Chapter 16

The Demand for a Sign. ^1 [a](A)The Pharisees and Sadducees came and, to test him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven. ^2 [b]He said to them in reply, “[In the evening you say, ‘Tomorrow will be fair, for the sky is red’; ^3 (B)and, in the morning, ‘Today will be stormy, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to judge the appearance of the sky, but you cannot judge the signs of the times.] ^4 (C)An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”^[c] Then he left them and went away.

Chapter 2

Jonah’s Prayer. ¹ But the Lord sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, and he remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.^(A)

Chapter 3

Jonah’s Obedience and the Ninevites’ Repentance. ¹ The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ² Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you. ³ So Jonah set out for Nineveh, in accord with the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an awesomely great city; it took three days to walk through it. ⁴ Jonah began his journey through the city, and when he had gone only a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” ⁵ the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small,^[a] put on sackcloth.^(A)

⁶ When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷ Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh:^[b] “By decree of the king and his nobles, no man or beast, no cattle or sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. ⁸ Man and beast alike must be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; they all must turn from their evil way and from the violence of their hands. ^9 [c]Who knows? God may again repent and turn from his blazing wrath, so that we will not perish.”^{(B) 10} When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.

The Demand for a Sign. ^11 [a]The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with him,^(A) seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.^{(B) 12} He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

²⁹ While still more people gathered in the crowd, he said to them,^(A) “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.^{(B) 30} Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. ³¹ At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here.^{(C) 32} At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.^(D)