Jonah 3

Modern

Literal

The Ninevites Repent

¹Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:

¹And the word of YHWH came to Jonah a second time, saying:

²“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”

²“Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out to it the message that I am speaking to you.”

³This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,^a requiring a three-day journey.^b

³And Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of YHWH. And Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a journey of three days.

⁴On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”

⁴And Jonah began to come into the city, a walk of one day, and he called out and said: “Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overturned!”

⁵And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.

⁵And the people of Nineveh trusted in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

⁶When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

⁶And this word reached to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and passed off his royal clothing from him, and he covered himself with sackcloth and sat upon the ashes.

⁷Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink.

⁷And he cried out and spoke in Nineveh: By the determination of the king and his nobles, saying: “The man and the beast, the herd and the flock, let them not taste anything, and let them not graze, and let them not drink water.

⁸Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands.

⁸And let them be covered with sackcloth, the man and the beast, and call out to God with strength; and each man must turn back from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.

⁹Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”

⁹Who knows? God may turn back and relent, and turn back from the burning of His anger, so that we should not perish!”

¹⁰When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.

¹⁰And God saw their deeds, that they turned back from their evil way, and God relented from the disaster that He had said to do to them, and He did not do it.