First Reading: Jonah 3:1-10

¹ Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,
² ”Arise, go to Nin’eveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”
³ So Jonah arose and went to Nin’eveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nin’eveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.
⁴ Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he cried, “Yet forty days, and Nin’eveh shall be overthrown!”
⁵ And the people of Nin’eveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
⁶ Then tidings reached the king of Nin’eveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
⁷ And he made proclamation and published through Nin’eveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, or drink water,
⁸ but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry mightily to God; yea, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands.
⁹ Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?”
¹⁰ When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.