4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

22 ^owhen a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; ⁿthe prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will ^wpluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, ^xturns from its evil, ^yI will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will ^wbuild and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.

2 “Arise, and go down to ^qthe potter’s house, and there I will let you hear¹ my words.”

Ahab’s Wars with Syria

1 ^qBen-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his army together. ^rThirty-two kings were with him, and horses and chariots. And he went up and closed in on ^sSamaria and fought against it.

2 And he sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel and said to him, “Thus says Ben-hadad:

6 Nevertheless I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they shall search your house and the houses of your servants and lay hands on whatever pleases you and take it away.’”

10 When God saw what they did, ^xhow they turned from their evil way, ^xGod relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.