JONAH 3 (NIV)
- Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:
- "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you."
- Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city - a visit required three days.
- On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned."
- The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
- When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.
- Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.
- But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.
- Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish."
- When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.
