3:10 When God saw their actions—they turned23 from their evil way of living!24—God relented concerning the judgment25 he had threatened them with26 and he did not destroy them.27
tn This clause is introduced by כִּי (ki, “that”) and functions as an epexegetical, explanatory clause.
24
tnHeb “from their evil way” (so KJV, ASV, NAB); NASB “wicked way.”
25
tnHeb “calamity” or “disaster.” The noun רָעָה (ra’ah, “calamity, disaster”) functions as a metonymy of result—the cause being the threatened judgment (e.g., Exod 32:12, 14; 2 Sam 24:16; Jer 18:8; 26:13, 19; 42:10; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; HALOT1263s.v.רָעָה 6). The root רָעָה is repeated three times in vv. 8 and 10. Twice it refers to the Ninevites’ moral “evil” (vv. 8 and 10a) and here it refers to the “calamity” or “disaster” that the Lord had threatened (v. 10b). This repetition of the root forms a polysemantic wordplay that exploits this broad range of meanings of the noun. The wordplay emphasizes that God’s response was appropriate: because the Ninevites repented from their moral “evil” God relented from the “calamity” he had threatened.
26
tnHeb “the disaster that he had spoken to do to them.”