“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”
Parallel translations
- WEB “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”
- KJV Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
- NKJV “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”
- NASB “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”
- NLT “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”
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 again sends Jonah to Nineveh to preach the message He gives. It matters because Jonah must speak God's word, not his own, faithfully delivering what he is told.
Overview
The renewed commission repeats the original call but stresses preaching 'the message that I give you,' underscoring that the prophet is a messenger, not the author. God's persistence shows His unchanging purpose to warn Nineveh. The verse models faithful proclamation, in which the preacher's task is to declare God's word accurately and fully.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ezek 2:7But speak My words to them, whether they listen or refuse to listen, for they are rebellious.
- Jer 1:17Get yourself ready. Stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not be intimidated by them, or I will terrify you before them.
- Jonah 3:3This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey.
- Jonah 1:2“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”
- Jer 15:19–21Therefore this is what the LORD says: “If you return, I will restore you; you will stand in My presence. And if you speak words that are noble instead of worthless, you will be My spokesman. It is they who must turn to you, but you must not turn to them.
- John 5:14Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”
- Zeph 2:13–15And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria; He will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as a desert.
- Matt 3:8Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance.
- Ezek 3:17“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 3:2 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.