[V. 3. According to the Hebrew it should be called Magna Deo [in the Vulgate "God" or "before God" is missing].- [Instead of itinere it should be:] Transitu trium dierum [to pass through in three days]. - This chapter is very easy as far as grammar is concerned. 1) Nineveh was the capital of the kingdom of the Assyrians. Above you have heard of the greatness of the ministry laid upon Jonah, that he, a certain man etc. Before the world this preaching was foolish, because of the greatness of the kingdom, because of the lowliness of the person, because of the greatness of the thing which he preached: it would come to pass that Nineveh should be disturbed after forty days. This was not believed by Lot of Sodom; it was incredible that so great a city would perish. The kingdom of the Affyrians was powerful, it threatened the kingdom of Israel from the greatest proximity; therefore he took the office to preach against the enemies of his kingdom.
V. 2. Preach to her the sermon that I tell you.
This is a proof point that one should preach nothing but the word of the Lord.
Then Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, as the Lord had said.
He went, as the Lord had said, fearing that he would again fall from the fish.
1) Here the Erlanger: yuo aü A^tiarn . .; the Weimarsche: ^no uä Aratiam eontinAit; we have assumed: qmoad Srannnatieain.
Luther's Works. Vol. XIV.
be devoured. - A great city before God or God's. -Itinere, better transitu. - To resolve the question, much has been said of the greatness of this city. Some say that it could have been traveled through in three days [from one side to the other] etc. Jerome tells us that it was so large in circumference. Another says Lyra: it was not a city, but a stretch of land surrounded with walls. I think that it was not so large; like Cologne, I think. At the end [Cap. 4, 11.] it is said [ that nothing two hundred thousand people [had been in it] etc. [There it is said:] "In which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand people." 2) This moves me etc. If there are more [people], it is still nothing with the assumption of the immense size].Nowadays one can [well] find a city in which so many people are, and yet it is not large. Someone could walk through it in all the gapes, etc. so that he could go through it in three days, 3) "go around" like "a preacher monk". It is a city that one could wander through in three days, "walk through" through all the gaffes. Wes-
2) Here we have tried to adjust our template with the help of the Altenbnrger manuscript. The Erlangen edition offers: in üne diountur dueentu rnilliu Uoniinurn etc. unteHNurn truns 12 rnilliu Uominuna. Instead of trans, the Weimar edition has put trunsirent, but even this change does not make the matter any clearer.
3) Set by us instead of eto.
half does he call it "a city of God" or before God? It is certain that God did not build it, but [like] Nimrod [Babel, so did] Assyria build the city [Nineveh], as written in the first book of Moses [Cap. 10, 8. ff. is written. Second, it was not ordered with laws of God, like Jerusalem, where God dwelt. Therefore, he says that God took care of this city, that God took special care of it, that He did not want to disturb it, and that He sent a prophet from His Jewish people etc. God is not only the God of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles.
V. 4. 1) And Jonah began to go in a day's journey into the city.
Itinere [that is, a day's journey] he went about "as far" as he could. The third part [of the city] he visited with his sermon, as far as he could go around in one day. But he did not go through the whole city with his sermon, he does not say that.
Preaching, he said, "Forty days are left, and Nineveh will perish.
With very short words he describes this sermon after its main part. It must be assumed that he has elaborated it with a lot of words. He has added his reasons of proof why it happens, why God is angry etc. But he alone gives the subject: God etc. Here one disputes why he did not add: if they would not do evil etc.
V. 5. Then the people of Nineveh believed in God, and preached fasting, and put on sackcloth, both great and small.
They have put on [sacks], both great and small. 2) The king has taken off his purple robe. [The king cried out and said, "Let the sheep and the oxen also cover themselves with sackcloth; let both men and beasts cry fiercely to God, and let every man turn from his wicked ways. etc." "The preaching is greater than these" [, men and beasts, put on sackcloth]. It is said to us who preach: faith alone is the
1) This verse number is missing in the Weimar edition.
2) Here our template has no punctuation mark.
