1. Then the Lord spoke his word to Jonah again. The Lord said,
2. “Get up. Go to the great city Nineveh. Preach against it what I tell you.”
3. So Jonah obeyed the Lord. He got up and went to Nineveh. It was a very large city. It took a person three days just to walk across it.
4. Jonah entered the city. When he had walked for one day, he preached to the people. He said, “After 40 days, Nineveh will be destroyed!”
5. The people of Nineveh believed in God. They announced they would stop eating for a while. They put on rough cloth to show how sad they were. All the people in the city wore the cloth. People from the most important to the least important did this.
6. When the king of Nineveh heard this news, he got up from his throne. He took off his robe. He covered himself with rough cloth and sat in ashes to show how upset he was.
7. He made an announcement and sent it through the city. The announcement said:By command of the king and his important men: No person or animal should eat anything. No herd or flock will be allowed to taste anything. Do not let them eat food or drink water.
8. But every person and animal should be covered with rough cloth. People should cry loudly to God. Everyone must turn away from his evil life. Everyone must stop doing harm.
9. Maybe God will change his mind. Maybe he will stop being angry. Then we will not die.
10. God saw what the people did. He saw that they stopped doing evil things. So God changed his mind and did not do what he had warned. He did not punish them.