but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.
The fact of there being no mention of this great turning unto the Lord by the Ninevites in any of the books of the Hebrew Bible has, to be sure, been alleged as argument against the historicity of Jonah; but all such allegations ignore the Very nature of secular Israel.  Their hatred and prejudice against Nineveh was exactly like that manifested by Jonah, and we may be absolutely certain that they omitted, by design, any reference whatever to the conversion of any Gentiles, especially of the hated Ninevites.  Furthermore, we shall dare to engage in a little speculation. with reference to this very thing.  Jonah himself, after having successfully turned an entire pagan city to the Lord, would forever afterward have been persona "non grata" in the whole nation of Israel.  Jonah could not have failed to be aware of that, and it may accordingly be doubted that he ever went back, either to the northern or to the southern kingdom.  There has to be some good reason why tradition places the grave of Jonah in Nineveh!  Furthermore, if the animus of "the chosen people" against Jonah in any wise matched that which they directed toward the destruction of the apostle Paul, another Jew who converted many Gentiles, then, they would have held a public funeral for Jonah, buried him in effigy, and engraved his name on a grave near Gath-Hepher, which was Jonah's home; and if this supposition appears in any manner unreasonable to anyone, let him explain how, otherwise, it was possible for Jonah to have two graves, one at Gath-Hepher, and the other in Nineveh!  We shall devote a little further space to the examination of this hypothesis at the end of the commentary on Jonah.  We conclude it here with the comment by Deane to the effect that the records of the Jews, "never touched" such things, especially events happening so far away, and to a people whom they so thoroughly disliked.[35]