J.R. Dummelow on the Contingent Nature of Biblical Prophecy

 

The predictions of the prophets were conditional. They were made to enforce the appeal for righteousness in the present. They foretold the consequences of sin on the one hand, and of righteousness on the other. Judgments might be averted by repentance. Blessings might be forfeited by disobedience. This principle is clearly laid down in Jer 18^17-10, and is of universal application. The ‘if’ is implied even when it is not expressed. Thus Jonah’s prediction that Nineveh would be destroyed in forty days was not fulfilled, yet Jonah was not a false prophet, because the threat was only made on the supposition that Nineveh remained impenitent. Such predictions, it has been said, were made not that they might, but that they might not, be fulfilled. (J.R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible [London: Macmillan and Co., 1909], xliv)