Jonah 3
1 And there is a word of Jehovah unto Jonah a second time, saying,
Then the Lord spoke to Jonah for a second time.
2 'Rise, go unto Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim unto it the proclamation that I am speaking unto thee;'
“Go immediately to the great city of Nineveh and announce the message I'm giving you.”
3 and Jonah riseth, and he goeth unto Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah. And Nineveh hath been a great city before God, a journey of three days.
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 And Jonah beginneth to go in to the city a journey of one day, and proclaimeth, and saith, 'Yet forty days — and Nineveh is overturned.'
Jonah went into the city, walking for one day, shouting out, “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!”
5 And the men of Nineveh believe in God, and proclaim a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even unto their least,
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 seeing the word doth come unto the king of Nineveh, and he riseth from his throne, and removeth his honourable robe from off him, and spreadeth out sackcloth, and sitteth on the 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 and he crieth and saith in Nineveh by a decree of the king and his great ones, saying, 'Man and beast, herd and flock — let them not taste anything, let them not feed, even water let them not drink;
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 and cover themselves [with] sackcloth let man and beast, and let them call unto God mightily, and let them turn back each from his evil way, and from the violence that [is] in their 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 knoweth? He doth turn back, and God hath repented, and hath turned back from the heat of His anger, and 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 And God seeth their works, that they have turned back from their evil way, and God repenteth of the evil that He spake of doing to them, and he hath not done [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.
