Fifth, [that] the Ninevites doubted.
Fifth, [that] the Ninevites doubted.
(V) “The Ninevites repented, and yet they had doubts about the forgiveness of sins, for they said, ‘Who knows if God may turn and repent?’ (Jon. 3[:9]).”
We respond. They have no doubts about their reconciliation with God but about the averting of the temporal punishments announced through Jonah, for it continues: “Who knows if God may yet turn and repent and turn away from His fierce anger, and we shall not perish?” Moreover, the form of speaking used by the Hebrews—“Who knows?”—is not so much a form of doubting as it is of exhorting and encouraging, something we can also observe in the German idiom; more about this in its own place [§ 125].