Jonah 3:5-9

One of the reasons people sometimes give for not believing that the book of Jonah is literally true is the mass repentance of the Ninevites.  If you’ll recall, the city of Nineveh was huge for its time—120,000 to 600,000 people (by the way, if you’re wondering where this figure comes from, check out 4:11.  Some scholars believe the phrase “120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand” refers to the children of Nineveh, and they add on extra people to account for teens and adults.  Some believe that phrase is a metaphor for being spiritually blind and leave the number at 120,000.  Others take the size of Nineveh, perhaps 60 miles in circumference, divide the area of the city into square yardage and assign a certain number of people per square yard based on population formulas.  Anyway, it was big.)

But…