Jonah 3:4,5

The people of Nineveh repented-- Jonah 3:4-5: Jonah went a day's journey into the city of Nineveh and then began his preaching. It sounds as if he reached the thickly populated part of town and then started his work. He warned the people, "Forty days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed!" This was what the Lord had commissioned him to preach. He is now a faithful prophet. Nothing is said about the particular sin that had brought Nineveh to this sad state. However, the people understood about God and what they needed to repent of.

Fasting is often connected with great blessings from God. In Ezra 8:23 we observe the power of fasting in that day. "So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He listened to our entreaty." In Nineveh "They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them." They did this in the hope that God would spare their nation even though that thought was not included in Jonah's preaching. Fasting and wearing sackcloth was a custom in ancient times to show grief or repentance. These people did this because "they believed God."