Jonah Goes to Nineveh

¹Once again the Lord told Jonah

²to go to that great city of Nineveh and preach his message of doom.

³Jonah obeyed the Lord and went to Nineveh. The city was so big that it took three days just to walk through it.

⁴After walking for a day, Jonah warned the people, “Forty days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed!”[#Mt 12.41; Lk 11.32.]

⁵They believed God's message and set a time when they would go without eating to show their sorrow. Then everyone in the city, no matter who they were, dressed in sackcloth.

⁶When the king of Nineveh heard what was happening, he also dressed in sackcloth; he left the royal palace and sat in dust.[#3.5,6 Sackcloth was a rough, dark-colored cloth made from goat or camel hair and used to make grain sacks. Sometimes people wore sackcloth and sat in dust to show how sorry they were for their sins.]

^7-8-9Then he and his officials sent out an order for everyone in the city to obey. It said:

¹⁰When God saw that the people had stopped doing evil things, he had pity and did not destroy them as he had planned.