Jonah’s Nineveh

Abstract

The author reexamines possible historical allusions in Jonah, including the size and population of Nineveh and the acceptability of foreign prophets. His prophecy (3:4) is compared in form with Assyrian omens. References to the "substitute king" (3:6) and coincidences with national concern and mourning following the solar eclipse of 763 BC show the appropriateness of the prophecy to the period of Ashur-dan III and Jeroboam II in the 8th century.