Jonah 3
1 And the worde of the Lord came vnto Ionah the seconde time, saying,
Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
2 Arise, goe vnto Nineueh that great citie, and preach vnto it the preaching, which I bid thee.
“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”
3 So Ionah arose and went to Nineueh according to ye word of the Lord: now Nineueh was a great and excellent citie of three dayes iourney.
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.
4 And Ionah began to enter into the citie a dayes iourney, and he cryed, and said, Yet fourtie dayes, and Nineueh shalbe ouerthrowen.
On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”
5 So the people of Nineueh beleeued God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from ye greatest of the euen to the least of them.
And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.
6 For worde came vnto the King of Nineueh, and he rose from his throne, and he layed his robe from him, and couered him with sackecloth, and sate in ashes.
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.
7 And he proclaimed and said through Nineueh, (by the counsell of ye king and his nobles) saying, Let neither man, nor beast, bullock nor sheep taste any thing, neither feed nor drinke water.
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.
8 But let man and beast put on sackecloth, and crie mightily vnto God: yea, let euery man turne from his euill way, and from the wickednesse that is in their handes.
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.
9 Who can tell if God will turne, and repent and turne away from his fierce wrath, that we perish not?
Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”
10 And God sawe their workes that they turned from their euill wayes: and God repented of the euill that he had said that he woulde doe vnto them, and he did it not.
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.
