Jonah 3
1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying:
This message from the Lord came to Jonah the second time,
2 Arise, and go to Ninive the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee.
‘Arise, go to that great city, Nineveh, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’
3 And Jonas arose, and went to Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: now Ninive was a great city of three days’ journey.
So Jonah started for Nineveh, as the Lord commanded. Now Nineveh was so large a city that it took three days’ journey to cross it.
4 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.
Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, and he proclaimed, ‘Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown.’
5 And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.
And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they ordered a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.
6 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.
And when word came to the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, dressed in sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 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.
And he made this proclamation and published it in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: People, beast, herd, and flock shall not taste anything; let them not eat nor drink water.
8 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.
Let both people and animals put on sackcloth and let them cry earnestly to God; let them each turn from their evil ways and from the deeds of violence which they are doing.
9 Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish?
Who knows? God may relent and avert his fierce anger, so that we may not die.’
10 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.
When God saw that they turned from their evil course, he relented the evil which he said he would do to them, and did not do it.
