Jonahchapter 3
10 verses · Jonah, by tradition · 8th century BC · The Twelve
Original Language
Jonah 3— Hebrew word study · with the Hebrew tradition
In Jewish life
Jewish practice and Jewish teaching both have something to say about Jonah 3. Three things follow: where it is read, what is done because of it, and how the rabbis have taught it. The purpose is to inform a Christian reader what Jews believe and how Judaism was and is practised.
The reading
Read whole at Yom Kippur
At the afternoon service, as the Haftarah.
Jonah is read whole as the prophetic reading of the afternoon service on the Day of Atonement, followed by the closing verses of Micah on God pardoning iniquity. The reason given is the book's subject: a city that repents and is spared.
Source: Babylonian Talmud Megillah 31a, which names the reading for that service.
The verse numbers here are the ones a Hebrew Bible carries, which differ from an English Bible by a verse or two in several places. The Sephardi reading is named only where this site records a difference; communities vary beyond what is listed. What these books are, and how a Christian reader meets them →
Where the rabbis cite this chapter
6 rows sit beside their verses in the text, on 6 verses of this chapter. No row that speaks to the chapter as a whole is recorded. Every quote links to its full source.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria (sefaria.org); excerpts follow each version’s license, and every passage opens at its source.
How to read a word below: the Hebrewword, then how it sounds, then what it means, then its number in Strong’s concordance, a widely used lookup this site follows (H for Hebrew and Aramaic, G for Greek). Square brackets hold a word the English supplies that the Hebrew does not, angle brackets mark the Hebrew’s own grammatical elements that English renders as separate words, and the mark ס or פ is where the Hebrew manuscripts end a paragraph.
The word of the LORD comes a second time1
Jonah 3:1· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Targum Jonathan on Jonah 3:1
And this was the word of prophecy from before the LORD with Jonah again, saying:
Read it in full at Sefaria · Sefaria Community Translation
Jonah 3:2· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Radak on Jonah 3:2
"Get up..[call out] that which I speak"- [Meaning,] that I spoke to you already and also that which I am now speaking to you, that you should call out to it [the city] that it will be overturned because of their evil.
Read it in full at Sefaria · Sefaria Community Translation
Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown3
Jonah 3:3· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Radak on Jonah 3:3
"And he got up..a city great to God."- [When it comes to] anything which one wants to enlarge, [one should] juxtapose it with God in a way that increases its size, like [it says in the following phrases]: "Like the mountains of God," (Tehillim:7) "The cedars of God,"(Tehillim:11) "A flame of God from its darkness."
Read it in full at Sefaria · Sefaria Community Translation
Jonah 3:4· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Rashi on Jonah 3:4
overturned Destroyed. [He did not say, “Destroyed,” because “overturned” has two meanings, bad and good. If they do not repent, it will be destroyed; if they repent, then “overturned” refers to the people of Nineveh, that they will be changed from bad to good, and they will repent.
Read it in full at Sefaria · The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
Sackcloth from the throne down, and God relents5
Jonah 3:5· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Radak on Jonah 3:5
"And they believed"- because the sailors were in the city and they testified about Yonah that they had cast him into the sea, and the rest of his story as it happened. This is why they believed his prophecy and repented completely.
Read it in full at Sefaria · Sefaria Community Translation
Jonah 3:6· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 3:7· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 3:8· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 3:9· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 3:10· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Rashi on Jonah 3:10
and God will relent —He will think about the evil to repent of it.
Read it in full at Sefaria · The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg