Jonah 3
Jonah obeyed God's second command to preach in Nineveh, warning the city that it would be destroyed in 40 days. The people of Nineveh, from the greatest to the least, believed in God, proclaimed a fast, and wore sackcloth in repentance. The king of Nineveh also repented, issuing a decree that all people and animals fast and cry out to God for mercy. God saw their repentance and spared the city from destruction.
1
And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying
2Rise, and go to Nineveh, the great city. And preach in it the preaching that I say to you
3And Jonah rose, and he went to Nineveh in accordance with the word of the Lord. And Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey
4And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey. And he cried out and said, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.
5And the men of Nineveh believed in God. And they proclaimed a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest all the way to the least
6And word reached the king of Nineveh. And he rose from his throne, and he threw off his robe from himself and was clothed in sackcloth, and he sat in ashes
7And he cried out and spoke: "In Nineveh, from the mouth of the king and of his princes, let it be said: Men and beasts and oxen and sheep may not taste anything. Neither shall they feed or drink water
8And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to the Lord with strength, and may man be converted from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands
9Who knows if God may turn and forgive, and may turn away from his furious wrath, so that we might not perish?
10And God saw their works, that they had been converted from their evil way. And God took pity on them, concerning the harm that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it
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