Jon 3 | HCSB | STEP | Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:

Jonah 3

Jonah’s Preaching

1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ^a 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh ^b and preach ^c the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command.Now Nineveh was an extremely large city, ^{▼▼Or was a great city to God
,} ^e a three-day walk. ^{▼▼Probably the time required to cover the city on foot} 4 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, ^g “In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished!” 5 The men of Nineveh believed in God. ^{▼▼Or believed God} They proclaimed a fast ⁱ and dressed in ^{▼▼sackcloth: Garment made of poor quality material and worn as a sign of grief and mourning}sackcloth – from the greatest of them to the least.

6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, ^k and sat in ashes. 7 Then he issued a decree ^l in Nineveh:

By order of the king and his nobles: No man or beast, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. 8 Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. ^m Each must turn from his evil ways ⁿ and from the violence ^{▼▼Or injustice} he is doing. ^{▼▼Lit violence in their hands} 9 Who knows? ^q God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish. ^r
10 Then God saw their actions – that they had turned from their evil ways ^s – so God relented from the disaster ^t He had threatened to do to them. And He did not do it.