Wenstrom Bible Ministries Marion, Iowa Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom wenstrom

1. Wenstrom Bible MinistriesMarion, IowaPastor-Teacher Bill Wenstromwww.wenstrom.org

2. Tuesday September 7, 2010Jonah: Jonah 1:2a-The Lord Commands Jonah To Go Immediately To The Great City Of NinevehLesson # 4

3. Please turn in your Bibles to Jonah 1:1.

4. This evening we will study Jonah 1:2a in which the Lord commands Jonah to go immediately to the great city of Nineveh.

5. Jonah 1:1, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 ‘Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.’”

6. In verse 1, we have introduced to the reader the principle characters, namely, the Lord and Jonah who function in the narrative as protagonist and antagonist.

7. All the other human characters in the narrative are unnamed with the exception of course, of Jonah’s father, Amittai.

8. These unnamed characters are foils to emphasize the relationship between Jonah and the Lord.

9. Interestingly, the word of the Lord begins the narrative and ends it.

10. Therefore, the book of Jonah is concerned with the effects and consequences of the word of the Lord.

11. “Arise, go” is the second person masculine singular qal active imperative form of the verb qum (קוּם) (koom), “arise” and the second person masculine singular qal active imperative form of the verb halak (הָלַך) (haw-lak), “go.”

12. The NET Bible has the following note on this construction, “The two imperatives without an intervening vav (קוּם לֵךְ, qum lekh; ‘Arise, go!’), form a verbal hendiadys in which the first verb functions adverbially and the second retains its full verbal force: ‘Go immediately.’ This construction emphasizes the urgency of the command.

13. The translations “Go at once” (NRSV, NJPS) or simply ‘Go!’ (NIV) are better than the traditional ‘Arise, go’ (KJV, NKJV, ASV, RSV, NASB) or ‘Get up and go’ (NLT).”

14. These two imperatives emphasize with the reader that Jonah is being ordered by the Lord to go to Nineveh and announce judgment against it.

15. We have here a divine directive for a prophetic mission.

16. Jonah 1:1, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 ‘Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.’”

17. “To Nineveh” is composed of the preposition al (אַל) (al), “to,” whose object is the feminine singular form of the proper noun nî∙newē(h) (נִינְוֵה) (nee-nev-ay), “Nineveh.”

18. The proper noun nî∙newē(h) appears 17 times in the Hebrew Bible, 9 of which occur in the book of Jonah (1:2; 3:2, 3 twice, 4, 5, 6, 7; 4:11).

19. Nineveh was one of the capitals of the Assyrian Empire and was located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River in northeastern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, in the area of the city of Mosul).

20. This noun appears in Genesis 10:11-12, which is the earliest mention of this city and describes the origin and the builder of the city, Nimrod.

21. Genesis 10:8, “Now Cush became the father of Nimrod (“rebel”); he became a mighty one on the earth.” 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, ‘Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.’

22. 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah 12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.”

23. After Jonah’s day it was made the capital of Assyria by Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.), the successor of Sargon II (722-705 B.C.) who destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

24. The city of Nineveh was destroyed in 612 B.C. by the Medes and the Persians.

25. Its great size is mentioned in Jonah 3:3 which states, “Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days' walk.”

26. Ancient Greek and Roman writers state that it was in the shape of a trapezium and was the largest city in the world in that day.

27. The accounts of these ancient Greek and Roman writers have been confirmed by modern archaeological excavations.

28. The NET Bible commenting on Nineveh writes, “Nineveh was the last capital city of ancient Assyria. Occupying about 1800 acres, it was located on the east bank of the Tigris River across from the modern city of Mosul, Iraq.

29. The site includes two tels, Nebi Yunus and Kouyunjik, which have been excavated on several occasions. See A. H. Layard, Nineveh and Its Remains; R. C. Thompson and R. W. Hutchinson, A Century of Exploration at Nineveh; G. Waterfield, Layard of Nineveh.

