USB ~ Jonah 3

Jonah’s Obedience and the Ninevites’ Repentance.

1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:

2 Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.

3 So Jonah set out for Nineveh, in accord with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an awesomely great city; it took three days to walk through it.

4 Jonah began his journey through the city, and when he had gone only a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown,”

5 the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small,† put on sackcloth. a

6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

7 Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh:† “By decree of the king and his nobles, no man or beast, no cattle or sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.

8 Man and beast alike must be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; they all must turn from their evil way and from the violence of their hands.

9 † Who knows? God may again repent and turn from his blazing wrath, so that we will not perish.” b

10 When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.

Footnotes

†. 3:5 Great and small: the contrast can refer to distinctions of social class (prominent citizens and the poor).

†. 3:7-8 Fasting and wearing sackcloth are signs of human repentance; here they are legislated even for the animals—a humorous touch, perhaps anticipating 4:11.

†. 3:9-10 Scripture frequently presents the Lord as repenting (or, changing his mind) of the evil that he threatens; e.g., Gn 6:6-7; Jer 18:8.

3:5 Mt 12:41; Lk 11:32.
3:9 Jl 2:14.