“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell 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.
- BSB “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give 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 2:7You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious.
- Jer 1:17“You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and say to them all that I command you. Don’t be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them.
- Jonah 3:3So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to Yahweh’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across.
- Jonah 1:2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.”
- Jer 15:19–21Therefore Yahweh says, “If you return, then I will bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth. They shall return to you, but you shall not return to them.
- John 5:14Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “Behold, you are made well. Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
- Zeph 2:13–15He will stretch out his hand against the north, destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as the wilderness.
- Matt 3:8Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance!
- Ezek 3:17“Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and warn them 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.