约拿便照耶和华的话起来，往尼尼微去。这尼尼微是极大的城，有三日的路程。 (约拿书 3:3 ) 用三天的路程，是指甚么？
希伯来经文中没有区分尼尼微城的中心地区和行政区域。中心地区是指城墙方圆约十三公里，居住人口约十七万五千的地区；行政区域则指四十八至九十六公里之间的区域。所以，只是参观这座尼尼微大城中心地区，也得花上三天的时间。
关于尼尼微城人口和面积的分析
The ruins of Nineveh are surrounded by the remains of a massive stone and mudbrick wall dating from about 700 BC. About 12 km in length, the wall system consisted of an ashlar stone retaining wall about 6 metres (20 ft) high surmounted by a mudbrick wall about 10 metres (33 ft) high and 15 metres (49 ft) thick. The stone retaining wall had projecting stone towers spaced about every 18 metres (59 ft). The stone wall and towers were topped by three-step merlons.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineveh
何况这尼尼微大城，其中不能分辨左手右手的有十二万多人，并有许多牲畜，我岂能不爱惜呢？” (约拿书 4:11) 当时城市人口的真实性？
是指尚不能分辨是非的孩童,从属灵角度来讲,是指不能区分善恶的属灵幼童。从平均人口比例来看,当时尼尼微的人口估计约有小孩的五倍左右,即60多万人。然而按照城市的规模，当时的城市不可能放下如此多的人。左右手是指分辨上帝律法之人。
However, if Nineveh contained 120,000 young children, the population of the city must have been at least 600,000. The problem with this is that the area within the city walls would not have contained more than 175,000 people, according to figures based on archaeological remains.(See http://www.studylight.org/dic/hbd/view.cgi?number=T4620.)
Those who conclude the 120,000 people comprise all of the Ninevites provide an array of convincing evidence. First, the Hebrew word translated “people” in Jonah 4:11 is the general word for “people,” not the Hebrew word for “children.” Linguistically, the evidence favors a broader interpretation that includes all the people of Nineveh.
In addition, the closest biblical parallels refer to the difference between those who know the Law of the Lord and those who do not. For example, Ecclesiastes 10:2 says, “A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left.” The Bible often speaks of the wicked as those do not know God (Proverbs 28:5; Galatians 4:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:5; 1 John 4:8). On the cross Jesus prayed for the Father to forgive His murderers, “for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34; see also Acts 17:23, 30 and 1 Timothy 1:13). In Hosea 4:6 we read, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.”
Further, a parallel is made in Jonah 4:11 between the people and the livestock of Nineveh. It is much more likely the parallel refers to all people/all livestock versus only young children and livestock.
Finally, it makes sense for the 120,000 to include all Ninevites because God showed compassion on the entire city, not just on its young children and animals.
Jonah 4:11 most likely refers to those who, spiritually speaking, cannot tell right from left. The verse shows that God takes pity on the spiritual blindness of the pagan. God’s desire is to extend His salvation to all who repent and turn to Him
Judging from Google Earth (by copy-and-pasting Google Earth polygons into this website), the total built-up area of Nineveh in the late 8th century BC was just over 1800 acres-larger than that of than any other Near Eastern city at the time. George Rawlinson seemed to have been correct in his estimates of Nineveh’s size and population (at just under 100 persons per acre, roughly 175,000 persons; roughly a tenth of the population of modern Mosul). The population of the walled city of Nineveh in the 8th century BC was nearly 150% that of the entire Kingdom of Judah during its best days (the period 720-701 BC). The 120,000 mentioned in Jonah (100% of the population of the Kingdom of Judah during its best days) also seems a reasonable slight under-estimate for the population of Nineveh in the Late Iron Age. Even the great city of Kerkenes in Anatolia seems to have been only 613 acres in area. Jerusalem in the Late Iron Age was 162 acres. The city of Calah was 917 acres. Khorsabad was 760 acres. Babylon was 1030 acres.
The only pre-20th century cities of Mesopotamia I know of that exceeded the size of Nineveh were Samarra and Baghdad, the latter coming in at nearly 3000 acres inside its city walls.
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