But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.
(3) The reason given by Jonah himself (Jonah 4:3) was that he feared that Nineveh might repent and that God, after his usual gracious manner, would spare them and refrain from destroying their city.  As to why such an eventuality was so distasteful to Jonah, there are two conjectures: (a) The prophet was mightily concerned with his own loss of face, including the prospect of his becoming widely known as a prophet whose words did not come to pass.  (b) Keil thought that Jonah's real objection to Nineveh's conversion sprang out of the deep love he had for his own nation, "fearing lest the conversion of the Gentiles should infringe upon the privileges of Israel, and put an end to its election as the nation of God."[18]  This latter observation strikes us as a genuine discernment of the truth.  As a matter of fact, the conversion of Gentiles did typify the ultimate rejection of Israel as "the chosen people" and the receiving of Gentiles all over the earth in a "new Israel" which would include both Jews and Gentiles.  Jonah seems to have sensed this; and out of the fierce love of his own country, he was loath to see Nineveh converted.  Whatever the reasons that motivated him, he was wrong; and God would overrule his disobedience to accomplish his will despite the prophet's unwillingness to obey.