Jonah 3:3–4:3

3 Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command.

Now Nineveh was an extremely great city,F,o a three-day walk. 4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed,p “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!” 5 Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fastq 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,r and sat in ashes. 7 Then he issued a decrees 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.t Each must turn from his evil waysu and from his wrongdoing.G 9 Who knows?v God may turn and relent; he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.w

10 God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil waysx—so God relented from the disastery he had threatened them with. And he did not do it.

JONAH’S ANGER

4 Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious.z 2 He prayed to the Lord,aa “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place.ab I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God,ac slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster.ad 3 And now, Lord, take my life from me,ae for it is better for me to die than to live.”af