Jonah 3 is the chapter most naturally connected to the Fast of Nineveh. But the point is not fasting as religious display. Nineveh believes God, humbles itself, and turns from evil. Christ later says that Nineveh’s repentance will rise in judgment against the generation that refuses Him.
The Word Comes a Second Time (Jonah 3:1-4)
1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying, 2 Rise, go to Nineve, the great city, and preach in it according to the former preaching which I spoke to thee of. 3 And Jonas arose, and went to Nineve, as the Lord had spoken. Now Nineve was an exceeding great city, of about three days’ journey. 4 And Jonas began to enter into the city about a day’s journey, and he proclaimed, and said, Yet three days, and Nineve shall be overthrown.
The mercy of God appears first in the phrase “the second time.” Jonah is not discarded after failure. God recommissions him. The prophet who ran away now receives the same command: rise, go, preach.
Nineveh is called great again. Its greatness is not moral greatness. Its cry of wickedness has already risen before God. Yet God sends warning before destruction, and warning is itself mercy. Judgment preached before it falls becomes an invitation to turn.
Brenton’s LXX reads “Yet three days, and Nineve shall be overthrown.” Many familiar Hebrew-based English editions read forty days. This should not be used to force a connection to Christ’s three days in the tomb; the Gospel sign is grounded in Jonah’s three days in the sea creature. Still, the LXX wording heightens urgency. Nineveh hears the warning as immediate, and the city does not delay repentance.
Source: Wikimedia Commons, Smith Ancient Atlas, public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smith_Ancient_Atlas_Nineveh.jpg
Nineveh Fasts and Turns from Evil (Jonah 3:5-10)
5 And the men of Nineve believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloths, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6 And the word reached the king of Nineve, and he arose from off his throne, and took off his raiment from him, and put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes.
7 And proclamation was made, and it was commanded in Nineve by the king and by his great men, saying, Let not men, or cattle, or oxen, or sheep, taste any thing, nor feed, nor drink water. 8 So men and cattle were clothed with sackcloths, and cried earnestly to God; and they turned every one from their evil way, and from the iniquity that was in their hands, saying, 9 Who knows if God will repent, and turn from his fierce anger, and so we shall not perish?
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways; and God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did it not.
Nineveh’s repentance moves from hearing to belief, from belief to fasting, from fasting to turning from evil. The king leaves his throne, removes his robe, and sits in ashes. The city does not only change its mood; it changes its way.
This is why Jonah 3 matters for Orthodox fasting. Fasting without turning from evil can become another form of pride. Nineveh’s fast reaches even the public life of the city, including violence and injustice “in their hands.” The hands that did evil must become hands that repent.
Christ uses Nineveh as a witness against unbelief. In Matthew 12:41 and Luke 11:32, the men of Nineveh rise in judgment because they repented at Jonah’s preaching, and something greater than Jonah is present in Christ. If Nineveh responded to a reluctant prophet, how much more should we respond to the crucified and risen Lord.
Gems from the Fathers 💎
Chrysostom uses Nineveh to warn that fasting and ashes are not enough if repentance does not take the path God gives. He says that fasting, lying on the ground, and ashes are praiseworthy, but “except the rest be added, these are of no avail.”1 Jonah 3 itself defines the missing “rest”: they turned from their evil way.
Source: Wikimedia Commons, Gustave Dore, public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dore_jonah.jpg
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
Jonah 3 refuses shallow fasting. The body humbles itself because the life must turn. A parish can keep a fast outwardly and still need to turn from anger, gossip, contempt, injustice, and indifference.
Pope Shenouda III warns that readers often concentrate on Nineveh and its fast while overlooking Jonah, the mariners, and Jonah’s own problem.2 That warning helps keep the Fast of Nineveh honest. The fast is not only admiration of Nineveh’s repentance; it is also an exposure of the Jonah still inside the servant who resents mercy.
The chapter is also full of hope. Nineveh does not have a long formation in covenant worship, yet the city responds quickly to the word it receives. This rebukes spiritual delay. We should not need more signs than Christ, more warnings than Scripture, or more seasons than the fasts the Church already gives us.
Teaching Notes
The Word Comes a Second Time
- Ask: What does it reveal about God that the word comes to Jonah a second time?
- Emphasize: Recommissioning is mercy. Jonah’s failure does not cancel God’s mission.
- Watch for: Overstating the LXX three days in Jonah 3:4. It gives urgency but is not the Gospel basis for the tomb sign.
- Connect: The second call to Jonah prepares us to receive repentance as return, not despair.
- Show: Use the Nineveh map to make the city concrete and to avoid treating Nineveh as a vague symbol.
Nineveh Fasts and Turns from Evil
- Ask: What makes Nineveh’s fast real in the text?
- Emphasize: God sees their works, specifically that they turned from evil ways.
- Watch for: Reducing repentance to emotional regret or external abstinence.
- Connect: Matthew 12 and Luke 11 use Nineveh to judge those who hear Christ and still delay repentance.
- Show: Use Dore’s Nineveh image as Western biblical illustration, then contrast it with the Orthodox icons of Jonah in the introduction.
Sources
Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX).
Primary biblical anchors: Jonah 3; Matthew 12:39-41; Luke 11:29-32; Joel 2:12-27 and more.
Footnotes
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John Chrysostom, Homilies on Second Corinthians, NPNF1 12, CCEL: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf112.html ↩
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Pope Shenouda III, Contemplations on the Book of Jonah the Prophet, introduction; Coptic Treasures: https://ml.coptic-treasures.com/book/contemplation-on-the-book-of-jonah-the-prophet-pope-shenouda-iii/ ↩