Jonah 3

God Calls and Jonah Obeys

1Then the Lord spoke to Jonah again and said,

2“Go to that big city Nineveh, and say what I tell you.”

3So Jonah obeyed the Lord and went to Nineveh. It was a very large city. A person had to walk for three days to travel through it.

4Jonah went to the center of the city and began speaking to the people. He said, “After 40 days, Nineveh will be destroyed!”

5The people of Nineveh believed God. They decided to stop eating for a time to think about their sins. They put on special clothes to show they were sorry. All the people in the city did this, from the most important to the least important.

6When the king of Nineveh heard about this, he left his throne, removed his robe, put on special clothes to show that he was sorry, and sat in ashes.[#3:6 People did this to show that they were sad.]

7The king wrote a special message and sent it throughout the city:

10God saw what the people did. He saw that they stopped doing evil. So God changed his mind and did not do what he planned. He did not punish the people.

© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Published by: Bible League International