Shouldn't I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can't discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?"
God’s compassion extended not only to plants but also to people. The 120,000 people that God cited as the special objects of His compassion were probably the entire populace that did not know how to escape their troubles. The expression "do not know the difference between their right and left hand" is idiomatic meaning lacking in knowledge and innocent in that sense (cf. 2 Samuel 19:35; Isaiah 7:15-16). [Note: Stuart, p. 507.] 