In the third chapter of the Book of Jonah, Jonah finally reaches Nineveh, and starts preaching repentance and reformation to the people there. And... they listen! Even the King of Assyria listens!

The inner meaning of the story is pretty close to the surface here, and there's important symbolism. Swedenborg summarizes the chapter's meaning in this one sentence:

"The nations, hearing from the Word of God about their sins, and that they would perish, were converted after repenting, and were heard by the Lord, and saved." (The Inner Meaning of the Prophets and Psalms 213)

Rev. George McCurdy, in his exegesis of this chapter, offers this summary:

The great city of Nineveh has many spiritual representations. The world saw Nineveh as a mighty nation, but in the eyes of the Lord, it represented the shallowness and weakness (death) of false doctrines, contrived beliefs confirmed by the proprium (self love), the fallacies of the senses, and the unenlightened understanding that spawns spiritual ignorance.

The Lord’s mercy and love for all prompted Him not only to send His message to Nineveh, but to ensure that it would be preserved for eternity. Jonah’s call to "arise and go" preach to Nineveh is a call for spiritual renewal. It is a call for repentance. The fasting, sackcloth, and ashes symbolize a call to be aware that "where there is no truth, there is no church."

Where the Word is closed, and not loved, there is a loss of conjunction with the Divine resources. The fasting of man and beast symbolizes a need for the spiritual and natural appetites to come to the Lord for that "bread which comes down from heaven." The Ninevites giving up their natural food and drink represents their turning away from "as-of-self" concepts and reminds all who read and hear the Word of the Lord to rely on heavenly manna.

"Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance…" (Isaiah 55:2)

The king sitting in ashes and mourning represents a sorrowful attitude toward "the remains of the fire of self-love." Repentance involves self-examination, making oneself guilty for the sins and evils committed, asking the Lord for His help, and desiring to attain a new life.

As we mull over this concept, think about the Lord’s preaching on earth. As He went about His mission, He often used these words: "You have heard it said of old… but I say unto you…" Putting aside human traditions and taking on the Lord’s teachings is an ongoing effort. Jonah was told to preach the words of the Lord. He was not to make things up from his memory. He was to be a true and faithful prophet of the Lord’s ways.

Here's a link to an interesting (audio) sermon on this chapter, by Rev. Todd Beiswenger.

Rev. Martin Pennington suggests two explanatory passages from Swedenborg's theological writings:

"Forty days means a period of temptation combats or severe change." (Arcana Coelestia 730)

"A fast represents those who are in a state of unhappiness when good is no longer joined to the truths." (Arcana Coelestia 9182[10])

Other references of interest listed by Rev. McCurdy include:

"As ‘forty’ signified what is full or complete… forty signifies what is complete in respect to instruction and influx… for this reason it was said by Jonah to the Ninevites that ‘the city would be overthrown after forty days" (Jonah 3:4) (Arcana Coelestia 9437[2])

"By being clothed in sackcloth is signified mourning on account of the vastated truth in the church; for garments signify truths; and therefore, to be clothed in sackcloth, which is not a garment, signifies mourning that there is no truth; and where there is no truth, there is no church." Jonah 3:5-6 is cited. (Apocalypse Revealed 492)

"…the rite of putting sackcloth on the loins to testify…mourning may be seen from the historic and prophetic parts of the Word, as in… Jonah 3:5-8… for a sign representative of mourning over the evil on account of which Nineveh was to perish; thus over destroyed good." (Arcana Coelestia 4779[2])

"From the signification of garments it is also manifest why they rent their garments, when any one spoke against the Divine truth of the Word… and why, on account of transgressions against Divine truths, they put off their garments, and put on sackcloth." Jonah 3:5, 6, and 8 are cited. (Apocalypse Revealed 166)

"That ‘ashes’ denote falsity, may be confirmed from passages where another word for ‘ashes (cinis)’ is used, for these ashes have a like origin…" Jonah 3:6 is cited. (Arcana Coelestia 7520)

"…by ‘ashes’ in the opposite sense, namely, what is condemned that remains after the burning from the fire of self love. This is signified by ‘the ashes’ which they carried on the head, and in which they rolled themselves when bewailing their sins." Jonah 3:6 is cited. (Arcana Coelestia 9723)

