YNA 3:5 Parallel Verse View

Note: This view shows ‘verses’ which are not natural language units and hence sometimes only part of a sentence will be visible—click on any Bible version abbreviation down the left-hand side to see the verse in more of its context. Normally the OET discourages the reading of individual ‘verses’, but this view is only designed as a tool for doing comparisons of different translations—the older translations are further down the page (so you can read up from the bottom to trace the English translation history). The OET segments on this page are still very early looks into the unfinished texts of the Open English Translation of the Bible—please double-check these texts in advance before using in public.

Text critical issues=none Clarity of original=clear Importance to us=important (All still tentative.)

OET (OET-RV) The people of Nineveh believed in God and announced a time of fasting, and from the least to the most important people, they just wore sackcloth as a sign of contrition.

Key: khaki:verbs, blue:Elohim.
Note: Automatic aligning of the OET-RV to the LV is done by some temporary software, hence the OET-RV alignments are incomplete (and may occasionally be wrong).

BrLXX Καὶ ἐπίστευσαν οἱ ἄνδρες Νινευὴ τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ ἐκήρυξαν νηστείαν, καὶ ἐνεδύσαντο σάκκους ἀπὸ μεγάλου αὐτῶν ἕως μικροῦ αὐτῶν.
(Kai episteusan hoi andres Nineuaʸ tōi Theōi, kai ekaʸruxan naʸsteian, kai enedusanto sakkous apo megalou autōn heōs mikrou autōn. )

BrTr And the men of Nineve believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloths, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

ULT And the men of Nineveh believed God. And they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

UST The people of Nineveh believed the message from God that Jonah proclaimed. They decided that everyone should fast and wear coarse cloth on their bodies in order to show that they were sorry for the evil things that they had been doing. So everyone in the city did that, from the most important people to the least important people.

OEB And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they ordered a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.

CSB Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.

NLT The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

NIV The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

CEV They believed God's message and set a time when they would go without eating to show their sorrow. Then everyone in the city, no matter who they were, dressed in sackcloth.

ESV And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

NASB Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

LSB And the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.

WEBBE The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least.

WMBB (Same as above)

MSG The people of Nineveh listened, and trusted God. They proclaimed a citywide fast and dressed in burlap to show their repentance. Everyone did it—rich and poor, famous and obscure, leaders and followers.

NET The people of Nineveh believed in God, and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.

LSV And the men of Nineveh believe in God, and proclaim a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least,

FBV The people of Nineveh believed in God. They announced a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.[fn]

3:5 To show their repentance.

T4T 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.

LEB And the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth—from the greatest of them _⌊to the least important_⌋.[fn]

3:5 Literally “to the smallest of them”

NRSV And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

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

NAB the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

BBE And the people of Nineveh had belief in God; and a time was fixed for going without food, and they put on haircloth, from the greatest to the least.

Moff No Moff YNA (JNA) 3:5 verse available

JPS 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.

ASV 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.

DRA And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.

YLT And the men of Nineveh believe in God, and proclaim a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even unto their least,

Drby And the men of Nineveh believed [fn]God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

3.5 Elohim

RV 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.

SLT And the men of Nineveh will believe in God, and they will call a fast, and put on sackcloth, from great and even to small.

Wbstr 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.

KJB-1769 ¶ 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.

KJB-1611 ¶ So the people of Nineueh beleeued God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackecloth from the greatest of them euen to the least of them.
(Modernised spelling is same as from KJB-1769 above, apart from punctuation)

Bshps And the men of Niniue beleued God, and proclaymed a fast, and put on sackecloth from the greatest of them to the leaste of them.
(And the men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the leaste of them.)

Gnva So the people of Nineueh beleeued God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from ye greatest of the euen to the least of them.
(So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from ye/you_all greatest of the even to the least of them. )

Cvdl And the people of Niniue beleued God, and proclamed fastinge, and arayed them selues in sack cloth, as well the greate as the small of them.
(And the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed fasting, and arrayed themselves in sack cloth, as well the great as the small of them.)

Wycl And men of Nynyue bileueden to the Lord, and prechiden fastyng, and weren clothid with sackis, fro the more `til to the lesse.
(And men of Nineveh believed to the Lord, and preached fasting, and were clothed with sackis, from the more till to the lesse.)

Luth Da glaubten die Leute zu Ninive an GOtt und ließen predigen, man sollte fasten, und zogen Säcke an, beide, groß und klein.
(So believed the people/folk to/for Ninive at/to God and leave/let preaching, man should fasten, and pulled sackcloth an, both, large and small.)

