The first part of verse 2 is identical with the first part of 1.2. The second part is interpreted by Good News Translation as recommissioning Jonah in essentially the same way as at the beginning of the book, namely, by proclaiming the message I have given you. But the Hebrew participle may be taken as referring (1) to the past, as in the Septuagint, or (2) to the present, as in the Vulgate, or (3) to the future, as in the Syriac. In fact, very few modern translations apart from Good News Translation—only Bible in Basic English, Jerusalem Bible (contrast Bible de Jérusalem), and Living Bible—suggest a repetition of the message already given. If this were the meaning, another form of the verb would be more probable, and since a specific message (for example, in the form met with in such prophetic outbursts as the book of Nahum) is not found at the beginning of chapter one, it is perhaps better to follow the kind of wording found in Revised Standard Version or New English Bible and to assume an indefinite tense, or one that might be rendered as “that I am giving you.”

Unlike most translations, Good News Translation avoids a literal rendering of the Hebrew (for example, Revised Standard Version “proclaim to it…”) and specifies the people of Nineveh as the recipients of God’s message. New English Bible is evidently aware of the problem but does not clarify the meaning. Two earlier translations both avoid the use of “it,” namely Moffatt, “and proclaim there what I will tell you” (so the Septuagint), and Chinese Union Version, “proclaim to its inhabitants the message I give you.”

For the rather unusual apposition Nineveh, that great city, note the discussion under 1.2.

The verb rendered proclaim suggests a formal type of announcement, the type of proclamation, for example, that might be given by an official messenger. This suggests that the message itself is important, and it may actually be necessary in some languages to redistribute some of the meaning of proclaim by indicating the nature of the message; for example, “speak to the people the important message I have given you.”

In a number of languages one does not speak of “a message being given,” and therefore it may be necessary to say “the message that I have spoken to you.” On the other hand, a more satisfactory equivalent may be simply “my words,” that is to say, the last part of verse 2 may be rendered as “announce to the people my words” or “… what I have said.”

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. et al. A Handbook on the Book of Jonah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1982, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .