3:1 The Lord said to Jonah ¹  a second time, 3:2 “Go immediately ²  to Nineveh, that large city, ³  and proclaim to ⁴  it the message that I tell you.” 3:3 So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, as the Lord had said. (Now Nineveh was an enormous city ⁵  – it required three days to walk through it!) ⁶  3:4 When Jonah began to enter the city one day’s walk, he announced, “At the end of forty days, ⁷  Nineveh will be overthrown!” ⁸ 

3:5 The people ⁹  of Nineveh believed in God, ¹⁰  and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. ¹¹  3:6 When the news ¹²  reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. 3:7 He issued a proclamation and said, ¹³  “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. 3:8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly ¹⁴  to God, and everyone ¹⁵  must turn from their ¹⁶  evil way of living ¹⁷  and from the violence that they do. ¹⁸  3:9 Who knows? ¹⁹  Perhaps God might be willing to change his mind and relent ²⁰  and turn from his fierce anger ²¹  so that we might not die.” ²²  3:10 When God saw their actions – they turned ²³  from their evil way of living! ²⁴  – God relented concerning the judgment ²⁵  he had threatened them with ²⁶  and he did not destroy them. ²⁷