Journal: Bulletin for Biblical Research
Volume: BBR 18:2 (NA 2008)
Article: How Big Was Nineveh? Literal versus Figurative Interpretation of City Size
Author: Charles Halton

BBR 18:2 (2008) p. 193

How Big Was Nineveh?
Literal versus Figurative Interpretation
of City Size

Charles Halton

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

This article examines the incongruity between most modern translations of Jonah 3:3 and ancient textual and archaeological evidence concerning the size of Nineveh. Every modern solution intended to reconcile a literal rendering of the description in Jonah 3:3 with ancient evidence fails. However, reading Jonah 3:3 as a figure of speech perfectly conveys the author’s intention of representing Nineveh as a very large city.

Key Words: Jonah 3:3, Nineveh, Babylon, literal, figurative, idiom, hermeneutics, Herodotus, Sennacherib, journey, prophet

On the face of it, “Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey” (Jonah 3:3b, KJV) is quite an innocuous statement. It seems like a straightforward description of size measured by means of an average day’s walk. Many modern translations render this phrase in a similar manner:

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth (ESV).1

Now Nineveh was an extremely large city, a three-day walk (HCSV).2

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk (NASB).3

Now Nineveh was a very important city—a visit required three days (NIV).

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across (NJB).

Author’s note: I dedicate this article to Professor Edwin Yamauchi and John Charles Halton III—two individuals who combine a sharp mind with a tender heart. May this young scholar follow in your footsteps. Furthermore, I extend my deep appreciation to them both for their insights in an earlier draft of this essay.

BBR 18:2 (2008) p. 194

Nineveh was an enormously large city a three days’ walk across (NJPSV).4

[A] city so large that it took three days to see it all (NLT).

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across (NRSV).

Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it (TNIV).

However, once one begins to ponder the relation of the d...