When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil way, then God relented of the disaster which He had declared He would bring on them. So He did not do it.
Parallel translations
- WEB God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.
- KJV And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
- BSB When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.
- NKJV Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
- NLT When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.
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 sees Nineveh's repentance and relents from the disaster He had threatened. It matters because it reveals God's readiness to forgive all who truly turn to Him.
Overview
God's 'relenting' describes His response to genuine repentance, consistent with His unchanging character and His revealed willingness to spare the penitent (Jeremiah 18:7-8). His mercy is not fickleness but faithfulness to His own merciful nature. That a cruel pagan empire is spared upon repentance magnifies the breadth of God's grace, which the gospel extends to all nations.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Jer 18:8if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.
- 1 Kgs 21:27–29When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
- Exod 32:14Yahweh repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people.
- Amos 7:6Yahweh relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” says the Lord Yahweh.
- Luke 15:20“He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
- Luke 11:32The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, one greater than Jonah is here.
- Amos 7:3Yahweh relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” says Yahweh.
- Jer 31:18–20“I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.
- Joel 2:13Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
- Jonah 4:2He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.
- Job 33:27–28He sings before men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn’t profit me.
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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 3:10 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.