"In the spiritual sense by kings those who are in truths are signified, by the great ones those who are in goods, by the rich those that are in the knowledge of good, by the mighty they that are in erudition, by servants they that are in such things from others, and thus from memory, and by freemen they that are in such things from themselves…" Jonah 3:7 is cited. (Apocalypse Revealed 337)

"The interior good and also the interior evil…are signified by ‘man,’ are those which are of the intention or end, for the intention or end is the inmost of man; but the exterior good and also the exterior evil which are signified by ‘beast,’ are those which are of the thought, and of the consequent action when nothing stands in the way…By ‘beast,’…in respect to the external or natural man, a man is nothing else than a beast, for he takes delight in the like cupidities and pleasures, as also in the like appetites and sense…Therefore… from a holy rite it was commanded by the king of Nineveh, that both man and beast were to fast, and were to be covered with sackcloth (Jonah 3:7, 8)." (Arcana Coelestia 7523)

"… in the spiritual world a man’s affections appear at a distance like beasts… and beasts, viewed in themselves, are nothing but forms of natural affections… By man and beasts together is signified man as to spiritual and natural affection, in the following passages… Jonah 3:7, 8…" (Apocalypse Revealed 567)

"Here ‘webs’ and ‘garments’ are predicated of things of the understanding, that is, of the thought; ‘iniquity’ and ‘violence,’ of things of the will, that is, of works. In Jonah 3:8… the ‘evil way’ is predicated of falsities, which are of the understanding; and ‘violence,’ which are of the will." (Arcana Coelestia 623[2])

"…the ‘wrath of anger’ is attributed to Jehovah, and consequently ‘repentance.’" (Arcana Coelestia 588[2])

"…the Word is such in the sense of the letter, it may be evident that it cannot be understood without doctrine. But let examples illustrate this. It is said that Jehovah repenteth (Jonah 3:9; 4:2), and it is also said that Jehovah repenteth not (Num. 23:19…): without doctrine these statements do not agree." (Teachings Regarding the Sacred Scripture 51)

"In these passages (Jonah 3:9,10) Jehovah is said to have ‘repented,’ when yet it cannot be that He repents, because He knows all things before He does them; from which it is evident that by ‘repenting’ is signified mercy." (Arcana Coelestia 10441[2-4])

Finally, here's a link to Rev. McCurdy's study guide for the Book of Jonah, which is available for free as a .pdf, for your use.

39. Because the Christian world does not know that there can be no faith without charity, or what charity towards the neighbour is, not even that it is the will which is the real person, and his thought contributes only so far as it is inspired by the will, I should like, so as to shed some intellectual light on these matters, to add here my collected notes of passages in ARCANA CAELESTIA, which may be of use as illustration.

ON FAITH

If anyone does not know that all things in the universe relate to truth and to good and that they have both to be linked for anything to be produced, he also does not know that all things in the church relate to faith and to love and to their linking (7752-7762, 9186, 9224).

All things in the universe relate to truth and good and to their linking (2451, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122, 10555).

Truths belong to faith, and kinds of good to love (4352, 4997, 7178, 10367).

[2] If anyone does not know that every detail in the make-up of a human being relates to the intellect and the will and to their linking, which must happen for the person to be human, neither do they know that everything in the church relates to faith and love and to their linking, which must happen for the church to be present in a person (2231, 7752-7754, 9224, 9995, 10122).

A person has two faculties, one called the intellect, the other the will (641, 803, 3623, 3539).

The intellect is assigned to the reception of truths, and so of things to do with faith; the will is assigned to the reception of kinds of good, and so of things to do with love (9300, 9930, 10064).

Hence it follows that it is love or charity which makes a church and not faith alone, that is, faith separated from love and charity (809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 4766, 5826).

[3] Faith separated from charity is no faith (654, 724, 1162, 1176, 2049, 2116, 2343, 2349, 2417, 3419, 3849, 3868, 6348, 7039, 7342, 9783).

A faith of this kind is lost in the other life (2228, 5820).

Teachings about faith alone destroy charity (6353, 8094).

Those who separate faith from charity are represented in the Word by Cain, Ham, Reuben, by the first-born of the Egyptians and by the Philistines (3325, 7097, 7317, 8093).

