Repentance meant redirecting the people's actions as a community, thereby restoring justice in the city. Perhaps Jonah feared inner-city problems spreading to his area. Today, the divide between the suburbs and the city is, in many respects, a racial divide. They set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. Yet malls, like Pharaoh's supply cities, are not affordable and accessible to all.
Malls are private property.
For years, rural communities have viewed cities with suspicion and resentment. Vast natural resources from rural areas have accumulated in cities only to benefit the wealthy and powerful. Indeed, many biblical stories condemn cities such as Babylon, Nineveh, Tyre and Sidon for such unjust disparities. In U.S. popular culture, it is Main Street versus Wall Street. Today's midwives are those women who continue to sacrifice and resist creatively so they and their communities might live.