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3
Jonah went to Nineveh
1 Then God talked to Jonah a second time. God said, 2 “You have to go now to that big city called Nineveh. You have to tell the people in Nineveh my message.”

3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, just like God said.

Nineveh was a really big city. It took three days to walk from one side of that city to the other side.

4 Jonah started to go into the city. He walked for one day, and he called out, “In 40 days from now, God will finish up Nineveh.”

5 The Nineveh people listened to Jonah, and they believed God’s message. They knew that God was angry with them for the bad things they did. So all the Nineveh people stopped eating food, to show God that they were sorry for the bad things they did. And they all put on clothes made out of a rough cloth, called sack-cloth. Everybody did that, the important people and the poor people, they all did that to show God that they were sorry for the bad things they did.[a]

6 The big boss of Nineveh heard about God’s message, and he got up from his special seat, and he took off his special coat, and he put on those rough clothes, and he sat down on ashes. He did those things to show God that he was sorry.

7 And that Nineveh boss sent a message to all the people in Nineveh.

That message said,
“The big boss of Nineveh and his important workers are telling you what you have to do. All the people and animals have to stop eating and drinking. None of you, or your sheep or cows, are allowed to eat or drink anything.
8 And all the people and animals have to wear that rough cloth.
And everybody has to pray strongly to God and ask him to help us.
And you all have to stop doing bad things, and stop hurting people.
9 God is really angry with us. He said he will finish us up. So we have to show God that we are sorry, and stop doing bad things. Then maybe God will change his mind. Maybe God will stop being angry with us, and maybe he will not finish us up.”

10 Then the Nineveh people did everything the big boss said, and God saw that they stopped doing bad things. So God changed his mind, and he didn’t finish up the Nineveh people.

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