A second time the Lord’s voice came to Jonas:

Up, and to the great city of Nineve make thy way; there preach, what preach I bid thee.

That voice he obeyed; rose up and took the road for Nineve, a great city indeed, three days’ journey from end to end.

And when he had advanced into it as far as one day’s journey would carry him, he began crying out, In forty days, Nineve will be overthrown.

With that, the Ninevites shewed faith in God, rich and poor alike, proclaiming a fast and putting on sackcloth;

nay, the king of Nineve himself, when word of it reached him, came down from his throne, cast his robe aside, put on sackcloth, and sat down humbly in the dust.

And a cry was raised in Nineve, at the bidding of the king and his nobles, A fast for man and beast, for herd and flock; no food is to be eaten, no water drunk;

let man and beast go covered with sackcloth; cry out lustily to the Lord, and forsake, each of you, his sinful life, his wrongful deeds!

God may yet relent and pardon, forgo his avenging anger and spare our lives.

Thus, when God saw them amending their lives in good earnest, he spared them, in his mercy, their threatened punishment.