The further charity is withdrawn, the stronger becomes the dogma of faith alone (2231). A church in course of time turns aside from charity to faith, and finally to faith alone (4683, 8094).

In the final period of a church there is no faith because there is no charity (1843, 3489, 4689).

If anyone regards faith alone as offering salvation, he is excusing wickedness of life; and those who lead wicked lives have no faith, because they have no charity (3865, 7766, 7778, 7790, 7950, 8094).

These people are inwardly subject to the falsities of their own evil, although they do not know it (7790, 7950). Consequently good cannot be linked to them (8981, 8983).

In the other life too they oppose good and those who have good in them (7097, 7127, 7317, 7502, 7545, 8096, 8313).

Those who are simple at heart know better than the wise what constitutes goodness of life, and so charity, but not what faith is separately (4741, 4754).

[4] Good is being and truth is coming into existence from this being. Thus the truth of faith has its being in life from the good of charity (3049, 3180, 4574, 5002, 9154).

Consequently the truth of faith is given life by the good of charity; so the life of faith is charity (1589, 1947, 1997, 2571, 4070, 4096, 4097, 4736, 4757, 4884, 5147, 5928, 9154, 9667, 9841, 10729).

A person's faith is not alive when he merely knows and thinks about matters to do with faith, but only when he wills them and by willing does them (9224).

The Lord is not linked with a person by faith, but by the life of faith, which is charity (9380, 10143, 10153, 10578, 10645, 10648).

Worship based on the good of charity is true worship; but if it is based upon the truth of faith without the good of charity it is only an external act (7724).

[5] Faith alone, that is, separated from charity, is like light in wintertime when everything on earth is sluggish and no growth takes place. But faith with charity is like light in spring and summertime, when everything flowers and grows (2231, 3146, 3412, 3413). Winter light, that given by faith separated from charity, is in the other life turned into thick darkness, when light pours in from heaven.

Those whose faith is of that kind are then reduced to blindness and stupidity (3412, 3413).

Those who separate faith from charity are in darkness, or in ignorance of the truth, so they are subject to falsities; for these are darkness (9186).

They plunge themselves into falsities and so into evils (3325, 8094); the errors and falsities into which they plunge (4721, 4730, 4776, 4783, 4925, 7779, 8313, 8765, 9224).

The Word is a closed book to them (3773, 4783, 8780).

They do not see or pay attention to all the Lord's many statements about love and charity (1017, 3416).

Neither do they know what good or heavenly love or charity are (2057, 3603, 4136, 9995).

[6] Charity makes the church, not faith separated from charity (809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844)

How much good there would be in the church, if charity were regarded as its primary concern (6269, 6272).

If charity were its essential element, there would be one church, not a division into many; and it would then not matter if their teachings about faith and external forms of worship were different (1285, 1316, 2385, 2853, 2982, 3267, 3445, 3451, 3452).

Everyone in heaven is seen from the point of view of charity, and no one from that of faith without charity (1258, 1394, 2364, 4802).

[7] The Lord's twelve disciples represented the church as regards the whole of faith and charity taken together, in the same way as the twelve tribes of Israel (2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397).

Peter, James and John represented respectively faith, charity and the good works of charity (3750). Peter stands for faith (4738, 6000, 6073, 6344, 10087, 10580); John the good works of charity (AC preface to chapters 18, 22 of Genesis).

There being in the final periods no faith in the Lord because there is no charity was represented by Peter's thrice-repeated denial of the Lord before the cock crew the second ¹ time; for Peter in the representative sense there is faith (6000, 6073).

Cock-crow and twilight mean in the Word the final period of a church (10134).

Three or thrice means final completion (2788, 4495, 5159, 9198, 10127).

There is a similar meaning in the Lord's words to Peter, when he saw John follow the Lord, 'What is it to you, Peter? Follow me, John.'

For Peter said about John 'What of him?' John 21:21-22 (10087).

John reclined on the Lord's breast, because he represented the good works of charity (3934, 10081).

All personal and place names in the Word stand for abstract qualities (768, 1888, 4310, 4442, 10329).

