Jonah 3:9 (KJV)

Passage

Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

Nearby Context

Jonah 3:7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

Jonah 3:8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

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

Jonah 3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "tell", "turn", "repent", "away", "fierce", "anger", and "perish". 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 "But let man and beast 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.