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Jonah 3

Jonah Goes to Nineveh

1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to ^aNineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now ^bNineveh was an exceedingly great city, ^{▼

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Hebrew a great city to God} three days’ journey in breadth. ^{▼

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Or a visit was a three days’ journey} 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 ^eAnd the people of Nineveh believed God. ^fThey called for a fast and ^gput on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The People of Nineveh Repent

6 The word reached ^{▼

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Or had reached} the king of Nineveh, and ⁱhe arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, ^jand sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, ^k“By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor ^lbeast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and ^mbeast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. ⁿLet everyone turn from his evil way and from ^othe violence that is in his hands. 9 ^pWho knows? God may turn and relent ^qand turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

10 When God saw what they did, ^rhow they turned from their evil way, ^sGod relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.