30. Preliminary reports of limited excavations in 1987 and 1989 appear in Mar Šipri 1:2 (1988): 1-2; 2:2 (1989): 1-2; 4:1 (1991): 1-3. Also see D. J. Wiseman, “Jonah’s Nineveh,” TynBul 30 (1979): 29-51.”

31. The Bible Knowledge Commentary writes, “The city of Nineveh was located on the east side of the Tigris River about 550 miles northeast of Samaria. That distance required a journey of more than a month, if Jonah traveled the normal distance of 15-20 miles a day.

32. The great city was second in size only to Babylon. It was in modern-day Iraq opposite the modern town of Mosul. Nineveh was built by Nimrod (Gen. 10:11).

33. After Jonah’s day, it became the capital of the Assyrian Empire under Sennacherib (705-681 b.c.), the successor of Sargon II (722-705 b.c.) who destroyed the Northern Kingdom. (volume 1, pages 1464)

34. This journey from Gath-Hepher, Jonah’s hometown to Nineveh is approximately 500 miles, which would be a rugged journey.

35. Jonah 1:1, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 ‘Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.’”

36. “The great city” is composed of the articular feminine singular form of the noun îr (עִיר) (aw-yar), “the city” and the articular feminine singular form of the adjective gadhol (גָּדֹול) (ga-dol), “great.”

37. The Hebrew expression הָעִיר הַגְּדוֹלָה “the great city” appears three times in the book of Jonah (Jonah 3:2; 4:11).

38. The adjective gadhol occurs 14 times alone in the book of Jonah (1:2, 4 twice, 10, 12, 16; 2:1; 3:2, 3, 5, 7; 4:1, 6, 11) and is the most frequent word in this book.

39. It is used to describe not only Nineveh (3:2, 3; 4:11) but also men of distinction and social rank in the city of Nineveh (3:5, 7), a storm (1:4, 12), fish (2:1), Jonah’s anger (4:1), Jonah’s happiness (4:6).

40. Here in Jonah 1:2, the adjective emphasizes the size of the city of Nineveh highlighting its importance so that just as is the size of the city, so is the magnitude of its wickedness (The JPS Bible Commentary: Jonah, page 4).

41. In Jonah 3:3, the word is used in relation to Nineveh’s territory and in Jonah 4:11 with regards to its population.

42. The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible writes, that “At the time of its greatest prosperity, as well described by Jonah, Nineveh itself was enveloped by a circuit wall covering seven and three quarter miles in extent.

43. This ‘great city’ had area sufficient to house a population of 120,000 (Jonah 1:2, 3:2). Evidence for this comes from the more southerly capital of Calah (Nimrud) where 69, 754 persons lived in a city half the size of Nineveh.

44. It is probable that the whole district administered by Nineveh at this time encompassed a very wide area including the Sinjar-Calah-Dur-Sharrukin.

45. Thus a ‘three day’s journey’ would be needed to traverse it and a ‘day’s journey’ to reach the city center from the outlying suburbs (Jonah 3:4).

46. In Hebrew unlike Akkad, the writing does not distinguish between the metropolis itself ([al]Ninua) and the general region (ninua[ki]).” (volume 4, page 443)

47. Ken Carson writes, “Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian empire. Hosea’s prophecies regarding Assyria’s conquest of Israel came about the same time as Jonah (Hosea 9:3).

48. Furthermore, any astute political and military observer understood the threat that this great power to the north has on Israel’s security. Furthermore, at this time Israel’s military strength was on the rise and Assyria’s dominance was waning.

49. Under King Jehu, Israel had been forced to pay tribute to Assyria, and now under Jeroboam II they had been able to throw off this oppressive tribute.

50. Jonah is to proclaim to Nineveh that their wickedness had become known to God and that they faced His judgment if they did not repent. But to go to Nineveh to share God’s message would be like walking into the middle of the enemy’s camp.