out, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be
overthrown!" It was a strange and terrible cry which sounded
throughout the city, and as the Ninevites heard it they feared God,
proclaimed a fast, covered themselves with sackcloth, and every man
was commanded to forsake evil. So they hoped God would forgive them
and spare their city.

God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways,
therefore He spared their city. When Jonah saw that Nineveh was spared
he was very angry, and prayed God to take away his life. He made a
booth and sat under it to see what would become of the city. Then God
sheltered him from the sun by a gourd, and afterwards taught him by it
how wrong he was in being displeased because Nineveh had been spared.
Nineveh was afterwards overthrown, and has remained since then but a
heap of ruins.

[Illustration: JONAH AT NINEVEH.]

HEZEKIAH AND SENNACHERIB.

Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, invaded the land of Judah, and
threatened to lay siege to Jerusalem. Then Hezekiah took counsel with
his princes and mighty men, and repaired the broken walls, and made
them higher. He made many other preparations for the defence of the
city, and went among his people, exhorting them to trust in God, and
be of good courage. But Sennacherib sent messengers to induce those
that guarded the walls of the city to revolt against Hezekiah, saying,
"Do not believe this Hezekiah when he tells you that your God will
deliver you; hath any of the nations against which I have made war
been delivered by their gods?"

When Hezekiah heard these words he went into the house of the Lord,
and sent messengers to Isaiah, asking for his prayers. Isaiah said to
them, "Thus saith the Lord, 'Be not afraid of the words with which the
King of Assyria hath blasphemed Me. I will send a blast upon him, and
he shall return and shall fall by the sword in his own land.'"
Afterwards the King of Assyria sent a letter to Hezekiah, in which he
repeated his sneers at the power of God. When Hezekiah read it, he
went into the house of the Lord, and spreading the letter before the
Lord, prayed for His help. God answered, by the mouth of Isaiah, that
the King of Assyria should not enter Jerusalem, nor shoot over it, but
be turned back the way he came. And the same night the angel of the
Lord went into the camp of the Assyrians, and smote one hundred and
eighty-five thousand. Then Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, and as he
was worshipping i