The True God Felt Regret Over The Calamity And Did Not Cause It

[Bible Speaks]

"The true God felt regret over the calamity that he had spoken of causing to them; and he did not cause it."—Jonah 3:10.

Jehovah also gave the people of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh an opportunity to respond to his warning. His word occurred to Jonah, saying: “Get up, go to Nineveh the great city, and proclaim against her that their badness has come up before me.” Nineveh was deemed fit for destruction.—Jonah 1:1, 2; 3:1-4.

However, when Jonah declared the message of doom, “the men of Nineveh began to put faith in God, and they proceeded to proclaim a fast and to put on sackcloth, from the greatest one of them even to the least one of them.” Their king “rose up from his throne and put off his official garment from himself and covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the ashes.” The Ninevites responded to Jehovah’s molding efforts and repented. Consequently, Jehovah did not cause the calamity.—Jonah 3:5-10.

Being a chosen nation had not excluded Israel from discipline. The Ninevites, on the other hand, were not in a covenant relationship with God. 

Still, Jehovah had his message of judgment declared to them and showed them mercy when they proved to be like malleable clay in his hands. How vividly these two examples show that Jehovah our God “treats none with partiality”!—Deut. 10:17.

The way that God is willing to mold us shows that he is reasonable and adaptable. That is evident in situations where Jehovah determines to take action based on his just judgment of people but then changes his mind because of their response. 

The Scriptures state concerning the first king of Israel that Jehovah ‘regretted that he had caused Saul to reign as king.’ (1 Sam. 15:11) 

When the people of Nineveh repented and turned around from their bad way, the Bible says: “The true God felt regret over the calamity that he had spoken of causing to them; and he did not cause it.”—Jonah 3:10. jw.org