The Book of the Prophet Jonah 03 Jonah Preaches in Nineveh: The Repentance of the Ninevites

 The Book of the Prophet Jonah 03

Jonah Preaches in Nineveh: The Repentance of the Ninevites

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:

2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I tell you.”

3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go.

4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown!”

5 The people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

6 When news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.

7 And he made a proclamation, which was published throughout Nineveh by the command of the king and his nobles, saying: “Let neither man nor beast, neither herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water.

8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry mightily to God; yes, let them turn, each one from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

9 Who knows whether God will turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish?”

10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.