Jonah 3

1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it the message I spoke to you before.” 3 Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, as the Lord had said. Nineveh was a city great to God, about a three-day journey across. [a] 4 Jonah began to enter the city, walking for about one day. He proclaimed, “Three days from now, Nineveh will be overthrown!” [b]

5 The people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. † 6 When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 By order of the king and his nobles, this proclamation was made in Nineveh: “No person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything. They must not graze or drink water.” † 8 So people and animals put on sackcloth and cried earnestly to God. Each turned away from his evil way and from the wrongdoing in his hands, saying, 9 “Who knows whether God may change his mind, turn away from his fierce anger, and not let us perish?”

10 God saw what they did—how they turned away from their evil ways. God changed his mind about the harm he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.