⁶ not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. ^(A)Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you.

Israel's Unbelief

³⁰ What shall we say, then? ^(A)That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, ^(B)a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹ but that Israel ^(C)who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness^{[a] (D)}did not succeed in reaching that law. ³² Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the ^(E)stumbling stone, ³³ as it is written,

³⁰ For as ^(A)Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. ^31 (B)The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and ^(C)condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, ^(D)something greater than Solomon is here. ^32 (E)The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and ^(F)condemn it, for ^(G)they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, ^(H)something greater than Jonah is here.

^41 (A)The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and ^(B)condemn it, for ^(C)they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, ^(D)something greater than Jonah is here. ^42 (E)The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, ^(F)something greater than Solomon is here.

Woe to Unrepentant Cities

^20 (A)Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. ^21 (B)“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in ^(C)Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ^22 (D)But I tell you, it will be more bearable on ^(E)the day of judgment for ^(F)Tyre and Sidon than for you. ²³ And you, ^(G)Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to ^(H)Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. ^24 (I)But I tell you that ^(J)it will be more tolerable on ^(K)the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”

^5 (A)And the people of Nineveh believed God. ^(B)They called for a fast and ^(C)put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The People of Nineveh Repent

⁶ The word reached^[a] the king of Nineveh, and ^(D)he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, ^(E)and sat in ashes. ⁷ And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, ^(F)“By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor ^(G)beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, ⁸ but let man and ^(H)beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. ^(I)Let everyone turn from his evil way and from ^(J)the violence that is in his hands. ^9 (K)Who knows? God may turn and relent ^(L)and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

¹⁰ When God saw what they did, ^(M)how they turned from their evil way, ^(N)God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

²⁸ So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms.^[a] A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms.^[b]