fleeing in all directions, not only by men, but also by children and women. Seven thousand perished in the battle (five thousand were submerged in waters); but all the Christians, returning unharmed, sang a hymn of victory to God. Thus from Robert Sigebert, Cardinal Baronius, in the year 1124. 8. And they cried out with strength, – strongly, with sustained voice: Mercy, mercy, have mercy upon us, O God, according to Thy great mercy. Thus the men cried out. But the beasts, on account of hunger, bellowed, lowed, each resounding with its own voice to heaven. This common lamentation of men and beasts stayed God's wrath, and turned it to mercy. St. Basil depicts it graphically, homily 8 against the avaricious, which is inscribed: In Famine and Squalor; and homily 4 On Penance. Thus Virgil, eclogue V, says concerning the death of Julius Caesar, whom he calls Daphnis, that the sheep fasted, the cattle and other animals, and mourned his death with mournful wailing. Indeed he even adds: Daphnis, even the Carthaginian lions groaned at thy death, and the wild mountains and forests speak. In a similar manner Plutarch relates in his Life that Alexander mourned the death of Hephaestion, and the Thebans the death of Pelopidas. And let every man turn from his evil way. – St. Chrysostom, homily 3 to the People: "Let us see," he says, "what dissolved that inevitable wrath; was it fasting alone and sackcloth? Not at all, but the transformation of the whole life; because each one turned from his evil ways, and repented of the evil which he had said he would do, the Lord repented. For the honor of fasting is not abstinence from foods, but flight from sins. Do you fast? Show me by the very works. What works, you ask? If you see a poor man, have mercy; if you see an enemy, reconcile with him; if you see a friend acting praiseworthy, do not envy; if you see a beautiful woman, pass by. For not the mouth alone should fast, but also the eye, and the ear, and the feet, and the hands, and all the members of our body. Let the hands fast, cleansed from rapine and avarice; let the feet fast, restraining their course to illicit spectacles; let the eyes fast, learning never to rush upon beautiful sights, nor to look curiously upon the beauty of others; for food of the eyes is sight; let the ear also fast, and the fasting of the ears is not to receive detraction and calumny; let the mouth also fast from foul words and abuse. For what profit is it, when we abstain indeed from birds and fishes, but bite and devour our brothers? he who detracts devours the flesh of his brothers," etc. From this passage it appears that the Ninevites (at least many of them) were truly contrite, and therefore justified and saved by this penance, whoever persevered in justice until the end of life. For they believed in the true God, elicited acts of hope, fear, and sorrow; they performed a stern and unheard-of, and indeed public penance; indeed the king himself first, laying aside his royal garment, put on sackcloth, and sprinkled himself with ashes; which were certainly signs of great internal sorrow and contrition, and, what is the greatest sign of penance and the most noble act, they turned from their former dissolute and wicked life to a chaste and holy one. Whence God approved and accepted these works of their penance, and forgave them the punishment, and likewise the guilt, as it appears. Thus St. Chrysostom, in the homily "That no one is harmed except by himself": "The Ninevites, he says, turned to the fear of God, and casting off the evils of their former life, devoted themselves through penance to virtue and justice, with such faithful satisfaction that they revoked the sentence already divinely promulgated." And in book I "On Praying to God": "First, he says, the Ninevites will come forth, whom it is clear received remission of many crimes, by which they had provoked divine wrath upon themselves, through the aid of prayer. For as soon as the zeal for prayer seized them, he made them just; and the city, which had already grown accustomed to licentiousness, malice, in short, to living contrary to law and impiously, he immediately corrected; namely, more powerfully than the long-standing habit of sinning, when he had filled that city with heavenly laws, he drew along with it temperance, gentleness, humanity and care for the poor. Indeed, if anyone had entered the city of the Ninevites at that time, who had previously known it well, he would not have