Jonah 3:9 (YLT)

Passage

Who knoweth? He doth turn back, and God hath repented, and hath turned back from the heat of His anger, and we do not perish.'

Nearby Context

Jonah 3:7 and he crieth and saith in Nineveh by a decree of the king and his great ones, saying, `Man and beast, herd and flock--let them not taste anything, let them not feed, even water let them not drink;

Jonah 3:8 and cover themselves <FI>with<Fi> sackcloth let man and beast, and let them call unto God mightily, and let them turn back each from his evil way, and from the violence that <FI>is<Fi> in their hands.

Jonah 3:9 Who knoweth? He doth turn back, and God hath repented, and hath turned back from the heat of His anger, and we do not perish.'

Jonah 3:10 And God seeth their works, that they have turned back from their evil way, and God repenteth of the evil that He spake of doing to them, and he hath not done <FI>it<Fi> .

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "knoweth", "doth", "turn", "back", "hath", "repented", and "turned". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "knoweth" and "doth", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 8's "and cover themselves FI with Fi sackcloth..." into verse 10's "And God seeth their works that they...", so "knoweth" and "doth" 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 "knoweth" and "doth" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.