Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”
- BSB “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”
- NKJV “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
- NASB “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out against it, because their wickedness has come up before Me.”
- NLT “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God commands Jonah to preach against Nineveh because its wickedness has reached His attention. It matters because God holds even pagan nations accountable and yet sends a warning rather than immediate judgment.
Overview
Nineveh was the great capital of Assyria, Israel's cruel and feared enemy, so this commission was deeply offensive to a patriotic Hebrew prophet. That God notices Nineveh's sin and sends a preacher shows His sovereignty over all peoples and His desire that the wicked turn and live (Ezekiel 18:23). The mission anticipates the gospel going to the nations, for in Christ God calls all peoples to repentance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Gen 18:20–21And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
- Gen 10:11Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
- Isa 58:1Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
- Nah 1:1The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
- Jonah 4:11And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
- Zeph 2:13–15And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.
- Jonah 3:2Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
- Jer 1:7–10But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
- Ezek 3:5–9For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel;
- Rev 18:5For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
- 2 Kgs 19:36So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
- Ezek 2:7And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.
- Ezra 9:6And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
- Mic 3:8But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
- Jas 5:4Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
- Matt 10:18And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
- Nah 2:1–3He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Three days in the belly of the fish is the sign Jesus gave of his own death and resurrection (Matt 12:40); and God's mercy on pagan Nineveh foreshadows the gospel going to the nations.
How Jonah 1:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.