Jonah proclaimed, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Jonah 3:4. The warning is short and time-bound, delivered after Jonah entered the city Jonah 3:4.
In Jonah 3:4, Jonah finally delivers the warning he was sent to announce. This verse sits in the “preaching to Nineveh” movement of the story, after Jonah has been recommissioned and travels to the Assyrian city (3:1–3). Earlier, Jonah resisted his assignment and fled, which drove the narrative through the storm, the sea, and the fish (1:1–2:10).
Jonah 3:4 presents Jonah doing what he was sent to do: he goes into Nineveh and makes a public announcement. The text emphasizes movement into the city (not staying outside), and it emphasizes the form of the message: Jonah “cried out,” meaning a loud proclamation rather than a private talk.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Jonah 3:4, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
4Jonah began to enter into the city a day`s journey, and he cried out, and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"