| NET Bible | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 1The LORD said to Jonah a second time, | 1Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:" |
| 2"Go immediately to Nineveh, that large city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." | 2Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you." |
| 3So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, as the LORD had said. (Now Nineveh was an enormous city--it required three days to walk through it!) | 3So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the LORD's command. Now Nineveh was an extremely large city, a three-day walk. |
| 4When Jonah began to enter the city one day's walk, he announced, "At the end of forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!" | 4Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, "In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished!" |
| 5The people of Nineveh believed in God, and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. | 5The men of Nineveh believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth--from the greatest of them to the least. |
| 6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. | 6When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. |
| 7He issued a proclamation and said, "In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water. | 7Then he issued a decree in Nineveh: By order of the king and his nobles: No man or beast, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. |
| 8Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly to God, and everyone must turn from their evil way of living and from the violence that they do. | 8Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from the violence he is doing. |
| 9Who knows? Perhaps God might be willing to change his mind and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we might not die." | 9Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish. |
| 10When God saw their actions--they turned from their evil way of living!--God relented concerning the judgment he had threatened them with and he did not destroy them. | 10Then God saw their actions--that they had turned from their evil ways--so God relented from the disaster He had threatened to do to them. And He did not do it. |
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