# What does this Bible quote from the book of Jonah mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 8, 2023, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838 "2023-11-08T17:23:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838/1 "2023-11-08T17:23:04Z")
In it, Jonah is angry because God killed the vine that was giving him shade. God replies that Johna didn’t make the vine, but he’s unhappy because it’s gone. God then says: “And should not I care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not yet know their right hand from their left, and many beasts as well!” What does it mean that they don’t know their hands? Are they little kids, or is it a moral reference (i.e. they don’t know good from bad)? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838/2 "2023-11-08T17:43:55Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > And should not I care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not yet know their right hand from their left, and many beasts as well!” I hope when God said this he did it the proper way by raising his left hand and saying “do not yet know about their right hand…”, then raised his right hand to complete the sentence “from their left”. Someone has postulated that it is a joke about the people of Nineveh who write from left to right instead of right to left as is done in Hebrew. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838/3 "2023-11-08T17:45:39Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > the proper way Is that _my_ left or _your_ left? ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838/4 "2023-11-08T17:53:47Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > is it a moral reference (i.e. they don’t know good from bad)? The Christian interpretation would be this definitely. As gentiles do not know God’s moral code (the Christian interpretation being of course they would remain ignorant until the advent of Christ, this is would be an… unpopular… opinion among Jewish commentators of course). I’d be interested in knowing what the Jewish interpretation would be, given AFAIK there is no expectation of evangelizing Jewish moral teaching among gentiles? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838/5 "2023-11-08T18:26:23Z")
It has never even occurred to me to take it literally and think it was about children, but apparently some people have. To me, that is just a common idiom for being confused and not knowing what you’re doing. And since what Jonah is mad about is God saving Ninevah after Jonah warned then—i.e. helping them be las confused—I’ve always thought it referred to the Ninevites themselves. And this, yes, it would be about their lack of moral knowledge, since it was their immoral actions that God had told Jonah to warn them about. You don’t need to warn people about something they already know. Jonah is like a guy who went to warn people about a fire, but then got mad when they put it out rather than burning themselves. A lot of people think that Jonah tried to avoid Ninevah because he was scared, but it was really because he didn’t want them to repent. He wanted this enemy city who had caused Israel so much grief to be destroyed by God. And, ironically, it eventually did get destroyed not long after. The Bible says they returned to their wicked ways and were destroyed by Babylon. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838/6 "2023-11-08T22:34:30Z")
It may be the 2000 year old equivalent of “they don’t know their arse from their elbow” [🔗](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/not-know-arse-from-elbow) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838/7 "2023-11-08T23:01:04Z")
But at least they know the capital of Assyria. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838/8 "2023-11-08T23:14:45Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > God then says: “And should not I care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not yet know their right hand from their left… I miss the good old days when God came down and spoke to people in person. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838/9 "2023-11-08T23:34:09Z")
What, divine Zoom isn’t good enough for you? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838/10 "2023-11-08T23:42:45Z")
> [@pjd](#): > > It may be the 2000 year old equivalent of “they don’t know their arse from their elbow” Yeah, either it was God’s polite way of saying “The Ninevites don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground”, or else it was a metaphor for not knowing good from bad, which would have been a bad thing because that’s discriminating against lefties. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838/11 "2023-11-09T12:28:57Z")
I have taken it as they are spiritual infants & children, and is how God views them (and us) before we mature in His eyes. In this most adults are children as God sees them and Paul discusses this in one of his letters stating that those people are not ready for meat but must be given milk as they are too young. God (in Is) even says of his own Son, there was a time when He didn’t know enough to reject the wrong and chose the right due to His youth. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-bible-quote-from-the-book-of-jonah-mean/992838/12 "2023-11-09T14:45:06Z")
This comes from Jonah 4:11, and it’s the final verse in the book of Jonah, a short book between Obadiah and Micah. Jonah is the fifth of the twelve ‘minor prophets’ books at the end of the OT. They are nicknamed minor prophets because their writings are short. I’ll look at my study Bible to see if I have any notes about it. I have scribbled many notes over the years. I haven’t read Jonah in a long time.