3:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,
3:2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”
3:3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was ①an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk.
▷ ①Lit a great city to God
3:4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
3:5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.
3:6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, removed his robe from himself, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ①dust.
▷ ①Or ashes
3:7 And he issued a proclamation, and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: No person, animal, herd, or flock is to taste anything. They are not to eat, or drink water.
3:8 But every person and animal must be covered with sackcloth; and people are to call on God vehemently, and they are to turn, each one from his evil way, and from the violence which is in their hands.
3:9 Who knows, God may turn and relent, and turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish.”
3:10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil way, then God relented of the disaster which He had declared He would ①bring on them. So He did not do it.
▷ ①Lit do to