Jonah 3:9

God is really angry with us. He said he will finish us up. So we have to show God that we are sorry, and stop doing bad things. Then maybe God will change his mind. Maybe God will stop being angry with us, and maybe he will not finish us up.”

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

In Context

8And all the people and animals have to wear that rough cloth. And everybody has to pray strongly to God and ask him to help us. And you all have to stop doing bad things, and stop hurting people.

10Then the Nineveh people did everything the big boss said, and God saw that they stopped doing bad things. So God changed his mind, and he didn’t finish up the Nineveh people.

Read all of Jonah 3

Cross References

Jonah 1:6Jonah was still asleep down inside the ship, so the ship’s boss went to Jonah and said, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray to your god. Maybe he will feel sorry for us and help us, so that we don’t die.”

Jonah 4:2Jonah prayed to God. He said, “God, that first time you talked to me, when I was still at home in Israel country, you told me to go and talk to the Nineveh people. But I knew that if I told the Nineveh people your message, they might stop doing bad things, and you might not finish them up. But God, I want you to finish up those Nineveh people. That is the reason why I didn’t want to go to Nineveh and tell them your message, and why I ran away to Tarshish. I knew that you feel sorry for people, and you are always kind. You don’t get angry quickly, and you are really good to people. You don’t do payback to people that stop doing bad things.

Luke 15:18So I will get up now and go back home to my dad, and I will say to him, “Dad, I’m sorry, I went wrong. I did the wrong thing to God, and I did the wrong thing to you.

Matthew Henry on Jonah 3:6-10

Nineveh's Repentance. ( b. c. 840.) 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Jonah 3:9