Charles Ellicott Commentary Jonah 1:2

"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me." — Jonah 1:2 (ASV)

Nineveh, that great city.— The size of Nineveh is throughout the book brought into prominent notice. (Jonah 4:11.) The traditions preserved in Greek and Roman writers dwell on the same feature, and modern research among the huge mounds scattered along the left bank of the Tigris more than confirms the impression produced on the ancient world by the city, or rather group of cities, buried beneath them. (Compare to Genesis 10:11.)

Cry.— A common word for a proclamation by a herald or a prophet. (Compare to Isaiah 40:6, and so on.) The English word, in the sense of “proclaim,” lingers in the term “public crier.”

For their wickedness is come up before me. —“Every iniquity has its own voice at the hidden judgment seat of God” (S. Gregory, Mor. v. 20; quoted by Pusey). But, as Pusey remarks, the Hebrew implies especially evil-doing against others, that violence which in Jonah 3:8 is recognised by the Ninevites themselves as their characteristic sin.