Jonah 3 -- Old Testament -- Gospel Daily

Jonah

Chapter 3

Jonah Preaches and Nineveh Repents

The Lord speaks to Jonah a second time, commanding him to go to Nineveh and preach the preaching the Lord bids him speak. Jonah obeys and enters the great city, crying that in forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown. The people of Nineveh believe God, proclaim a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. The king arises from his throne, removes his robe, covers himself with sackcloth, and sits in ashes. By royal decree, all people and beasts are commanded to cry mightily to God and turn from their evil ways. God sees their works and repents of the evil He had threatened, choosing not to destroy the city.

Obedience to God's callRepentance of nationsGod's mercyDivine compassion

¹And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,

²Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

³So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.

⁴And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

⁵So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

⁶For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

⁷And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

⁸But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

⁹Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

¹⁰And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.