And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh; - literally, "And he cried and said, etc." The cry or proclamation of the king corresponded with the cry of Jonah. Where the prophet's cry, calling to repentance, had reached, the proclamation of the king followed, obeying. "By the decree of the king and his nobles." This is a hint of the political state of Nineveh, beyond what we have elsewhere. It was not then an absolute monarchy. At least, the king strengthened his command by that of his nobles, as Darius the Mede sealed the den of lions, into which Daniel was cast, with the signet of his lords as well as his own Dan 6:17, "that the purpose might not be changed concerning him."
Let neither man nor beast ... - o "Are brutes too then to fast, horses and mules to be clothed with sackcloth? Yes, he says. For as, when a rich man dies, his relatives clothe not only the men and maidservants, but the horses too with sackcloth, and, giving them to the grooms, bid that they should follow to the tomb, in token of the greatness of the calamity and inviting all to sympathy, so also when that city was about to perish, they clad the brute natures in sackcloth, and put them under the yoke of fasting. The irrational animals cannot, through words, learn the anger of God; let them learn through hunger, that the infliction is from God: for if, he says, the city should be overthrown, it would be one grave of us the inhabitants and of them also." It was no arbitrary nor wanton nor careless act of the king of Nineveh to make the mute animals share in the common fast. It proceeded probably from an indistinct consciousness that God cared for them also, and, that "they" were not guilty. So the Psalmist looked on God's care of His creatures as a fresh ground for man's trust in Him Psa 36:6-7, "O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast: How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings." As our Lord teaches that God's care of the sparrows is a pledge to man of God's minute unceasing care for him, so the Ninevites felt truly that the cry of the poor brutes would be heard by God. And God confirmed that judgment, when He told Jonah of the "much cattle ," as a ground for having pity on Nineveh. The moanings and lowings of the animals, their voices of distress, pierce man's heart too, and must have added to his sense of the common misery. Ignorance or pride of human nature alone could think that man's sorrow is not aided by these objects of sense. Nature was truer in the king of Nineveh. |