The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
To begin with, Nineveh was not the capital of Assyria until a period about a hundred years after the times of Jonah; and there is not the slightest evidence anywhere that "The King of Assyria" ever lived in Nineveh until the times of Sennacherib and Ashur-banipal (704 B.C. until the total destruction of the city).[30]  Thus, the expression "king of Nineveh," as used by Jonah proves that he wrote earlier at a time when the historical situation is exactly represented by the title he ascribed to the ruler of Nineveh, somewhere in the half century 800-750 B.C. Pinches also affirmed that, "It is unknown how long Nineveh was the capital of Assyria."[31]