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Jonah Preaches at Nineveh

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”

So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three-day journey across. Jonah began to enter the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “In forty days’ time, Nineveh will be overthrown!” So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast. And everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself in sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he made a proclamation in Nineveh:

“By decree of the king and his nobles:

No man or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not eat or drink water. Both man and animals shall cover themselves with sackcloth and cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change His mind. He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”

10 When God saw their actions, that they turned from their evil ways, He changed His mind about the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.

And the word of Jehovah came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and [a]preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah. Now Nineveh was [b]an exceeding great city, of three days’ journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. [c]And the tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he made proclamation and [d]published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knoweth whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil which he said he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Footnotes

  1. Jonah 3:2 Or, cry
  2. Jonah 3:3 Hebrew a city great unto God.
  3. Jonah 3:6 Or, For word came unto the king etc.
  4. Jonah 3:7 Hebrew said.