Jonah 3
Legacy Standard Bible
Ninevites Turn from Their Evil Ways
3 Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to (A)Nineveh, the great city, and (B)call out to it this very call which I am going to speak to you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was [a]an (C)exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. 4 Then Jonah began to go into the city, one day’s walk; and he (D)called out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
5 And the [b]people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a (E)fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, laid aside his mantle from him, (F)covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the [c]ashes. 7 And he (G)cried out and said,
“In Nineveh by the [d]decree of the king and his nobles[e]: Do not let man, [f]animal, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat, and do not let them drink water.
8 But both man and [g]animal must be covered with sackcloth; and let [h]men (H)call on God with their strength that each may (I)turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in [i]his hands.
9 (J)Who knows, God may turn and relent and turn away from His burning anger so that we will not perish.”
10 Then God saw their works, that they (K)turned from their evil way, so (L)God [j]relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would [k]bring upon them. And He did not [l]bring it upon them.
Footnotes
- Jonah 3:3 Lit a great city to God
- Jonah 3:5 Lit men
- Jonah 3:6 Or dust
- Jonah 3:7 Lit taste, cf. 3:7b
- Jonah 3:7 Lit saying
- Jonah 3:7 Lit beast, cattle
- Jonah 3:8 Lit beast, cattle
- Jonah 3:8 Lit them
- Jonah 3:8 Lit their
- Jonah 3:10 Or regretted, cf. 1 Sam 15:11, 29, 35
- Jonah 3:10 Lit do
- Jonah 3:10 Lit do
Jonah 3
Contemporary English Version
Jonah Goes to Nineveh
3 Once again the Lord told Jonah 2 to go to that great city of Nineveh and preach his message of doom.
3 Jonah obeyed the Lord and went to Nineveh. The city was so big that it took three days just to walk through it. 4 (A) After walking for a day, Jonah warned the people, “Forty days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed!”
5 They believed God's message and set a time when they would go without eating to show their sorrow. Then everyone in the city, no matter who they were, dressed in sackcloth.
6 When the king of Nineveh heard what was happening, he also dressed in sackcloth; he left the royal palace and sat in dust.[a] 7-9 Then he and his officials sent out an order for everyone in the city to obey. It said:
None of you or your animals may eat or drink a thing. Each of you must wear sackcloth, and you must even put sackcloth on your animals.
You must also pray to the Lord God with all your heart and stop being sinful and cruel. Maybe God will change his mind and have mercy on us, so we won't be destroyed.
10 When God saw that the people had stopped doing evil things, he had pity and did not destroy them as he had planned.
Footnotes
- 3.5,6 dressed in sackcloth … sat in dust: Sackcloth was a rough, dark-colored cloth made from goat or camel hair and used to make grain sacks. Sometimes people wore sackcloth and sat in dust to show how sorry they were for their sins.
Legacy Standard Bible Copyright ©2021 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org For Permission to Quote Information visit https://www.LSBible.org.
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.
