Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
them with destruction, and seemed to have given them no hope of pardon. Jonah might have thought that his voice, as one says, would have to return to his own throat, ``Can I denounce ruin on this populous city, without being instantly crushed?
Will not the first man that meets me stone me to death?'' Thus might Jonah have thought within himself. No fear was, however, able to prevent him from doing his duty as a faithful servant, for he had been evidently strengthened by the Lord. But it will be better to join the following verse ---
Jonah 3:5
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.
5. Et crediderunt viri Ninevae Deo, et indixerunt jejunium, et induerunt saccos a magno eorum usque ad parvum eorum.
One thing, escaped me in the third verse: Jonah said that Nineveh was a city great to God. This form of speech is common in Scripture: for the Hebrews call that Divine, whatever it be, that is superior or excellent: so they say, the cedars of God, the mountains of God, the fields of God, when they are superior in height or in any other respect. Hence a city is called the city of God, when it is beyond others renowned. I wished briefly to allude to this subject, because some, with too much refinement and even puerility says that it was called the city of God, because it was the object of God's care, and in which he intended to exhibit a remarkable instance of conversion. But, as I have said, this is to be taken as the usual mode of speaking in similar cases.
I now return to the text: Jonah says, that the citizens of Nineveh believed God 120 . We hence gather that the preaching of Jonah was not so concise but that he introduced his discourse by declaring that he was God's Prophet, and that he did not proclaim these commands without authority; and we also gather that Jonah so denounced ruin, that at the same time he showed God to be the avenger of sins that he reproved the Ninevites, and, as it were, summoned them to God's tribunal, making known to them their guilt; for had he spoken only of punishment, it could not certainly have been otherwise, but that the Ninevites must have rebelled furiously against God; but by showing to them their guilt, he led them to acknowledge that the threatened punishment was just, and thus he prepared them for humility and penitence. Both these things may be collected from this expression of Jonah, that the Ninevites believed God; for were they not persuaded that the command came from heaven, what was their faith? Let us then know, that Jonah had so spoken of 120{{`` }באלהים{, ויאמינוAnd they believed in God. The verb {}אמןin Hiphil is ever followed by {}בor ,{}לexcept in one instance by {}אתin Judges 11:20. When followed by {}בit seems to mean, to give credit to what is said, to believe one's testimony, or the truth of what is referred to. To believe then in God is to believe the truth of what he declares, to believe his word. Hence in 2 Chronicles 20:20, Jehosophat said to the people, ``Believe in the Lord your God,'' {}אלהיכם{; }ביהוה{ }האמינו and he adds, ``Believe [in] his Prophets,'' {}בנביאיו{. }האמינוIt is the word of God, and the word of the Prophets, which was the same, or the truth or veracity of God and of his Prophets, that they For I have believed [in] thy commandments,'' ,{}במצותיך that is, in the truth of thy commandments. --- When the verb in Hiphil is followed by ,{}לthe idea of reliance or dependance is more especially conveyed, though in many instances there is hardly a difference tobe recognized, except the context be minutely observed. Among other passages, the verb in its Hiphil form is followed by ,{}בin Genesis 15:6, Exodus 14:31, Numbers 20:12, 2 Kings 17:14, Proverbs 26:25, Jeremiah 12:6; --- and by {}לin Exodus 4:1-8, Deuteronomy 9:23, 1 Kings 10:7, Psalm 106:24, Isaiah 43:10, Jeremiah 40:14 The Septuagint renders believing in God by {επίστευσαν} {τω} {θεω}: so does Paul in Romans
4:3, Galatians 3:6; but he retains the Hebrew form in Romans 4:5, {πιστευοντι} {επι} {τον}, etc. Calvin here conveys the same meaning by ``crediderunt Deo --- believed God:'' that is, the Ninevites gave credit to what God declared by Jonah, they believed
God's word. --- Ed.