So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey across.
(43) The original is, “And Nineveh was a city great to God” — לאלהים עיר-גדולה. The remark of Henry is, “So the Hebrew phrase is, meaning no more than as we render it, exceeding great; this honor that language doth to the great God, that great things derive their denomination from him” Though the form of the expression here is different from what we find in other places, when God is taken in this sense, as in Psalms 80:10, ארזי-אל, cedars of God, that is, tall or great cedars, — yet there is no other sense that comports with this place. This is the view of Dathius, Drusius, Newcome, and many others. Some render it, great through God, and Grotius seems to have taken it in this sense, for he explains it by “Deo eam augente — God having increased it.” Henderson considers ל here in the sense of לפגי, before, and refers to Genesis 10:9. But this has hardly a meaning in this connection. — Ed.. 