Jonah Chapter 3 – Nineveh's Repentance
One sermon and a whole city, from the king down, turns from its evil ways.
After being delivered from the fish in Jonah 2, Jonah receives the word of the LORD "the second time" and obeys, walking into the vast city of Nineveh to declare, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."
And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying,
Up! go to Nineveh, that great town, and give it the word which I have given you.
So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh as the Lord had said. Now Nineveh was a very great town, three days' journey from end to end.
And Jonah first of all went a day's journey into the town, and crying out said, In forty days destruction will overtake Nineveh.
And the people of Nineveh had belief in God; and a time was fixed for going without food, and they put on haircloth, from the greatest to the least.
And the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he got up from his seat of authority, and took off his robe, and covering himself with haircloth, took his seat in the dust.
And he had it given out in Nineveh, By the order of the king and his great men, no man or beast, herd or flock, is to have a taste of anything; let them have no food or water:
And let man and beast be covered with haircloth, and let them make strong prayers to God: and let everyone be turned from his evil way and the violent acts of their hands.
Who may say that God will not be turned, changing his purpose and turning away from his burning wrath, so that destruction may not overtake us?
And God saw what they did, how they were turned from their evil way; and God's purpose was changed as to the evil which he said he would do to them, and he did it not.