Et factum est verbum Domini ad Jonam secundo, dicens:

And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying:

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

Surge, et vade in Niniven, civitatem magnam, et prædica in ea prædicationem quam ego loquor ad te.

Arise, and go to Ninive the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee.

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

Et surrexit Jonas, et abiit in Niniven juxta verbum Domini: et Ninive erat civitas magna, itinere trium dierum.

And Jonas arose, and went to Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: now Ninive was a great city of three days’ journey.

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

Et cœpit Jonas introire in civitatem itinere diei unius: et clamavit, et dixit: Adhuc quadraginta dies, et Ninive subvertetur.

And Jonas began to enter into the city one day’s journey: and he cried, and said: Yet forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed.

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.

Et crediderunt viri Ninivitæ in Deum, et prædicaverunt jejunium, et vestiti sunt saccis, a majore usque ad minorem.

And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.

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

Et pervenit verbum ad regem Ninive: et surrexit de solio suo, et abjecit vestimentum suum a se, et indutus est sacco, et sedit in cinere.

And the word came to the king of Ninive; and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed in sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

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.

Et clamavit, et dixit in Ninive ex ore regis et principum ejus, dicens: Homines, et jumenta, et boves, et pecora non gustent quidquam: nec pascantur, et aquam non bibant.

And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Ninive from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying: Let neither men nor beasts, oxen nor sheep, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water.

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;

Et operiantur saccis homines et jumenta, et clament ad Dominum in fortitudine: et convertatur vir a via sua mala, et ab iniquitate quæ est in manibus eorum.

And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands.

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!

Quis scit si convertatur et ignoscat Deus, et revertatur a furore iræ suæ, et non peribimus?

Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish?

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

Et vidit Deus opera eorum, quia conversi sunt de via sua mala: et misertus est Deus super malitiam quam locutus fuerat ut faceret eis, et non fecit.

And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.

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