recognized it at all; so suddenly had it leaped from the most shameful life to piety." Wherefore although some think the Ninevites were only attrite, yet the contrary is more true, that they were also truly contrite; and they underwent this penance not only from fear of punishment, but also from love of justice. The same is confirmed from the fact that Scripture and the Fathers, especially St. Chrysostom, everywhere propose the example of the Ninevites to sinners, as the most illustrious mirror of penance. Whence Christ, Matthew XII, 41: "The men of Ninive, he says, shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas. And behold more than Jonas here." Hence St. Gregory, in Psalm VII on Penance: "Penance, he says, is one of the perfect gifts descending from the Father of lights." And Tertullian, in the book "Against the Psychics," chapter XVI, celebrates "Ninevitic justice," although the truer reading of Pammelli has: "Ninevitic cessation," that is, cessation from every kind of food and drink with the heathen, who, as he said before, "are veiled in sackcloth by annual rite, and sprinkled with ashes." The same teaches St. Ambrose, sermon 28, which was delivered on the First Sunday of Lent, and St. Ephrem, sermon "On Jonas." The same teaches expressly Andrew Vega, book XIII "On Justification," chapter V: "Nineveh, he says, as is likely, had many who had at some time fallen from received grace, and yet suddenly at the preaching of Jonas acknowledged God, and through penance not only escaped the danger of threatened death; but also, as Chrysostom asserts, received the crown of an unknown life, and it is easier, as Augustine says (book "On Penance," middle of V), that the threat of the Prophet be evacuated than the humiliation of penance." The same teach others, and St. Thomas hints at it, III part, Question LXXXIV, article 7, to 1. The Council of Trent, session XIV, favors this. The same, sermon 30 in the Canticles: "The tears of the penitent are wine for the angels." If you desire more, see what I have noted on II Corinthians VII, 11. 9. Who knows if he will turn? – The "if" is not in the Hebrew, but is understood; whence with it omitted, the Chaldean and Arias thus translate: "Who knows that sins are in his hands, let him turn from them, and it will have mercy upon him from the face of the Lord"; as if here certain hope of pardon is given to the penitent, indeed certainty of obtaining mercy. But better our author, the Septuagint, Pagninus, Vatablus and others understand "if" as supplied, as if the Ninevites are uncertain about pardon, and doubt about it, and hang suspended between hope and fear; for it is plainer and more usual in Hebrew to supply and fill out the single word "if" to that: "Who knows," than these many: "That sins are in his hands." Add that the Hebrew מי mi is interrogative, and signifies "who," not "which"; for "which" is signified by the demonstrative he. The Ninevites doubt concerning remission, not of guilt, but of punishment, as if to say: Who knows whether God will be pleased by our penance and revoke the sentence concerning the overthrow of Nineveh? In a similar manner God forgave the adultery of David, but punished him with the death of the son born from it, II Kings XII, 19. Whence Francis Suarez, vol. IV On Penance, disp. XXXVII, sect. IX, from these words of Jonah and similar ones in Joel II, 14, teaches that no one, however just he may be, can satisfy worthily for accidental or extraordinary punishment, such as was here the overthrow of Nineveh; indeed, he can do nothing by which he would infallibly obtain the remission of such punishment. Whence St. Augustine in Psalm L: "Out of uncertainty," he says, "they did penance, and merited certain mercy." And St. Jerome: "For this reason," he says, "ambiguity is set forth, so that while men are uncertain about their salvation, they may do penance more earnestly and provoke the Lord's mercy more greatly." Secondly, others extend this doubt to the remission of guilt; for although the promises of God are most certain, by which He promised pardon to the penitent, nevertheless it is uncertain whether man fulfills the condition which the promise requires; namely, that he be sufficiently disposed to grace; that is, that he be truly contrite from love of God, not merely attrited from fear of punishments. Thus Gregory of Valencia, II-II, tract. On Grace, disp. VIII, Question IV, and Cardinal Bellarmine, lib. III On Justification, cap. VI.
