Jonah 3:5

The people of Nineveh believed God’s message. They all decided that everyone should begin ◄fasting/abstaining from food►. So everyone, including important people and unimportant people, did that. They also put on coarse cloth, to show that they were sorry for having sinned.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

In Context

4On the first day after Jonah arrived, he began walking through the city. He was proclaiming (OR, At the end of that day he started proclaiming) to the people, “Forty days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed { God will destroy Nineveh}!”

6The King of Nineveh heard what the people were doing. So he took off his royal robes, and he also put on coarse cloth. He left his palace, and sat down where there were cold ashes, to show that he also was sorry for having sinned.

Read all of Jonah 3

Cross References

Exodus 33:6After the Israeli people left Sinai Mountain, they did not wear jewelry any more.

2 Chronicles 20:3Jehoshaphat became very afraid, so he decided to ask Yahweh what he should do. He also proclaimed that all the people of Judah should fast.

Jeremiah 31:34And it will not be necessary for them to teach their neighbors or their relatives and say, “ You need to know Yahweh,” because everyone, including unimportant people and very important people, will already know me. And I will forgive them for having been very wicked, and I will never think again about the sins that they have committed.’”

Jeremiah 42:1Then Johanan and Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the other leaders of the Israeli soldiers who had not surrendered to the army of Babylonia, and many [HYP] other people, including those who were important and those who were not important, came

Daniel 9:3After I read that, I pleaded to Yahweh my God to help us, praying and ◄fasting/abstaining from eating food►. While doing that, I was wearing rough cloth and sitting in ashes to show that I was very sad about what was going to happen to us.

Joel 2:12But Yahweh says, “In spite of these disasters that you have experienced, you can return to me with all your inner beings. Weep, and mourn, and ◄fast/abstain from eating food► to show that you are sorry for having abandoned me.

Matthew Henry on Jonah 3:2-5

Jonah's Mission Renewed; The Prophet's Mission to Nineveh. ( b. c. 840.) 1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. 3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord . Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. We have here… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Jonah 3:5