Jonah 3:1-9 ▼

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

2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.”

3 Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the LORD’s command. Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three-day walk.

4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished! ”

5 Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.

6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

7 Then he issued a decree in Nineveh: By order of the king and his nobles: No person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water.

8 Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing.

9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.