Jonah 3, side by side
Our retelling next to the Bible text it comes from. Each row lines up one scene with the verses it retells.
Scene 6: A Second ChanceVerses 1 to 4
God spoke to Jonah a second time. The message was the same. Go to Nineveh.
This time, Jonah went.
Nineveh was enormous. It took about three days to go through it.
Jonah walked into the city for one day. Then he gave his message. "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!" (3:4). Overturned means destroyed.
That was the whole message. In our English Bible, it is only eight words long.
1Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: 2“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.” 3This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey. 4On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”
Scene 7: The City Turns AroundVerses 5 to 10
The people of Nineveh believed God. Everyone stopped eating, from the most important person to the least.
They put on sackcloth. Sackcloth was rough cloth people wore to show they were sorry or sad.
The news reached the king. He stood up from his throne and took off his royal robe. He put on sackcloth and sat in ashes.
The king made a law for the whole city. No person or animal could eat or drink. Everyone had to pray hard to God. Everyone had to stop doing evil and violence.
The king said, "Who knows? God may turn and relent" (3:9). Relent means to change your mind and hold back.
God saw that they had turned from their evil ways. So God did not bring the disaster.
5And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. 6When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink. 8Furthermore, let both man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and have everyone call out earnestly to God. Let each one turn from his evil ways and from the violence in his hands. 9Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.” 10When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.
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