Jonah 3
1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying:
2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”
Arise, and go to Ninive the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee.
3 This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey.
And Jonas arose, and went to Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: now Ninive was a great city of three days’ journey.
4 On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”
And Jonas began to enter into the city one day’s journey: and he cried, and said: Yet forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed.
5 And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.
And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.
6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
And the word came to the king of Ninive; and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink.
And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Ninive from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying: Let neither men nor beasts, oxen nor sheep, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water.
8 Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands.
And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.
9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”
Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish?
10 When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.
And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.
