Jonah 3
1 The word of Yahweh came to Jonah a second time, saying,
Then the Lord spoke to Jonah for a second time.
2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I command you to give.”
“Go immediately to the great city of Nineveh and announce the message I'm giving you.”
3 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.
Jonah did what God told him. He set out and went to Nineveh, a city that was so big it took three days to walk through it.
4 Jonah began to enter the city and after a day's journey he called out and said, “In forty days Nineveh will be overthrown.”
Jonah went into the city, walking for one day, shouting out, “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!”
5 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.
The people of Nineveh believed in God. They announced a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 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.
When the news of what was happening reached the king of Nineveh he came down from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 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.
Then the king and the nobles issued a proclamation throughout Nineveh: “No person, no animal, no herd, and no flock, shall eat or drink anything.
8 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.
Every person and every animal is to wear sackcloth. Everyone is to pray sincerely to God, give up the evil things they do, and stop using violence.
9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind and turn away from his fierce anger so that we do not perish.”
Who knows? God may change his mind and relent. He may decide not to destroy us in his fierce anger.”
10 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.
God saw what they had done—that they had given up their evil ways—so he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.
