Jonah 3:9 (DRB)

Passage

Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish?

Nearby Context

Jonah 3:7 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 anything: let them not feed, nor drink water.

Jonah 3:8 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.

Jonah 3:9 Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish?

Jonah 3:10 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.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "tell", "turn", "forgive", "away", "fierce", "anger", and "shall". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "tell" and "turn", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 8's "And let men and beasts be covered..." into verse 10's "And God saw their works that they...", so "tell" and "turn" belong inside that flow. In Jonah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "tell" and "turn" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.