"And the word of God came to Yonah a second time."- We have already explained the meaning of "a second [time]" above [in] chapter one, verse one.

"Get up...[call out] that which I speak"- [Meaning,] that I spoke to you already and also that which I am now speaking to you, that you should call out to it [the city] that it will be overturned because of their evil.

"And he got up...a city great to God."- [When it comes to] anything which one wants to enlarge, [one should] juxtapose it with God in a way that increases its size, like [it says in the following phrases]: "Like the mountains of God," (Tehillim 36:7) "The cedars of God,"(Tehillim 80:11) "A flame of God from its darkness."

"Yonah started out"- For the city was three days' journey from one end to the other and Yonah started by entering the city one day's journey, and as he walked, he would call out and say: "Forty days more and Nineveh is overturned!" That is, [it is overturned] like the overturning of S'dom and Amorah, because its[the city of Nineveh's] acts were like theirs.

"And they believed"- because the sailors were in the city and they testified about Yonah that they had cast him into the sea, and the rest of his story as it happened. This is why they believed his prophecy and repented completely.

"They proclaimed a fast"- [even] before the king's warning, they repented on their own, and they fasted, and they wore sackcloth.

"And the matter reached"- The matter which the prophet had spoken and called out about the city.

"His mantle"- The robe of kingship that was on him, and [Targum] Yonatan translates: "His esteemed garment."

"And he cried"- he passed a proclamation in the city about repentance, and even though the people were being scrupulous [to repent] of their own accord already, he added more: the affliction [through fasting] of the animals and the returning of stolen things.

"From the reasoning of the king"- Meaning to say, from his counsel and his intelligence, [both] he and his nobles- they all agreed to this. And similarly [it uses this word in the verses]: "He takes the reasoning of elders" (Iyov 12:20), "When he changed his sanity"(Tehillim 34:1), and those similar to them, and [Targum] Yonatan translates: "From the decree of the king."

"And they shall cover themselves...with strength"- [cry out] with all one's heart].

"From his evil way"- [this is referring to] other transgressions.

"And from the treachery"- It is [considered equal] opposite all of them and on it was their decree decreed.

"Who knows"- [the explanation of this is:] perhaps God will return and relent when we repent of our evil actions, or the explanation is: one who knows the ways of repentance should repent and God, Blessed is He, will relent, and [Targum] Yonatan translates: "One he knows that he has sins which obligate him [to be punished] should repent of them and we will be granted mercy from before God."

"And he will relent"- [There is a] patakh because it is an פִּעֵל-form past-tense verb altered to be future-tense because of the letter ו, it is from the נִפעַל form [of verbs].

"And he saw...from their evil way"- [This phrase] includes all the evils [they were doing]. "And from the treachery" [means] they repented a complete repentance, like our Rabbis of blessed memory said: "One who steal a beam and builds it into a large pit must destroy the whole pit in its entirety and return the beam to its owner."

"And God will relent"- Because all his words which he said to cause harm to people are with a condition: "if they do not repent [they will be destroyed]," but if they do repent, He will forgive, and this trait comes from His traits, Blessed is He, like it says in the Torah, and so said Yirmiyahu [as well]: "For a moment I speak of a nation [to be destroyed]..." (Jeremiah 18:7); And so said Yekhezkel: "And when a evil person returns from his wickedness..."(Ezekiel 18:27).