3:8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly14 to God, and everyone15 must turn from their16 evil way of living17 and from the violence that they do.18
tnHeb “let them turn, a man from his evil way.” The alternation between the plural verb וְיָשֻׁבוּ (véyashuvu, “and let them turn”) and the singular noun אִישׁ (’ish, “a man, each one”) and the singular suffix on מִדַּרְכּוֹ (middarko, “from his way”) emphasizes that each and every person in the collective unity is called to repent.
tnHeb “that is in their hands.” By speaking of the harm they did as “in their hands,” the king recognized the Ninevites’ personal awareness and immediate responsibility. The term “hands” is either a synecdoche of instrument (e.g., “Is not the hand of Joab in all this?” 2 Sam 14:19) or a synecdoche of part for the whole. The king’s descriptive figure of speech reinforces their guilt.