Jonah 3:3–10

³So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, ¹a three-day journey in extent. ⁴And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then ^ahe cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

The People of Nineveh Believe

⁵So the ^bpeople of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. ⁶Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth ^cand sat in ashes. ^7dAnd he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his ²nobles, saying,

Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. ⁸But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, ^elet every one turn from his evil way and from ^fthe violence that is in his hands. ^9gWho can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?

^10hThen God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.