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Jonah · Bible in Basic English

Jonah 3 Bible in Basic English

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About BBE
  • Scholarly edition
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew (not verified)
  • NT: Critical text (not verified)
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Simplified language
  • 1965
  • Public domain

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

BBE Bible in Basic English
WEB World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)
1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying,
1 Yahweh’s word came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Up! go to Nineveh, that great town, and give it the word which I have given you.
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”
3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh as the Lord had said. Now Nineveh was a very great town, three days' journey from end to end.
3 So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to Yahweh’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across.
4 And Jonah first of all went a day's journey into the town, and crying out said, In forty days destruction will overtake Nineveh.
4 Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
5 And the people of Nineveh had belief in God; and a time was fixed for going without food, and they put on haircloth, from the greatest to the least.
5 The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.
6 And the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he got up from his seat of authority, and took off his robe, and covering himself with haircloth, took his seat in the dust.
6 The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he had it given out in Nineveh, By the order of the king and his great men, no man or beast, herd or flock, is to have a taste of anything; let them have no food or water:
7 He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water;
8 And let man and beast be covered with haircloth, and let them make strong prayers to God: and let everyone be turned from his evil way and the violent acts of their hands.
8 but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
9 Who may say that God will not be turned, changing his purpose and turning away from his burning wrath, so that destruction may not overtake us?
9 Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”
10 And God saw what they did, how they were turned from their evil way; and God's purpose was changed as to the evil which he said he would do to them, and he did it not.
10 God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.

People & places in this chapter

From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.

Places

  • Nineveh

    Today: Iraq (opposite Mosul)

    Capital of the brutal Assyrian Empire. Jonah's reluctant mission brought it to repentance; Nahum later prophesied its fall, which came in 612 BC.

    Cited in the guide: Jonah 3:3; Nahum 1:1; 2 Kings 19:36

    Bible map game · View on OpenStreetMap

Cross references (10)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

  1. 1 Jonah 1:1
  2. 2 Jeremiah 1:17; Ezekiel 2:7; Jonah 3:3; Jonah 1:2; John 5:14
  3. 3 Matthew 21:28–29; Psalm 80:10; Genesis 22:3
  4. 4 Deuteronomy 18:22; Jeremiah 18:7–10; 2 Kings 20:1; Jonah 3:10; 2 Kings 20:6
  5. 5 Luke 11:32; Daniel 9:3; Matthew 12:41; Joel 2:12–17; 2 Chronicles 20:3
  6. 6 James 4:6–10; Esther 4:1–4; Job 2:8; Daniel 9:3; Luke 10:13
  7. 7 2 Chronicles 20:3; Joel 2:15–16; Joel 1:18; Jonah 3:5; Ezra 8:21
  8. 8 Isaiah 59:6; Isaiah 55:6–7; Jonah 1:6; Jonah 1:14; Ezekiel 18:21–24
  9. 9 2 Samuel 12:22; Joel 2:13–14; Psalm 106:45; Jonah 1:6; Luke 15:18–20
  10. 10 Jeremiah 18:8; 1 Kings 21:27–29; Exodus 32:14; Amos 7:6; Luke 15:20

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

  1. Quotes verse 3:8 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter XVII)

    … wrought in Jonah's case, as the Scripture says of them, "And they returned each from his evil way, and the unrighteousness which was in their hands, saying, Who knoweth if God will repent, and turn away His anger from us, and we shall not perish?" --so also, from the beginning, did God permit man to be swallowed up by the …

    Read in context · Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885)

  2. Quotes verse 3:4 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVIII, Chapter 43)

    But some one may say, "How shall I know whether the prophet Jonah said to the Ninevites, Yet three days and Nineveh shall be overthrown,' or forty days?" For who does not see that the prophet could not say both, when he was sent to terrify the city by the threat of imminent ruin?

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)