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And God will spare. – In Hebrew, and let God do penance, or be moved by penitence. Thus the Septuagint. Pagninus and Vatablus. Hence the ancient heretics, such as Marcion, Manes and others, held that the God of the Old Testament was not true, nor perfect, inasmuch as pain and penance could befall Him. Marcion therefore objected: "God is to be blamed, who indeed did penance for justice which ought not to be repented of." Tertullian responds, lib. II Against Marcion, cap. XXIV, that the penance of men is one thing, that of God another: "For in God nothing else is understood than
a change of the former sentence, which could also be admitted without blame in man, much less in God, whose every sentence lacks fault, which we have shown to occur according to the variation of circumstances." St. Chrysostom beautifully, hom. 1 On Penance, teaches that there is truly no penance in God, because He does not will, nor wish evil for us; but only threatens, lest He be forced to inflict it: "For what reason," he says, "do you predict the evils you are about to do? So that I may not do what I predict. For this reason also He threatened hell, so that He might not bring in hell. Let the words terrify you, lest the deeds disturb you." In the same place he shows how great was the force of the fervor of the penance of the Ninevites: "They," he says, "wished to dissolve such great anger of sins in three days;" and how great was the clemency of God, "content with three days of penance for so many sins. For he who is kindled with aroused purpose and shows penance with much diligence, will be able to blot out the sins of a long time in a brief moment of time?" Where note that Chrysostom holds the opinion that the Ninevites immediately did penance at the preaching of Jonah. Since therefore Jonah preached: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," it follows that they did penance for 40 days. But because Chrysostom read: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," hence he holds that they did penance for only three days. The same, hom. in Psalm vii: Men, he says, suppose enemies, threaten punishment and actually inflict it: "But not so God, but quite the contrary, and He both predicts and delays, and terrifies with words, and does everything so that what He threatens He may not bring. He did this also with the Ninevites. For he also drew the bow, and brandished the sword, and prepared arrows, and did not inflict the blow. Do not the words of the Prophet seem to you to be a bow, and an arrow, and a sharp sword, when he says: Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown? but he did not send the arrow; for it was not prepared in order that it be sent, but that it be put away."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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V. 4 « Et factum est verbum Domini ad. lonam secundo, dicens :
Ionam e mari servatum ad templum ascendisse ibique vota persolvisse opinantur (cf. Sanct.). Deus autem misericors, cuius dona sunt sine poenitentia, eum a gratia muneris prophetici et praedicationis officio non reiicit; Ionas vero iuremerito alterum exspectat mandatum, cum vereri potuerit, ne Deus refragantem dignitate illa et missione privaret aliumque magis obedientem sibi nuntium atque legatum deligeret.
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v. 2 surge et vade in Niniven civitatem magnam et praedica in ea praedicationem quam ego loquor ad te!
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v. 3 et surrexit [Ionas et abiit in Niniven iuxta, verbum Domini. Et Ninive erat civitas magna itinere trium dierum ».— « Non dicitur prophetae, quare non fecisti quod tibi fuerat imperatum, sed sufficit ei naufragii et devorationis sola correptio, ut qui imperantem non senserat Dominum, intelligeret liberantem » (S. Hier.). Hebr. et Ninive erat urbs magna Domino, LXX ueváA «à. Oc ; idem Syrus ; Chald. coram Iahve; etiam S. Hier. in commentario scribit : « nullique dubium, quare Ninive magna sit civitas Dei, cum mundus et universa per ipsum facta sint ». Aliqui id solum dici volunt, urbem fuisse vere permagnam, non solum opinione et fama hominum, sed etiam vere 1. e. in conspectu Dei, ad eundem fere modum, quo montes altissimi montes Dei dicantur etc. (cf. Rib. Sa, Mar. Tir. Kaulen, Trochon). Melius explicat Theod. : « plurimi, inquit, faciebat Deus huius urbis salutem, quippe qui in ea permagnum hominum numerum crearat » (sim. Theoph.), et Theod. M. : « significat eam divina providentia fuisse auctam, atque