Jonah

Jonah, chapter 3, New English Translation and King James Version

Chapter 3 New English Translation

   The People of Nineveh Respond to Jonah's Warning
   1 The LORD said to Jonah a second time, 2 "Go immediately to Nineveh, that large city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." 3 So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, as the LORD had said. (Now Nineveh was an enormous city - it required three days to walk through it! ) 4 When Jonah began to enter the city one day's walk, he announced, "At the end of forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!"
   5 The people of Nineveh believed in God, and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. 7 He issued a proclamation and said, "In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water. 8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly to God, and everyone must turn from their evil way of living and from the violence that they do. 9 Who knows? Perhaps God might be willing to change his mind and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we might not die." 10 When God saw their actions - they turned from their evil way of living! - God relented concerning the judgment he had threatened them with and he did not destroy them.

King James Version

   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.
   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 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.