ON CHARITY

[8] Heaven is divided into two kingdoms, one called the celestial kingdom, the other the spiritual kingdom. Love in the celestial kingdom is love to the Lord, called celestial love, and love in the spiritual kingdom is charity towards the neighbour, called spiritual love (3325, 3653, 7257, 9002, 9835, 9961).

The division of heaven into those two kingdoms is described in HEAVEN AND HELL 20-28. The Lord's Divine in the heavens is love to Him and charity towards the neighbour (13-19).

[9] There is no knowledge of what good and truth are without knowledge of what love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour are, since all good has to do with love and charity, and all truth has to do with good (7255, 7366).

Knowing truths, willing truths and having affection for truths for truths' sake, that is, because they are true, is charity (3876, 3877).

Charity consists in an inward affection for doing what is true, and not in an outward affection without an inward one (2439, 2442, 3776, 4899, 4956, 8073).

Charity equally consists of performing services for their own sake and its nature depends upon the services performed (7078, 8253).

Charity is a person's spiritual life (7081).

The whole of the Word is a lesson in love and charity (6632, 7261).

There is ignorance to-day about what charity is (2417, 3398, 4776, 6632).

Still one can know even by the light of one's own reason that it is love and charity that make one a person (3957, 6273); also that good and truth are in harmony, and belong each to the other, and so do charity and faith (7627).

[10] In the highest sense the Lord is the neighbour, because He is to be loved above all. Consequently everything that proceeds from Him and in which He is present, and so good and truth, are the neighbour (2425, 3419, 6706, 6819, 6823, 8124).

The difference between one neighbour and another depends upon the nature of good, and so on the Lord's presence (6707-6710).

Every person and every community, as well as one's country and one's church, and in the universal sense the Lord's kingdom, are the neighbour. Loving the neighbour is doing good to them appropriately to their condition. So the neighbour is the good of those for whom one should take thought (6818-6824, 8123).

Civic good, which is justice, and moral good, which is goodness of life in the community, are the neighbour (2915, 4730, 8120-8122).

Loving the neighbour is not loving a person, but what he possesses which gives him his nature, so his good and truth (5025, 10336).

Those who love a person, and not what he possesses and which gives him his nature, love evil as much as good (3820).

These people do good to wicked as much as to good people, yet doing good to the wicked is doing harm to the good; and this is not loving the neighbour (3820, 6703, 8120).

A judge, who punishes the wicked to reform them and to prevent the good being infected by their evil, is loving the neighbour (3820, 8120, 8121).

[11] Loving the neighbour is doing good, behaving fairly and correctly in every task and in every office (8120-8122).

Thus charity towards the neighbour extends to every single thing a person thinks, wills and does (8124).

Doing what is good and true for the sake of goodness and truth is loving the neighbour (10310, 10376).

Those who do this love the Lord, who is in the highest sense the neighbour (9210).

A life of charity is living in accordance with the Lord's commands, so living in accordance with Divine truths is loving the Lord (10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10645).

[12] True charity seeks no reward (Arcana Caelestia 2027, 2273, ² 2380, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393), because it comes from inward affection, so from the pleasure of doing good (2273, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393).

In the other life, those who separate faith from charity regard faith and what seem outwardly like good deeds they have done as deserving reward (2273).

[13] The teaching of the Ancient Church was about how to live, which is teaching about charity (2385, 2417, 3419, 3420, 4844, 6628).

The ancients who belonged to the church reduced the good deeds of charity to an order and divided them into classes, giving each its name. This was the source of their wisdom (2417, 6629, 7259-7262).

The wisdom and intelligence of those who have lived a charitable life in the world increase immeasurably in the other life (1941, 5849).

The Lord fills charity with Divine truth, because this is the real life of a person (2363).

A person resembles a garden when charity and faith are linked in him, a desert when they are not (7626).

In so far as a person departs from charity he equally departs from wisdom (6630). Those who lack charity are ignorant about Divine truths, however wise they think themselves (2417, 2435).

The life of angels consists in performing the good deeds of charity, which are services (454).

Spiritual angels are models of charity (553, 3804, 4735).

ON THE WILL AND THE INTELLECT

[14] A person has two faculties, one called the intellect, the other called the will (35, 641, 3539, 10122).

Those two faculties constitute the true person (10076, 10109, 10110, 10264, 10284).

