Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
All Commentaries on Jonah 3:9 Go To Jonah 3
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Consider, if God had chosen to demolish everything [in a recent earthquake], what we would have suffered. I say this, so that the fear of these events may remain sharp in you and may keep everyone’s resolution firm. He shook us, but he did not destroy us. If he had wished to destroy us, he would not have shaken us. But since he did not wish to destroy us, the earthquake came in advance like a herald, forewarning everyone of the anger of God, in order that we might be improved by fear and prevent the actual retribution. He has done this even for foreign nations. “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Why do you not overcome the city? You threaten to destroy it. Why do you not destroy it? “Because I do not wish to destroy, for this very reason I threaten.” So what is the Lord saying? “Lest I enact my impending judgment, let my word go in advance and prevent my acting.” Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Then the prophet spoke. Today these walls speak. I say this, and I do not cease saying it, both to the poor and to the rich: consider how great is God’s anger. Consider how simple his requirement: let us abstain from evil! In a brief moment of time he shattered the mind and resolution of each one of us. He shook the foundations of our hearts.
