The conversion of Nineveh
1 The word of Yahweh came to Jonah a second time:
2 “Go to Ni ne veh, the great city, and an nounce to them the message I give you.”
3 In obedience to the word of Yah weh, Jonah went to Nineveh. It was a very large city, and it took three days just to cross it.
4 So Jo nah walked a single day’s journey and began proclaiming, “Forty days more and Nineveh will be de stroyed.”
5 The people of the city believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
6 Upon hearing the news, the king of Nineveh got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes.
7 He issued a proclamation throughout Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles, no people or beasts, herd or flock, will taste anything; neither will they eat nor drink.
8 But let people and beasts be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call aloud to God, turn from his evil ways and violence.
9 Who knows? God may yet relent, turn from his fierce anger and spare us.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened upon them.