< Jonah 3 >

1 And there is a word of YHWH to Jonah a second time, saying,
耶和華的話二次臨到約拿說:
2 “Rise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation that I am speaking to you”;
「你起來!往尼尼微大城去,向其中的居民宣告我所吩咐你的話。」
3 and Jonah rises, and he goes to Nineveh, according to the word of YHWH. And Nineveh has been a great city before God, a journey of three days.
約拿便照耶和華的話起來,往尼尼微去。這尼尼微是極大的城,有三日的路程。
4 And Jonah begins to go into the city—a journey of one day—and proclaims and says, “Yet forty days and Nineveh is overturned!”
約拿進城走了一日,宣告說:「再等四十日,尼尼微必傾覆了!」
5 And the men of Nineveh believe in God, and proclaim a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least,
尼尼微人信服上帝,便宣告禁食,從最大的到至小的都穿麻衣。
6 seeing the word comes to the king of Nineveh, and he rises from his throne, and removes his honorable robe from off him, and spreads out sackcloth, and sits on the ashes,
這信息傳到尼尼微王的耳中,他就下了寶座,脫下朝服,披上麻布,坐在灰中。
7 and he cries and says in Nineveh by a decree of the king and his great ones, saying, “Man and beast, herd and flock—do not let them taste anything, do not let them feed, do not even let them drink water;
他又使人遍告尼尼微通城,說:「王和大臣有令,人不可嘗甚麼,牲畜、牛羊不可吃草,也不可喝水。
8 and let man and beast cover themselves [with] sackcloth, and let them call to God mightily, and let them each turn back from his evil way, and from the violence that [is] in their hands.
人與牲畜都當披上麻布;人要切切求告上帝。各人回頭離開所行的惡道,丟棄手中的強暴。
9 Who knows? He turns back, and God has relented, and has turned back from the heat of His anger, and we do not perish.”
或者上帝轉意後悔,不發烈怒,使我們不致滅亡,也未可知。」
10 And God sees their works, that they have turned back from their evil way, and God relents of the evil that He spoke of doing to them, and He has not done [it].
於是上帝察看他們的行為,見他們離開惡道,他就後悔,不把所說的災禍降與他們了。

< Jonah 3 >