He prayed to Yahweh, and said, "Please, Yahweh, wasn't this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you repent of the evil.
If, as we have mentioned, Jonah believed that the destruction of Nineveh might have resulted in Israel's conversion, he was totally wrong. God's summary intervention on behalf of the chosen people had been dramatic and spectacular on a number of occasions, and no such thing had ever had the slightest influence in arresting the sinful course of Israel.  As Butler said, "Everything of this sort had already been tried with Israel, and still their hearts waxed hard and cold."[12]