38Then certain of the
scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.  39But he answered and said unto them, An evil and
adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the
prophet Jonas:  40For as Jonas was three
days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in
the heart of the earth.  41The men of
Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the
preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. (Matthew
12:38-41, King James
Version)