exceeding great city
Jonah 3:3
3:3 exceeding great city. Nineveh was a very ancient city, founded by Nimrod, and remained great until its destruction by Babylonia and its allies about 612 B.C. It was also a very wicked city, with its pagan worship centered around the fertility goddess Ishtar. The apex of its greatness, however, was not reached until the reign of Sennacherib, several decades after Jonah’s ministry there, with a newer and more wicked generation. Jonah’s ministry had taken place sometime during the reign of Jeroboam II in Israel, beginning around 780 B.C.