1The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time. It said,
2"Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city. Preach to it the message that I tell you."
3So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, as the LORD had said. Now Nineveh was a very great city. It took three days to travel through it.
4Jonah began to go into the city, a day's journey. He called out, "Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overthrown."
5So the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
6Word came to the king of Nineveh. He got up from his throne, took off his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7He had this cried out and made known through Nineveh, by the order of the king and his nobles: "Let no one taste anything, neither people nor animals, herd nor flock. Let them not eat or drink water."
8"But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to God with all their strength. Let everyone turn from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands."
9"Who can tell? God may turn and change his mind, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we do not die."
10God saw what they did, that they turned from their evil way. So God changed his mind about the disaster he had said he would bring on them, and he did not do it.