3:1–4 · Jonah’s proclamation of the Lord’s message to Nineveh:The Lord’s second commission to Jonah mirrors 1:1–3 almost verbatim, although in this instance Jonah obeys the Lord and travels to Nineveh. While in 1:2 the Lord states the reason for Jonah’s visit to Nineveh, in 3:2 Jonah is simply told to proclaim the message the Lord is about to give him. The adjective “great” describes the city four times (1:2; 3:2, 3; 4:11), indicating its political, cultural, and geographic importance. Nineveh, located at the crossroads of two major trade routes, served as the capital of Assyria. While the text describes Jonah’s journey as of three days’ duration, we are uncertain whether it took three days to arrive at Nineveh or whether the prophet traveled around the eight-mile circumference of the cit…