George Leo Haydock

Mercy. Hebrew, “repented,” as some copies of the Septuagint read, while others have, “was comforted.” (Haydock) — God suspended the stroke. But as the people soon relapsed, Sardanapalus burnt himself to death, and the city was taken, (St. Jerome) thirty-seven years after Jeroboam. (Year of the world 3257, Usher) — Yet this was only a prelude to its future ruin, foretold by Tobias, (xiv. 5. in Greek) and effected by Nabopolassar and Astyages. (Calmet) (Year of the world 3378, Usher) — The vestiges did not appear in the days of Lucian, (Charon.; Calmet) soon after Christ. (Haydock) Bible Text & Cross-references: Jonas is sent again to preach in Ninive. Upon their fasting and repentance, God recalleth the sentence by which they were to be destroyed. 1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying: 2 Arise, and go to Ninive, the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee. 3 And Jonas arose, and went to Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: now Ninive was a great city of three days’ journey. 4 And Jonas began to enter into the city one day’s journey: and he cried, and said: Yet forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed. 5 *And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. 6 And the word came to the king of Ninive: and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Ninive, from the mouth of the king, and of his princes, saying: Let neither men nor beasts, oxen, nor sheep, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water. 8 And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands. 9 *Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish? 10 And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.