Justice, held against: This passage "preaches," against the doctrine of faith. They [the adversaries] say against us, Thus Nineveh [was saved by works] etc. Likewise the text says [v. 10;P. "But since God saw their works" etc. We must "put off spectacles," and see what was said before, namely, "Then the people of Nineveh believed in God." They [the Adversaries] think that God and the Holy Spirit "care less about believing in" the word than they do. It is not necessary to prescribe to true and sincere faith what must be done, as here Jonah prescribes nothing, no works; here is the word alone. The believers do this immediately of their own free will. Against them [the adversaries is this text. The sacks and the fasting would have been nothing, but God saw their faith. First they believe, then they do works. Faith does this only to justify a man; when he is justified, works no longer do anything. He describes that they first became righteous, and because their glow is pleasing, all their works are also pleasing. Faith did these works. If they have believed, they are righteous; but if they are righteous, they also do works. True faith does not cease from works. They believe the words and threats of God; they would not do the works if they did not believe. To put on sackcloth does not mean to clothe oneself with a "hop sack," but it is a Hebrew expression, as eating bread, drinking water. [The Germans say:] "Give to eat, [to] drink", the Hebrews say: water and bread "give". It means to lay aside the delicious and splendid garments, and to santhun a bad, lowly garment]. "Remove the sackcloth from thy loins," says Isaiah [Cap. 20:2]. "I clothe the heavens with sackcloth" [Isa. 50, 3.]. "The sun was like sackcloth made of hair," Revelation 6:12. When the heavens are sad, dim, foggy, "that is his" sackcloth; when there is a fiasco of the sun etc. To clothe oneself with a mourning garment, to display sadness,
3) Instead of vsro we have adopted vera.
4) In our original: Hisrsnaiak. Both the Erlangen and the Weimar editions in the margin: Jer. 13, 4. - This error goes through all relations.
that is, put on a sack etc. With a sack, that is, with low and low clothes.
V. 6. And when this came before the king etc.
"This must have been a pious king." Behold the fruit of the word: the king himself did not hear it, but through the rumor of the third part [of the city] it reached [him] etc. By his and his mighty command the whole city believes. A great efficacy of the word, the like of which is not seen in any other preacher. It is much greater than in Peter's first sermon [Apost. 2, 14. ff.], where three thousand [gladly received the word] etc. "Bad thing" etc. The king put on a lowly garment, as befits a lowly man. It is something great: "a king" etc. - "To sit in ashes" means to have a low and lowly gift and seat. Thus it is said in Isaiah [Cap. 47:1], "Sit in the ashes." That is, he sat in a low place, that he might show his sorrow by his garments, by outward gestures etc.
V. 7 And he cried out and said to Nineveh, by the commandment of the king and his mighty men, thus:
Ex ore, that is, by order, by decree of the king. "This must have been a beautiful edict." Perhaps the king signed himself and the authorities of the kingdom. - "Men and cattle." What has God to do with the fasting of oxen? By all means nothing; so also [nothing with the fasting] of men (illorum). When faith is there,
so GOtte pleases the works, even if oxen, "cows fast". Because here is the faith, also the fasting of the oxen pleases him. This hunger they shall suffer, that they may cry out etc. "So that", by this faith, "they gain our HErrgod". - "Water," they shall [not] be watered.
V. 8: And they shall cover themselves with sacks, both man and beast.
They display their sadness, crying out "for food". God calls this good, because faith and the bruised heart "so foolishly attack it". Everything is well-pleasing that goes along in fear; even "that" is well-pleasing which is otherwise lowly and rejected etc. - "And let every man repent of his wicked way." It is not true repentance unless the life is also changed. First the sinner must be crushed, and the conscience because of sin etc.
V. 9. Who knows, God wants to turn back.
Why does he doubt, since true faith does not doubt? Faith is a struggle; the words of faith in fear are words of despair. Faith speaks according to how it feels. Fear is there; the contestation has the upper hand and forces him to break out into a word of despair or doubt. God has regarded the works, namely [because they are] [done] in faith. For the preceding text "regulates" the following: "Then the people believed" etc.
1) Instead of aliarn we have assumed illarn, which will be read according to the Hallic manuscript.