So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey across.
If the false allegation that Jonah was written after 612 B.C. is accepted, the entire Book of Jonah would be pointless; "Should not I pity Nineveh?" would then be, "not only a hypothetical consideration, but a particularly one."[10]  A number of similar usages of the past tense (in our translations) in both Old Testament and New Testament refute the critical allegations against this verse.  For example: