Jonah

Chapter 3

1 God spoke to Jonah again, saying,

2 Get up, go to Nineveh, that big city, and tell them the message I have given you.

3 Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, as God had told him. Nineveh was a very big city; it took three days to go through it.

4 Jonah started to go into the city, traveling for one day, and he shouted, “In forty days, Nineveh will be destroyed.”

5 The people of Nineveh trusted God, announced a fast, and wore rough clothes, from the most important to the least.

6 News reached the king of Nineveh, and he got up from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

7 He had it announced and spread through Nineveh by the king’s and his nobles’ order, saying, “No person or animal, no herd or flock, should eat or drink anything.”

8 Let people and animals wear rough cloth, and call out to God strongly; yes, let everyone stop their bad ways and stop hurting others with their hands.

9 Who knows if God will change his mind and stop being so angry, so we won’t die?

10 God saw what they did, that they stopped doing evil, so he changed his mind about the punishment he had planned to give them, and he didn’t do it.