ita nos docet, quominus humanum quidquam putemus in gloriam venire posse, nisi id Deus cura sua dignetur ». Urbs illa Deo, Elohim, quo nomine Deus mundi rerumque naturalium gubernator ac rector potentissimus praecipue designatur, particulari curae ac providentiae fuisse dicitur, quod iam ex eo elucet, quia prophetam ad illam ablegaverit, id quod nulli alii obvenisse legimus. Habuit enim, uti ex historia sacra colligimus, regnum assyriacum in consilio divinae de genere humano et populo electo dispositionis magnum quoddam et. eminens officium et munus : vastum illud imperium a Deo assumebatur ad alias gentes coercendas, castigandas et ut in ipsum regnum israeliticum et iudaicum minister esset divinae iustitiae vindicativae. Ninive, civitas magna, sita erat ad ripam orientalem Tigridis et propter magnitudinem celebrata ; eam multo ampliorem Babylone Strabo esse ait (16, 13) et, ut Diodorus Siculus ex Ctesia refert, ambitu 480 stadiorum erat insignis. Secundum ea, quae excavationibus factis et ex cuneiformibus inscriptionibus hodiedum noscuntur, ea urbs proprie JYinive (Ninua, Nina) vocabatur, quae e regione hodierni Mosul sita ea spatia occupabat quae hodie Kuyundschik et Nabiyunus fere designantur. Sed cum apud Ionam JVinive constanter vocetur civitas magna, intelligitur, Niniven non sensu stricto, verum latiore significatione esse accipiendam. Quid vero ea sibi velit appellatio, discere possumus ut recte Kaulen innuit ex Gen. 10, 12. Eo enim in loco quattuor urbes recensentur Ninive, Rechaboth-Ir, Chale, Resen et enumeratio concluditur : haec es! civitas magna, unde quattuor urbium complexus nomine isto designabatur. Iam cum eadem appellatio apud Ionam constanter cum Ninive coniungatur, dici oportet Niniven illo addito complexum et ambitum designare quattuor illarum urbium !, qui itinere trium dierum accuratius definitur. Urbium illarum ambitum Jones Anglus 90 milliariis anglicis constare asserit (cf. /Vtebuhr, Assur und Babel p. 2'14. 271), quod spatium utique trium dierum itineri aequiparandum est. Et verba textus de ambitu et quasi circuitione urbis, non de longitudine recta linea dimetienda, accipi debere, iam S. Cyr. Theod. M. Theoph. docent. Cum verba urbis magnitudinem designent non habita ratione praedicationis, eorum sententia probari nequit, qui volunt, tribus diebus opus fuisse, ut praedicatio per totam urbem fieret (cf. G. Rawlinson, The five Monarchies I p. 231). Salmanassar II rex Assyriorum (a. Ch. 860-8235) regiam sedem prius habuit in JYinive proprie dicta, postmodum in Chale, quae urbs, ab Asurnasirhabal patre eius iterum exstructa, regionem hodierni JVémrud occupabat. Unde probabile fit, etiam tempore Ionae regiam sedem proprie fuisse in Chale, i. e. in parte meridionali civitatis magnae. Quare praedicatio Ionae, qui a Palaestina veniens meridionalem partem prius ingressus est, mox ad palatium regium fama perlata est.
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V. 4 « Et coepit Ionas introire in civitatem itinere diei unius et clamavit et dixit : adhuc quadraginta dies et Ninive subvertetur » ; — « non recta per urbem iter faciens, sed fora, vicos, compita cireumiens denuntiabat fore, ut Ninive ? subvertatur » (Theod. Theoph.). Aliter Kaulen : ita scil. ut linea urbem dimetiens itinere trium dierum sese extenderit, Ionas igitur recto tramite processisse censendus sit.
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1. Descriptionem illarum vide: Jul. Oppert, Expédition scientifique en Mé-opotamie I. p. 287 et seq. simul cum chartis geographicis. Insuper. G.. Rawlinson, Tho. tive. great. Monarchies 2. ed. I p. 248: « the reinains at khorsabad, Koyunjik, Ninrud and. Kereinles marked the four corners of this vast quadrangle, which contained an area of 216 square miles — about teu times that of Loudon ». Ahorsabad nos oiittere debemus, cum ea urbs circa an. 110 a Sargon demum exstructa sit. Est pars quam maximo scptemtrionalis. 