ClVg Et crediderunt viri Ninivitæ in Deum, et prædicaverunt jejunium, et vestiti sunt saccis, a majore usque ad minorem.
(And they_believed men Ninivitæ in/into/on God, and they_preached fasting, and dressed are saccis, from major/greatere until to minor. )

SOTN SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 3:1–10: The LORD again told Jonah to go to Nineveh and this time he obeyed

This section records how Jonah finally obeyed the LORD and went to Nineveh to preach to the people there. Then the people of Nineveh repented of their sinful ways and the LORD did not destroy them. An alternative title for this section could be: “The people of Nineveh repent.”

3:5a

And the Ninevites believed God.

¶ When the people of Nineveh heard this message from God, they believed what God had said.

And the Ninevites believed God: Scholars do not agree about how this should be translated. There are two possibilities:

It means they believed God’s message—that they understood that Jonah’s message was from God and that God was the one who would destroy them and their city. (BSB, NIV, RSV, GNT, CEV, GW, KJV, NCV, NLT, REB)
It means that they believed in God. (NASB, NET, NJB).3.5 Keil-Delitzsch, p. 407; Sasson, p. 240

It is recommended that you follow the first interpretation (1), since it is supported by the majority of English versions as well as the context.

It may be necessary in your language to make it explicit that the people believed God as a result of hearing Jonah speak. Some possible ways of doing this are:

When the people of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying to them, they believed what God was telling them.

The people of Nineveh believed the message from God which Jonah had preached to them.

3:5b

They proclaimed a fast

So they decided that they must fast.
So they said to each other, “We^(incl) must all refrain from eating and drinking.”

They proclaimed a fast: Because the people believed what God had told them, they decided they must try to avoid the disaster which he had threatened. The first thing they decided was that everyone should fast, that is, not eat or drink. The purpose of their fast was to show God that they had really repented.

proclaimed: The basic meaning of the Hebrew verb translated proclaimed is “call.” This probably means that this was not an official proclamation but something the people decided among themselves.

3:5c

and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least.

Then all the people, from the least important to the most important, put on sackcloth to show that they had repented.
Then all the people of the city, however important they were, dressed in sackcloth to show they had repented.

dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least: Then all the people who had heard Jonah’s message put on sackcloth to show they had repented.

sackcloth: This was rough cloth, often made of goat’s hair. It was often worn when someone was mourning the death of someone or, as here, to show they had repented of some act.

from the greatest of them to the least: This probably means “from the most important to the least important,” that is, everybody whoever they were. You should use an expression in your language which makes it clear that everyone was included.

UTN uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / gendernotations

אַנְשֵׁ֥י נִֽינְוֵ֖ה

men_of Nīnəvēh

Although the term men is masculine, here it has a generic sense that includes both men and women. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use a phrase that makes this clear. Alternate translation: [the men and women of Nineveh]

Note 2 topic: translate-symaction

וַ⁠יִּקְרְאוּ־צוֹם֙ וַ⁠יִּלְבְּשׁ֣וּ שַׂקִּ֔ים

and,they_proclaimed fast and,they_wore sackcloth

Both fasting and wearing coarse cloth were symbolic actions that showed sadness or devotion to God or both. If this would not be clear to your readers, you could explain the significance of these actions in the text or in a footnote. Alternate translation: [they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth to show that they were sorry for having sinned]

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / infostructure

וַ⁠יִּקְרְאוּ־צוֹם֙ וַ⁠יִּלְבְּשׁ֣וּ שַׂקִּ֔ים מִ⁠גְּדוֹלָ֖⁠ם וְ⁠עַד־קְטַנָּֽ⁠ם

and,they_proclaimed fast and,they_wore sackcloth from,their_of,great and=unto their_of,insignificant

If it would be more natural in your language, you could reverse the order of these clauses. Alternate translation: [And, from the greatest of them even to the least of them, they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth]

מִ⁠גְּדוֹלָ֖⁠ם וְ⁠עַד־קְטַנָּֽ⁠ם

from,their_of,great and=unto their_of,insignificant

Alternate translation: [from the most significant to the least significant people] or [including all of the people, whether important or unimportant]

Parallel YNA 3:5

Section 3:1–10: The LORD again told Jonah to go to Nineveh and this time he obeyed

3:5a

3:5b

3:5c