1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2
Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the
preaching that I bid thee.
3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh,
according to the word of the Lord.
Now Nineveh was an exceeding great
city of three days' journey.
(It took 3 days to walk through Nineveh)
4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a
day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall
be overthrown.
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put
on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6 For
word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and
he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in
ashes.
7 And he (the king) caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh
by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor
beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink
water: 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry
mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and
from the violence that is in their hands.
9 Who can tell if God will
turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish
not?
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and
God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them;
and he did it not.