The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
The Saviour's words that Jonah was a "sign" unto the Ninevites (Luke 11:30) has often been cited by Bible scholars as the basis for understanding that, "Jonah's experience in the great fish was made known to the Ninevites."[27]  Such knowledge would have included the fact of Jonah's rebellion against God and the subsequent mercy that came to him; and, in the matter of Jonah himself, though in rebellion against God, having received God's mercy, there also appears the slender little thread of hope upon which the Ninevites based their hopeful surmise that he might also spare them.