[1] Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time: [2] "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you." [3] This time Jonah obeyed the LORD's command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. [4] On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: "Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!" [5] The people of Nineveh believed God's message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow. [6] When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes. [7] Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city: "No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. [8] People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. [9] Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us." [10] When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.
