Jonah 3:4
New International Version
Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

New Living Translation
On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!”

English Standard Version
Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

Berean Standard Bible
On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”

King James Bible
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

New King James Version
And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

New American Standard Bible
Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

NASB 1995
Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

NASB 1977
Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

Legacy Standard Bible
Then Jonah began to go into the city, one day’s walk; and he called out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

Amplified Bible
Then on the first day’s walk, Jonah began to go through the city, and he called out and said, “Forty days more [remain] and [then] Nineveh will be overthrown!”

Christian Standard Bible
Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished! ”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished!”

American Standard Version
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And Yonan began to enter Nineva, a journey of one day, and he preached and said: ”From now to forty days, Nineva is overthrown!”

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Jonas began to enter into the city about a day's journey, and he proclaimed, and said, Yet three days, and Nineve shall be overthrown.

Contemporary English Version
After walking for a day, Jonah warned the people, "Forty days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed!"

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Jonas began to enter into the city one day's journey: and he cried, and said: Yet forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed.

English Revised Version
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Jonah entered the city and walked for about a day. Then he said, "In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed."

Good News Translation
Jonah started through the city, and after walking a whole day, he proclaimed, "In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!"

International Standard Version
As Jonah started into the city on the first day's journey, he proclaimed the message, "40 days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!"

JPS Tanakh 1917
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he proclaimed, and said: 'Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.'

Literal Standard Version
And Jonah begins to go into the city—a journey of one day—and proclaims and says, “Yet forty days and Nineveh is overturned!”

Majority Standard Bible
On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”

New American Bible
Jonah began his journey through the city, and when he had gone only a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown,”

NET Bible
When Jonah began to enter the city one day's walk, he announced, "At the end of forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!"

New Revised Standard Version
Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

New Heart English Bible
Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried out, and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

Webster's Bible Translation
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

World English Bible
Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”

Young's Literal Translation
And Jonah beginneth to go in to the city a journey of one day, and proclaimeth, and saith, 'Yet forty days -- and Nineveh is overturned.'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Jonah Preaches to the Ninevites
3This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey. 4On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”

Cross References
Matthew 12:41
The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.

Luke 11:30
For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so the Son of Man will be a sign to this generation.

Luke 11:32
The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.

Isaiah 30:18
Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore He rises to show you compassion, for the LORD is a just God. Blessed are all who wait for Him.


Treasury of Scripture

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Yet.

Jonah 3:10
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Deuteronomy 18:22
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

2 Kings 20:1,6
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live…

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Beginneth City Cried Crying Day's Destruction Enter First Forty Jonah Journey Nineveh Nin'eveh Overtake Overthrown Overturned Proclaimed Proclaimeth Started Walk
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Beginneth City Cried Crying Day's Destruction Enter First Forty Jonah Journey Nineveh Nin'eveh Overtake Overthrown Overturned Proclaimed Proclaimeth Started Walk
Jonah 3
1. Jonah, sent again, preaches to the Ninevites.
5. Upon their repentance,
10. God relents.














(4) And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey.--This is apparently equivalent to And Jonah entered the city, and walked for a day through it. To enter on a minute inquiry as to whether his course was straight or circuitous seems trivial. The writer has no thought of furnishing data for ascertaining the exact dimensions of Nineveh, but only of producing a general sense of its vast size.

Yet forty days.--The conciseness of the original, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh overthrown," forcibly expresses "the one deep cry of woe" which the prophet was commissioned to utter. "This simple message of Jonah bears an analogy to what we find elsewhere in Holy Scripture. The great preacher of repentance, St. John the Baptist, repeated doubtless oftentimes that one cry, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Our Lord vouchsafed to begin His own office with those self-same words. And probably, among the civilised but savage inhabitants of Nineveh that one cry was more impressive than any other would have been, Simplicity is always impressive. They were four words which God caused to be written on the wall amid Belshazzar's impious revelry: Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. We all remember the touching history of Jesus, son of Anan, an unlettered rustic, who, "four years before the war, when Jerusalem was in complete peace and affluence," burst in on the people at the Feast of Tabernacles with the oft-repeated cry, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice on Jerusalem and the Temple, a voice on the bridegrooms and the brides, a voice on the whole people;" how he went about through all the lanes of the city, repeating, day and night, this one cry, and when scourged till his bones were laid bare, echoed every lash with "Woe, woe, to Jerusalem!" and continued as his daily dirge and his one response to daily good or ill treatment, "Woe, woe, to Jerusalem!" (Pusey.) Instead of "forty days" the LXX. read "three."

Verse 4. - § 2. Jonah, undeterred by the danger of the enterprise, executes his mission at one, and announces the approaching destruction of the city. Began to enter into the city a day's journey. Jonah commenced his day's journey in the city, and, as he found a suitable place, uttered his warning cry, not necessarily continuing in one straight course, but going to the most frequented spots. At the time of Jonah's preaching the royal residence was probably at Chalah: i.e. Nimrud, the most southern of the cities. Coming from Palestine, he would reach this part first, so that his strange message would soon come to the king's ears (ver. 6). Yet forty days. "Forty" in Scripture is the number of probation (see Genesis 7:4, 12; Exodus 24:18; 1 Kings 19:8; Matthew 4:2). The LXX. has, ἔτι τρεῖς ἡμέραι, "yet three days" owing probably to some clerical error, as writing γ instead of μ. St. Augustine ('De Civit.,' 18:44) endeavours to explain the discrepaney mystically as referring to Christ under different circumstances, as being the same who remained forty days on earth after his resurrection, and who rose again on the third day. Shall be overthrown. This is the word used for the destruction of Sodom (Genesis 19:25, 27; Amos 4:11). The prophet appears to have gone on through the city, repeating this one awful announcement, as we read of fanatics denouncing woe on Jerusalem before its final destruction (Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' 6:05. 3). The threat was conditional virtually, though expressed in uncompromising terms. In the Hebrew the participle is used, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh overthrown," as though he saw at the end of the specified time the great city lying in ruins. One sees from Isaiah 36:11, 13, that Jonah could readily be understood by the Assyrians.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
On the first
אֶחָ֑ד (’e·ḥāḏ)
Number - masculine singular
Strong's 259: United, one, first

day
י֣וֹם (yō·wm)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3117: A day

of his walk,
מַהֲלַ֖ךְ (ma·hă·laḵ)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 4109: A walk, a passage, a distance

Jonah
יוֹנָה֙ (yō·w·nāh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3124: Jonah -- an Israelite prophet

set out
וַיָּ֤חֶל (way·yā·ḥel)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 2490: To bore, to wound, to dissolve, to profane, to break, to begin, to play

into the city
בָעִ֔יר (ḇā·‘îr)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 5892: Excitement

and proclaimed,
וַיִּקְרָא֙ (way·yiq·rā)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7121: To call, proclaim, read

“Forty
אַרְבָּעִ֣ים (’ar·bā·‘îm)
Number - common plural
Strong's 705: Forty

more
ע֚וֹד (‘ō·wḏ)
Adverb
Strong's 5750: Iteration, continuance, again, repeatedly, still, more

days
י֔וֹם (yō·wm)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3117: A day

and Nineveh
וְנִֽינְוֵ֖ה (wə·nî·nə·wêh)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 5210: Nineveh -- capital of Assyr

will be overturned!”
נֶהְפָּֽכֶת׃ (neh·pā·ḵeṯ)
Verb - Nifal - Participle - feminine singular
Strong's 2015: To turn about, over, to change, overturn, return, pervert


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OT Prophets: Jonah 3:4 Jonah began to enter into the city (Jon. Jh)
Jonah 3:3
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