Jonah preaches to Nineveh
Jonah 1–4; 2 Kings 14:25; Matthew 12:39–41; Luke 11:30
Jonah ran from God's call to preach to Assyria's great city, spent three days in a great fish, then preached in Nineveh, and the whole city repented.
God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.
Jonah 3:10 (World English Bible)
Nineveh was the capital of Israel's most brutal enemy. Jonah boarded a ship for Tarshish in the opposite direction, was thrown overboard in a storm, and was swallowed by a great fish. When he finally preached, the king and people of Nineveh fasted and repented, and God spared them. Jonah was angry at God's mercy.
Jesus called his own coming death and resurrection “the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 12:40).
Places
Dating notes
Jonah prophesied under Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:25), whose reign Ussher dates 825–784 BC. The Nineveh mission isn't dated; Ussher mentions Jonah about 808 BC. The date shown is an estimate.