Jonah 3

The People of Nineveh Respond to Jonah’s Warning

3:1 The Lord said to Jonah¹ a second time, 3:2 “Go immediately² to Nineveh, that large city,³ and proclaim to⁴ it the message that I tell you.” 3:3 So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, as the Lord had said. (Now Nineveh was an enormous city⁵ – it required three days to walk through it!)⁶ 3:4 When Jonah began to enter the city one day’s walk, he announced, “At the end of forty days,⁷ Nineveh will be overthrown!”⁸

3:5 The people⁹ of Nineveh believed in God,¹⁰ and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.¹¹ 3:6 When the news¹² reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. 3:7 He issued a proclamation and said,¹³ “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. 3:8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly¹⁴ to God, and everyone¹⁵ must turn from their¹⁶ evil way of living¹⁷ and from the violence that they do.¹⁸ 3:9 Who knows?¹⁹ Perhaps God might be willing to change his mind and relent²⁰ and turn from his fierce anger²¹ so that we might not die.”²² 3:10 When God saw their actions – they turned²³ from their evil way of living!²⁴ – God relented concerning the judgment²⁵ he had threatened them with²⁶ and he did not destroy them.²⁷

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