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.