On Jonah: Change or Truth?

(1) Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying: (2) ’Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me.’ (3) But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish, from the presence of the LORD.

(4) And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he proclaimed, and said: ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.’ (5) And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. (6) And the tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. (7) And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying: ‘Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing; let them not feed, nor drink water; (8) but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily unto God; yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. (9) Who knoweth whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?’ (10) And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, which He said He would do unto them; and He did it not.