Old Testament
Jonah 3
Overview
The word of the LORD comes to Jonah a second time, and this time he obeys, walking into the vast city of Nineveh with a single blunt sermon: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Astonishingly, the entire city believes God — from the greatest to the least they proclaim a fast and put on sackcloth, and even the king rises from his throne, sits in ashes, and orders all, man and beast, to turn from their evil and violence. When God sees their repentance, He relents from the disaster He had threatened and spares the city. This chapter delivers the book's great surprise: a pagan metropolis turns to God at the briefest of warnings.
1Yahweh’s word came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”
3So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to Yahweh’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across.
4Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
5The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.
6The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water;
8but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
9Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”
10God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.