1Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:2‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.’3Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.4Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’5The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.6When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.7This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.8But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.9Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.’10When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
Jonah 3
English Standard Version
Jonah Goes to Nineveh
1Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” (Jon 1:2)3So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,[1] three days’ journey in breadth.[2] (Jon 3:2)4Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”5And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. (2Sa 3:31; 2Ch 20:3; Mt 12:41; Lu 11:32)
The People of Nineveh Repent
6The word reached[3] the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. (Job 1:20; Job 2:8; Eze 26:16)7And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, (Ps 36:6; Da 6:26; Joe 1:18; Joe 1:20; Jon 4:11)8but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. (Isa 59:6; Jer 18:11; Jer 36:3; Jon 3:7)9Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” (2Sa 12:22; Ps 85:3; Joe 2:14)10When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. (Jer 18:8)