As Old Testament prophets go, Jonah's success rate is pretty good. His one-sentence judgment upon the inhabitants of Nineveh — only five words in Hebrew — is all that exists in the written record: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."
Jonah 3:4. But these words apparently had a life-changing affect: The Ninevites immediately turned away from their evil ways. And, as Jonah expected, God forgave them. In a way, that expectation is what led Jonah to the event in his life that would make him famous even today. The event? His encounter with the "great fish," often depicted as a whale, that swallowed him.
It all began with Jonah's refusal to preach at Ninevah, As-syria's capital city, as God had directed him. Instead, he set out from his home, probably Galilee, and headed for the southern Israel coastal town of Joppa, hopping a boat bound for Tarshish. And by the way, Tarshish was in the opposite direction from Nineveh.
While at sea, Jonah learned what can happen when one is disobedient to God. A violent storm blew up, and his shipmates, thinking that God had sent the storm to punish him, tossed him overboard. (Even today, if someone is called a "Jonah," it means he or she is a bringer of bad luck.)
