| NET Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1The LORD said to Jonah a second time, | 1Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time: |
| 2"Go immediately to Nineveh, that large city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." | 2“Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given 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!) | 3This time Jonah obeyed the LORD’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. |
| 4When Jonah began to enter the city one day's walk, he announced, "At the end of forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!" | 4On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” |
| 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 people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow. |
| 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 the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of 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 the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city: “No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. |
| 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. | 8People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. |
| 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 can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.” |
| 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. | 10When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened. |
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