Useful Bible Studies > Jonah Commentary > chapter 3

People and animals cry out to God

Jonah 3:8

Sometimes, in great troubles, rulers have chosen a special day for prayers, and for people to be humble towards God.

As the end of the 40 day period approached, Nineveh’s king had special reasons to arrange such a day. Jonah’s message had given the city’s inhabitants only those 40 days before they suffered a terrible punishment.

So, the king insisted that every person in Nineveh must pray desperately to God. The king wanted them to feel truly desperate, and to be truly sorry for their evil deeds. So, he ordered them to wear rough, uncomfortable cloth, and not to eat or to drink. That would be unpleasant, of course; but it was much less severe than God’s punishment would be.

Also, they must decide firmly to stop their cruelty and their wicked behaviour. It was that wicked behaviour that had caused God to make his judgment against them (1:2).

However, perhaps the prayers of these wicked people might not be enough, the king thought. So, he made an extraordinary order. We read of such a command nowhere else in the Bible. The people’s farm animals must also wear some of that rough cloth. Those animals must not receive either food or water. Then as the owners of those animals cried desperately to God, the animals would cry out, too (compare Romans 8:22). Perhaps if God did not answer the prayers of the people, he would care about the cries of the animals (4:11).

That seems to be the reason for the king’s strange order about the animals. He believed that the animals needed, in some way, to pray. If God allowed some terrible trouble to destroy the city, then the animals as well as the people would die. The king’s order was probably too strict, but he was very desperate. The end of the 40 day period was near – and after that, there was no reason why God should continue to delay the punishment.

Next part: The king and people pray for God to forgive them (Jonah 3:9)

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