3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
3:2 Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.
3:3 Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city a visit required three days.
3:4 On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.
3:5 The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
3:6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.
3:7 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything do not let them eat or drink.
3:8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.
3:9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.
3:10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.