Jonah 3
1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying:
The word of Yahweh came to Jonah a second time, saying,
2 Arise, and go to Ninive the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee.
“Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I command you to give.”
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 got up and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was a very large city, one of three days' journey.
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 to enter the city and after a day's journey he called out and said, “In forty days Nineveh will 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.
The people of Nineveh believed God and they proclaimed a fast. They all put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them down 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.
Soon the news reached the king of Nineveh. He rose up from his throne, took off his robe, covered himself with 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.
He sent out a proclamation that said, “In Nineveh, by the authority of the king and his nobles, let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, 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.
But let both man and animal be covered with sackcloth and let them cry out loudly to God. Let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
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 change his mind and turn away from his fierce anger so that we do not perish.”
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.
God saw what they did, that they turned from their evil ways. So then God changed his mind about the punishment that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
