In verse 9 the king links the threat that Jonah had uttered in verse 4 with the behavior of the people of Nineveh that had caused that threat to be made. In other words, he suggests that the destruction of Nineveh can be averted by the people’s repentance, although in verse 4 the destruction was not linked with any conditions. In this respect, the person whose words come closest to those of the classical prophets is not Jonah, but the king, as can be seen by comparing this verse with Jer 25.5; 35.15; Zech 1.4; and particularly Jer 26.3, where God’s willingness to relent is linked, as in these two verses, with reformed behavior on the part of Israel. The opening words of this verse look, in fact, like a quotation from Joel 2.14. The expression Perhaps God will change his mind represents the Hebrew idiom “Who knows?” followed by two verbs both used of human repentance. The same idiom, again with the force of “perhaps,” occurs in 2 Sam 12.22 and Est 4.14.

The first of the two verbs that follow (“turn and relent” An American Translation) is redundant (compare Jer 4.28), as can be seen from a comparison with verse 10, where only the second occurs and is translated “changed his mind.” The first verb occurs often in the prophets, especially in Jeremiah, in the sense of “repent,” but it can often bear the adverbial meaning “again, once more,” as in Judges 19.7. Against that meaning here is the fact that there is no repetition involved in God’s relenting and sparing the people of Nineveh. The use of the verb “repent” by King James Version, Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, New American Bible, and others, with God as subject, may well raise problems in the mind of the reader, who will naturally think of that word as being confined to human activity. This Hebrew verb occurs with God as subject in Gen 6.6, 7, and in fact more frequently than with a human subject, approximately 32 occurrences out of a total of about 40. From this it is clear that “repent” needs to be replaced by such a verb as “relent” (so Moffatt, An American Translation, Knox, Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Modern Language Bible, New American Standard Bible, New Jerusalem Bible) or “change one’s mind.” An interesting passage for the study of this verb is 1 Samuel 15, particularly verses 11, 29, and 35, where the verb is translated each time in Revised Standard Version as “repent,” though it is stated there that “repentance” is a human rather than a divine activity (compare Num 23.19).

The concept of possibility expressed in the adverb Perhaps must be expressed in some languages as a clause; for example, “It may happen” or “It is possible that.”

A literal translation of change his mind is misleading in a number of languages, for it would suggest “exchanging his mind,” that is to say, substituting one mind for another. An equivalent may be “will think differently,” or “will decide differently,” or even “will not do what he has said he will do.”

The consequence of God’s “changing his mind” is seen by the king to be that he will stop being angry, or more literally, as in Revised Standard Version, “turn from his fierce anger.” This expression is used also in Exo 32.12 (one of the passages referring to God’s “relenting” or “changing his mind”); Num 25.4, and many other passages in the Old Testament. In fact, “fierce anger” is a bound phrase in biblical Hebrew, in which apart from one or two textually dubious passages, the first of the two elements never occurs except with a word for God’s anger, and about 30% of the occurrences include the verb “turn away from,” as here.

The possibility expressed by Perhaps may need to be repeated; for example, “It may be that he will stop being angry.” Stop being angry may be expressed as “no longer be angry.”

In a number of languages there are a variety of words to express “anger.” Some of these may suggest unjustified wrath or anger, and others may indicate by their connotations that a measure of anger or hostility has a reason or justification. It is this latter type of term that is needed in this context.

The statement concerning the people not dying must be made more explicit in some languages; for example, “and will not die.” Since, however, there is an implied causative possible death, it must be expressed in some languages as “and so we will not be caused to die” or “and so he will not cause us to die.”

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 .