9. Noli LXX habent £-t c2: 7uízai ; reliqui testes omnes, uti iam TAeod. adnotat 40 dios etl sedit in cinere ». — Ninivitae certe non plane ignari erant mirae illius potestatis, qua Deus Israelitarum et suis servis assistebat et inimicos prosternebat. Si igitur propheta talis Dei subito atque intrepide inter eos apparet, eorum scelera acriter reprehendit et fortitudine plus quam humana et omni timore longe superior omnique certitudinis pondere certum denuntiat interitum, quem propter enormia scelera se meruisse scelerati ipsi conscientiae voce ac remorsibus in immensum clamantibus negare omnino non possunt, adeo difficile non erit explicare, .cur tanti animorum motus sint excitati. Adde, quod praecipuum est, prophetae vocem divino animatam ac roboratam spiritu (Sanct.) ; « internam Dei illuminationem ac inspirationem, quae animos illorum commovit ad credendum ; iuvit gravitas, prudentia, pietas, abstinentia et sanctitas Ionae, quae plane ostendebat Ionam non esse fatuum, non levem, non mendacem, sed virum serium, prudentem, pium ac fide dignum » (Lap.); adde, Assyrios, quippe qui magis atque vatibus plurimam fidem adhiberent omnesque vitae rationes multiplici divinationum et praesagiorum genere perscrutarentur, dirigerent, eo ipso pronos fuisse et assuetos, ut prophetae affirmationi aures praeberent; adde, quod Theod. M. haud incongrue notat : « exploratum est, prophetam et Dei meminisse omnium Domini et se missum ab eo confirmasse et praeconium exitii fecisse atque ad poenitentiam esse adhortatum, quarum rerum notitia imbuti merito dicti sunt credidisse Deo ». Demum perpende !, quantopere propria conscientia eos accusare et condemnare debuerit et si Ionas tam validum interpretem in ipsis invenerit, quid hominis eloquentia virtute suffulta efficere potuisse censenda sit ? * Quam communis fuerit in omni ordine animorum commotio, indicatur: a magno eorum usque ad parvum eorum (hebr.) ; i. e. « illustres et obscuri, optimates et. plebeii, divitiis et deliciis affluentes et sub paupertatis onere laborantes » (Cyr.). Signa edunt poenitentiae sincerae ; « dignus et victus et habitus poenitentiae, ut qui offenderant Deum luxu et ambitione, eorum damnatione placent, per quae prius offenderant. Saccus et ieiunium arma sunt poenitentiae, auxilia peccatorum ; ante ieiunium et, sic saccus ; ante quod occultum est, et postea quod palam ; hoc semper Deo, illud interdum exhibetur et hominibus » (S. IHier.). — Rex quoque regium ornamentum deposuit, pallium pretiosum (hebr. nm cf. Ios. 'l, 21. 24) a se removit, poenitentis habitum et conditionem assumpsit omnesque edicto regio ad poenitentiam adegit : v. 1 « et clamavit et dixit in Ninive ez ore regis et principum eius, dicens : homi- . nes et iumenta et boves et pecora non gustent quidquam, nec pascantur, et aquam non bibant ;
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v. 8 et operiantur saccis homines et iumenta et clament ad Dominum 1n fortitudine ; et convertatur vir a. via sua mala et ab iniquitate, quae est in manibus eorum » ; — hebr. et proclamare iussit et dixit in Ninive ex mandato regis et magnatum eius i. e. per praecones decretum ' regis a regio consilio magnatum propositum publice promulgatum est. Uti animalia in sollemnitatibus laetis ornantur et festiva pompa incedunt, uti in pompis funebribus etiam equi luctus insignia gerere solent ?, ita pariter absurdum non est, si in communi luctu et poenitentia etiam domesticis animalibus propter magnam illam ad homines habitudinem afflictio et ieiunium imponatur. Forte id etiam adverti potest, maiorem esse orientalibus familiaritatem et quasi vitae societatem cum iumentis — cogita 2 Reg. 12, 3 vel Arabes cum equis suis et camelis familiariter agentes —, quare illa arcte cum hominis vita sorteque coniuncta eventuum et laetorum et tristium societatem ineunt. Hac iumentorum inedia Assyrios excellentiam et magnitudinem poenitentiae demonstrasse aliqui volunt (Cyr. Theoph. Rib.), alii id factum esse censent, «ut his fame pressis et partim mugientibus partim balantibus, et suam singulis vocem promentibus ferventiores lacrimas homines funderent » (TAheod.), ut eorum quoque miseria dolor hominum augeretur et communi omnium tristitia et moerore homines ad maiorem et acriorem luctum incitarentur; vel « ut mugitu, balatu atque rugitu lugubri suam Domino famem et dolorem ostenderent, quae cum nihil unquam in Deum peccavissent, illius averterent furorem et in homines scelerum reos divinam misericordiam provocarent » (Sanct.) eius scil., « qui dat iumentis escam et pullis corvorum invocantibus eum », ad quem ipsae bestiae imbrem exspectantes suspicere dicuntur (cf. Ioel 1, 20. Iob 39, 3. Ps. 103, 91 ; 1406, 9), et cuius effatum est: « novit iustus iumentorum suorum animas, viscera autem impiorum crudelia » (Prov. 12, 10). Aliam ? rationem Aib.'assignat, « ne homines in pascendis animalibus occupati a luctu poenitentiae retrahantur ». Ratio quam: maxime obvia esse videtur, ut generali luctu etafflictione ipsi homines mandato et in terminum technicum abiisse videtur; vox ipsa ex lingua accadica in assyriacam migravit et ex locis parallelis etc. significatio eius propria est : verbum bonum (i. o. a superiore procedens) quod mittitur; cf. Strassmaier, Verzcichniss der akkadischen uad assyr. Woerter p. 443 n. 3490. 9. Varia ex veteribus vide apud Sanct. Lap. Calm. kKaulen. magis tangantur et numen divinum placetur. In quem finem etiam infan-: tium ieiunium optime inservit. Movet enim eorum aspectus homines eisque culpae magnitudinem, cui tanta imposita sit a maioribus poena, vivide ob oculos ponit; insuper innocentium ploratus et eiulatus quam maxime efficax censetur ad numen divinum placandum et miseratione emolliendum (cf. Sanct.). Istis operibus iubet edictum regium addi clamores validos, preces ardentes et seriam vitae emendationem, vitiorum correctionem, oppressioniset iniustitiae retractationem et amotionem. Pulcherrimum sane verae poenitentiae eiusque affectuum exemplum ! Bene monet Kaulen, duo praesertim peccata ex regio decreto colligi, impudicitiam et avaritiam (cf. Gen. 6, 12. Amos 3, 10). Hisce vero sperari posse regio edicto edicitur sententiae divinae immutationem
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v. 9 « quis scit, si convertatur et 4gnoscat Deus | et revertatur a, furore irae suae et non peribimus »? — cf. Ioel 2, 144 ; «ideo ambiguum ponitur et incertum, ut dum homines dubii sunt de salute, fortius agant poenitentiam et magis. ad misericordiam provocent Deum » (S. Hier.) ; insuper Deus nullo pacto tenetur poenitentiam ita suscipere, ut praeter culpam peccati etiam poenam temporalem condonet. — Hac poenitentiae promptitudine laudem eam consecuti sunt, quam Christus eis in Iudaeorum condemnationem et confusionem tribuit Matth. 12, 40 et quam veteres multis explicant !. Neque spes fefellit;
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v. 10 « et vidit Deus opera eorum, quia conversi sunt de via sua mala ; et misertus est Deussuper malitiam, quam locutus fuerat ut faceret eis, et non fecit » ; — i. e. super malum ? quod locutus fuerat ; « quia mavult poenitentiam peccatoris quam mortem, libenter mutavit sententiam, quia vidit opera mutata. Quin potius Deus perseveravit in proposito suo misereri volens ab initio, nemo enim punire desiderans, quod facturus est, comminatur » (S. Hier.) i. e. si absolute voluisset punire Ninivitas, praeconem ruinae non misisset. Ipsis minis intentis eos ad poenitentiam provocavit, ut bene Theod. notat : « quoniam sola salute gaudet, minatur tristia ne tristia invehat ». Opera quae vidit Deus, bene recenset Estiusad h. l. : fides (v. 8 et crediderunt) ; deinde conversio a peccatis ad iustitiam (v. 8), tertio oratio quae est signum fiduciae in Deum (v. 8), quarto poenitentiae opera et afflictiones corporales Solent h. 1. vel iam ad v. 4 quaerere interpretes, quomodo verum fuerit lonae vaticinium : adhuc 40 dies et Ninive subvertetur. Omitto responsa mystica et subtiliora !, quae vide si vacat apud Rib. — Breviter et optime iam respondet Aib. allegans ler. 18, 1: « repente loquar adversus gentem et adversus regnum, ut eradicem et destruam et disperdam illud; si poenitentiam egerit gens illa a malo suo .. . agam et ego poenitentiam super malo, quod cogitavi, ut facerem ei ». Sunt igitur vaticinia, quae absolute videntur esse secundum formam pronuntiata, verum ex ipso argumento conditionata cernuntur. Et eiusmodi esse poenarum interminationes frequenter, ex rei natura, ex minantis Dei miserie cordia, ex variis exemplis S. Scripturae facile colligitur (cf. Ez. 33, 4. 4. n. 8). Ita posse ea intelligi, sermonis humani usus suadet ; quare etiam Ninivitae spem in poenitentia collocabant ; neque Ionae talis significatio erat ignota ; nam quia illam bene sciebat et ne eventus exilla contingeret optabat, idcirco primo fugam arripuit (4, 2). Vide ad Ioel 2, 1. 19. Anc. — Dolet Ionas a Deo misericorde parci Ninivitis mortemque sibi fastidio et ira victus exoptat. Primo leniter eum Deus increpat (4, 4 - 4). Urbem egressus, quid ei futurum sit praestolatur in umbraculo. Privatus illius umbra et solis aestu perculsus denuo mortem sibi efflagitat (4, 5 - 8). Reprehenditur a Domino, quod unius interitum arbusculae doleat ac tot hominum immo infantium innocentium excidium nihil reputaverit (4, 9 - 11). Diebus praestitutis elapsis cum nihil mali coelitus accideret urbi, Ionas aegre ferens Dei cum civitate inimica et Israelitis infensa miscricordiam in querelas prorupit :
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… With the disappearance of public penance, the clergy and the faithful on the Wednesday of the Ashes had ashes imposed on their heads as a sign of penance, a practice already observed in the Old Testament (Job 42:6; Judith 4:16; Jonah 3:6, etc.) and known also to the pagans. …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.