The nature of those faculties determines the person's nature (7342, 8885, 9282, 10064, 10284).

These faculties serve to distinguish man from animals, because the human intellect can be uplifted by the Lord so as to see Divine truths; and likewise the will can be uplifted so as to perceive Divine kinds of goodness. Thus a person can be linked to the Lord by the two faculties which constitute him.

But the case is different with animals (4525, 5114, 5302, 6323, 9231).

Because man is superior to animals in having that ability, he is unable to die as regards the interiors which belong to his spirit, but he lives for ever (5302).

[15] All things in the universe relate to good and truth; so all things in a person relate to the will and the intellect (803, 10122), because the intellect receives truth and the will receives good (3332, 3623, 5835, 6065, 6125, 7503, 9300, 9930).

It comes to the same thing whether you speak of truth or of faith, since faith has to do with truth and truth with faith. It comes to the same thing whether you speak of good or of love, since love has to do with good and good with love.

A person calls true what he believes and he calls good what he loves (4353, 4997, 7178, 10122, 10367).

It follows from this that the intellect is a receiver for faith and the will for love (7179, 10122, 10367).

Because a person's intellect is capable of receiving faith in God and his will is capable of receiving love to God, he can by faith and love be linked to God; and being capable of this, he cannot ever die (4525, 6323, 9231).

[16] A person's will is the real being of his life, because it serves to receive love or good. His intellect is the coming-into-existence of his life from this source, because it serves to receive faith or truth (3619, 5002, 9282).

Thus it is the life of the will which is the chief element in a person's life, and the life of the intellect is derived from it (585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109, 10110); similarly light comes from fire or flame (6032, 6314).

A person makes his own what enters into the intellect and at the same time into the will, but not what only enters into the intellect (9009, 9069, 9071, 9128, 9182, 9386, 9393, 10076, 10109, 10110).

What is received by the will becomes part of a person's life (3161, 9386, 9393).

It follows from this that what makes a person human depends on his will and on his intellect derived from it (8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109, 10110).

It is also true that every individual is loved and esteemed by others in proportion to the good of his will, and thus of his intellect. Anyone who wishes well and understands well is loved and esteemed, and anyone who understands well but does not wish well is rejected and criticised (8911, 10076).

After death a person remains in the state of his will and intellect derived from it (9069, 9071, 9386, 10153).

Matters of the intellect which are not at the same time matters of will then fade away, because they are not in the person (9282).

To put it another way, a person's state after death remains such as was his love and thus his faith, or such as was his good and thus his truth. Matters which have to do with faith, but not also with love, or matters to do with truth, but not also with good, then fade away, because they are not in the person or part of him (553, 2363, 10153).

A person can grasp intellectually what he does not willingly do; that is, he can understand what he cannot will, because it opposes his love (7539).

The reason why people have difficulty in making the distinction between thinking and willing (9995).

[17] How perverse is the state of those whose intellect and will do not act as one (9075).

This state is found in hypocrites, tricksters, toadies and charlatans (3573, 4327, 4799, 8250).

[18] All willing of good and thus understanding of truth is from the Lord; but not the understanding of truth separated from the willing of good (1831, 3514, 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153).

It is the intellect which is enlightened by the Lord (6222, 6608, 10659).

This enlightenment occurs to the extent that a person receives truth in his will, that is, to the extent that he wishes to act in accordance with truth (3169).

The intellect depends upon light from heaven, just as sight depends on light from the world (1524, 5114, 6608, 9128).

The nature of the intellect is determined by the nature of the truths derived from good by which it is formed (10064).

The intellect is properly formed by truths derived from good, but not by falsities derived from evil (10675).

It is the function of the intellect on the basis of experience to see truths, causes, connexions and logical consequences (6125).

It is the function of the intellect to see and perceive whether a thing is true before it is proved, not to be able to prove anything whatever (4741, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521, 8780).

The ability to see and perceive whether a thing is true before it is proved is only possible for those who have an affection for truth for truth's sake, those, that is, who enjoy spiritual light (8521).

The light afforded by proofs is natural light, which even the wicked may possess (8780).

All dogmas, however false, can be proved to the point where they appear to be true (2482, 2490, 5033, 6865, 7950 ³ ).

Footnotes: