When I read Nahum, I always think that Jonah was a rational to disobey God’s call to preach to Ninevah. The risks in Ninevah repenting were significant. In the period of repentance, some sort of Israeli-Ninevite Friendship Society would form, and Ninevah would have access to Israeli society in an unprecedented way. Then, when Ninevah backslides and reverts to its old ways, it is in a position to hurt Israeli even more. The book of Nahum is written 100 years after the events in Jonah. Ninevah indeed backslid and returned to its devastating ways. Of course, Jonah should have simply obeyed the Lord the first time.

Woe to the city of blood,
full of lies,
full of plunder,
never without victims….

“I am against you,” declares the Lord Almighty….

I will pelt you with filth,
I will treat you with contempt
and make you a spectacle.
All who see you will flee from you and say,
‘Nineveh is in ruins….

Nothing can heal you;
your wound is fatal.
All who hear the news about you
clap their hands at your fall,
for who has not felt
your endless cruelty?

– Nahum, Ch. 3

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