1:2a
Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh: Nineveh is called a great city because it was very large and many people lived in it. It was so large that it took a person three days to walk through it (3:3). More than 120,000 people lived there (4:11).
Get up! Go to…Nineveh: In Hebrew this verse begins with two verbs qum and leḵ which literally mean “arise, go.” Some English versions retain the two verbs. For example:
Arise, go to Nineveh (Revised Standard Version)
However, when the verb qum is followed by another motion verb, many scholars believe that it has lost its literal meaning and that instead it signals the beginning of an action. In this case it may also signal the urgency of the action. In English versions, you will see this combination of verbs translated in three different ways:
(1) “Leave at once for Nineveh” (God’s Word) or “Go at once to Nineveh” (Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures, New Revised Standard Version). The translators of these versions express the force of qum by the words “at once.” Other ways of doing this in English would be to begin the verse “Start on your way” or “Get going.”
(2) The verb qum is not translated at all and the verse is translated as Go to…Nineveh (New International Version, Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version).
(3) The verb qum is translated literally: “arise” or “get up” (Berean Standard Bible, King James Version, New Century Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New Living Translation (2004), Revised Standard Version).
The third option should be avoided because it gives the impression that the LORD was telling Jonah to do two things: “get up” and “go.” It is recommended that you follow one of the translation possibilities suggested in option 1.
1:2b
and preach against it: The rest of the story shows that what Jonah was told to speak was a message which condemned the people of Nineveh (Keil-Delitzsch, p. 389). Some translations make this explicit. For example:
cry out against it (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
go now and denounce it (Revised English Bible)
-or-
speak against it (Good News Translation)
it: This refers to the city of Nineveh. Although the text says that Jonah was to preach against “the city of Nineveh,” it meant that he was to preach against the people of the city because of the wicked way they were behaving.
1:2c
its wickedness: Here the wickedness and sinful behavior of the people of Nineveh is referred to as if the city were a person.
has come up before Me: Or “has come to my attention.” The LORD knew how very sinful the people of Nineveh were. Here is another way to express this idea:
I am aware of how wicked its people are (Good News Translation)
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