3:9a

Now the purpose of the decree is given. The king and his nobles hoped that God would notice that they had repented and would not destroy them.

Who knows?: This is a Hebrew idiom (as it is in English) that means that no one knows whether a certain thing will happen. Here are some other ways to translate this:

perhaps (Good News Translation)
-or-
maybe (Revised English Bible)

God may turn and relent: There are two problems with this part of the verse.

First, in Hebrew this expression contains two verbs: šuḇ “to turn” and naḥam “to be sorry, have compassion, repent.” There are two ways of understanding this double verb structure:

(1) The two verbs should be translated as one single action. The second verb naḥam “to be sorry, have compassion, repent” is the main verb. The other verb šuḇ, literally “to turn,” is often used in Hebrew as an auxiliary verb with the meaning of “do something again.” This can be expressed in a translation by the word “again” or even omitted when the main verb already contains the idea of repeated action. For example:

change his mind (Good News Translation)
-or-
reconsider his plans (God’s Word)

(2) The two verbs represent two separate actions. For example:

relent and change his mind (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
turn and relent (Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures)

It is recommended that you follow the first option (1) here. The verb šuḇ is often used as an adverb in Hebrew, and the adverbial sense of “doing something again” fits well with the range of meaning of the second verb naḥam.

The second problem about which scholars and versions differ is the meaning of naḥam in this context. The two main possibilities are:

(1) It should be translated “to change his mind, relent, repent”.
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(2) It should be translated “to have compassion, to be moved with pity”.

Both are possible meanings of naḥam and both make sense in the context. However, the first meaning, “change his mind,” goes best with the use of šuḇ as an auxiliary verb. Also these are the words of the pagan king of Nineveh, who had little knowledge of the compassionate God of Jonah. His interest was mainly in causing God to change his mind about destroying his city. For these reasons the first option is recommended (1).

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