The LORD Again Calls Jonah to Go to Nineveh

1This message from the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2“Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh to do what the LORD had ordered.

Now Nineveh was a very large city,a requiringb a three-day journey to cross through it.c 4As Jonah started into the city on the first day’s journey, he proclaimed the message, “40 days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!”

The City of Nineveh Repents

5The people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least important. 6When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, removed his royal garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in ashes. 7Then he had this proclamation published throughout Nineveh:

“By decree of the king and his nobles:

No man or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything, graze, or drink water. 8Instead, let both man and animal clothe themselves with sackcloth and cry out to God forcefully. Let every person turn from his evil ways and from his tendency to do violence.d 9Who knows but that God may relent, have compassion, and turn from his fierce anger, so that we are not exterminated?”

10God took note of what they did—that they turned from their evil ways. Because God relented concerning the trouble about which he had warned them, he did not carry it out.