So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”
Parallel translations
- WEB Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much livestock?”
- KJV And 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?
- NKJV And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”
- NASB Should I not also have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 people, who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left, as well as many animals?”
- NLT But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”
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 asks whether He should not pity Nineveh's many people and animals. It matters because the book ends by revealing God's vast compassion for all peoples, including His enemies.
Overview
The closing question, left open for the reader, contrasts Jonah's concern for a plant with God's concern for over 120,000 souls 'who can't discern between their right hand and their left,' likely the spiritually ignorant or perhaps the very young. God's pity reaches even the livestock, underscoring the breadth of His care for His creation. Ending on this note, Jonah proclaims the heart of God for the nations, fulfilled when the gospel of Christ goes out to people once far off.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Matt 18:33Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’
- Luke 15:28–32The older son became angry and refused to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.
- Jonah 1:2“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”
- Ps 36:6Your righteousness is like the highest mountains; Your judgments are like the deepest sea. O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
- Ps 145:8–9The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion.
- Deut 1:39And the little ones you said would become captives—your children who on that day did not know good from evil—will enter the land that I will give them, and they will possess it.
- Ps 104:14He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:
- Isa 1:18“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.
- Jonah 3:2–3“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”
- Ps 104:27–28All creatures look to You to give them their food in due season.
- Ps 145:15–16The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.
- Jonah 3:10When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.
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 4:11 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.