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<p>Observe, 1. The honour God put upon Jonah, in giving him a commission to go and prophesy against Nineveh. <i>Jonah</i> signifies <i>a dove</i>, a proper name for all God’s prophets, all his people, who ought to be <i>harmless as doves</i>, and to <i>mourn as doves</i> for the sins and calamities of the land. His father’s name was <i>Amittai—My truth</i>; for God’s prophets should be sons of truth. To him <i>the word of the Lord came—to him it was</i> (so the word signifies), for God’s word is a real thing; men’s words are but wind, but God’s words are substance. He has been before acquainted with the <i>word of the Lord</i>, and knew his voice from that of a stranger; the orders now given him were, <i>Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Jonah.1.2" href="/passage/?search=Jonah.1.2">Jonah 1:2</a>. Nineveh was at this time the metropolis of the Assyrian monarchy, an eminent city (<a class="bibleref" title="Gen.10.11" href="/passage/?search=Gen.10.11">Gen. 10:11</a>), <i>a great city, that great city</i>, forty-eight miles in compass (some make it much more), great in the number of the inhabitants, as appears by the multitude of infants in it (<a class="bibleref" title="Jonah.4.11" href="/passage/?search=Jonah.4.11">Jonah 4:11</a>), great in wealth (there was no end of its store, <a class="bibleref" title="Nah.2.9" href="/passage/?search=Nah.2.9">Nah. 2:9</a>), great in power and dominion; it was the city that for some time <i>ruled over the kings of the earth</i>. But great cities, as well as great men, are under God’s government and judgment. Nineveh was a great city, and yet a heathen city, without the knowledge and worship of the true God. How many great cities and great nations are there that <i>sit in darkness</i> and <i>in the valley of the shadow of death</i>! This great city was a wicked city: <i>Their wickedness has come up before me</i> (their <i>malice</i>, so some read it); <i>their wickedness was presumptuous</i>, and they sinned with <i>a high hand</i>. It is sad to think what a great deal of sin is committed in great cities, where there are many sinners, who are not only all sinners, but making one another sin. <i>Their wickedness has come up</i>, that is, it has come to a high degree, to the highest pitch; the <i>measure of it</i> is <i>full</i> to the brim; <i>their wickedness has come up</i>, as that of Sodom, <a class="bibleref" title="Gen.18.20,Gen.18.21" href="/passage/?search=Gen.18.20,Gen.18.21"><span class="bibleref" title="Gen.18.20">Gen. 18:20</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Gen.18.21">21</span></a>. It has come up <i>before me—to my face</i> (so the word is); it is a bold and open affront to God; it is sinning against him, <i>in his sight</i>; therefore Jonah must <i>cry against it</i>; he must witness against their great wickedness, and must warn them of the destruction that was coming upon them for it. God is coming forth against it, and he sends Jonah before, to proclaim war, and to sound an alarm. <i>Cry aloud, spare not</i>. He must not whisper his message in a corner, but publish it in the streets of Nineveh; <i>he that hath ears let him hear</i> what God has to say by his prophet against that wicked city. When the cry of sin comes up to God the cry of vengeance comes out against the sinner. He must <i>go to Nineveh</i>, and cry there upon the spot against the wickedness of it. Other prophets were ordered to send messages to the neighbouring nations, and the prophecy of Nahum is particularly <i>the burden of Nineveh</i>; but Jonah must go and carry the message himself: “<i>Arise</i> quickly; apply thyself to the business with speed and courage, and the resolution that becomes a prophet; <i>arise, and go to Nineveh</i>.” Those that go on God’s errands must rise and go, must stir themselves to the work cut out for them. The prophets were sent first to the <i>lost sheep of the house of Israel</i>, yet not to them only; they had the children’s bread, but Nineveh eats of the crumbs. 2. The dishonour Jonah did to God in refusi
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