Jonas 3

Jonah’s Preaching

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:  * 3:1 Jnh 1:12 "Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh  * 3:2 Zph 2:13–15 and preach  * 3:2 Jr 1:17; Ezk 2:7 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,  * 3:3 Or was a great city to God,* 3:3 Gn 10:11–12; Jnh 1:2; 4:11 a three-day walk. 4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed,  * 3:4 2Kg 18:26–28; Mt 12:41; Lk 11:32 "In forty days Nineveh will be demolished! " 5 Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast  * 3:5 Dn 9:3; Jl 1:14 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,  * 3:6 1Kg 21:27; Est 4:1–4; Jr 6:26; Ezk 27:30–31 and sat in ashes. 7 Then he issued a decree  * 3:7 2Ch 20:3; Ezr 8:21 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.  * 3:8 Ps 130:1; Jnh 1:6,14 Each must turn from his evil ways  * 3:8 Is 1:16–19; 55:6–7; Jr 18:11 and from his wrongdoing.  * 3:8 Or injustice, or violence9 Who knows?  * 3:9 2Sm 12:22; Jl 2:14 God may turn and relent; he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.  * 3:9 Jr 18:7–8

10 God saw their actions — that they had turned from their evil ways  * 3:10 1Kg 21:27–29; 2Kg 17:13; 2Ch 7:14; Jr 18:11; 31:18  — so God relented from the disaster  * 3:10 Ex 32:14; Am 7:3,6 he had threatened them with. And he did not do it.