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.