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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.

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And the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least important.[a]

The King’s Proclamation

And the news reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne and removed his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. And he had a proclamation made, and said,

“In Nineveh, by a decree of the king and his nobles:

“No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything! They must not eat, and they must not drink water! And the human beings and the animals must be covered with sackcloth! And they must call forcefully to God, and each must turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his[b] hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind and turn from his blazing anger[c] so that[d] we will not perish.”

10 And God saw their deeds—that they turned from their evil ways—and God changed his mind about the evil that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.[e]

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Footnotes

  1. Jonah 3:5 Literally “to the smallest of them”
  2. Jonah 3:8 Hebrew “their”
  3. Jonah 3:9 Literally “from the heat of his anger”
  4. Jonah 3:9 Hebrew “and”
  5. Jonah 3:10 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation