Jonah Preaches to the Ninevites
1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to them the message that I will give you.”
3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ journey to cross it. 4 Jonah began to enter into the city. At a day’s journey into it, he cried out, saying, “In 40 days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
Ninevah Repents
5 The people of Nineveh believed the Lord, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest to their least.
6 The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.
7 He made a proclamation and published it throughout Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,
“Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not eat food or drink water, 8 but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal and let them cry mightily to the Lord. Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows whether the Lord will not turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we might not perish?”
10 The Lord saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil way. So the Lord relented from the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he did not do it.