⁴ Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed,^(A) “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!” ⁵ Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast^(B) and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.

⁷ Then he issued a decree^(A) in Nineveh:

By order of the king and his nobles: No person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. ⁸ Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God.^(B) Each must turn from his evil ways^(C) and from his wrongdoing.^{[a] 9} Who knows?^(D) God may turn and relent; he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.^(E)