Jonah, Book of

The Book of Jonah is unique among the Minor Prophets in being primarily a narrative about the prophet rather than a collection of his oracles. It recounts Jonah's flight from his divine commission, his rescue by a great fish, his eventual preaching to Nineveh, and his subsequent complaint when God spared the city. The book's climax is a divine question about the breadth of God's compassion for all peoples, including Israel's enemies.

Jesus appealed to the sign of Jonah as a prefiguration of his own burial and resurrection and cited the Ninevites' repentance as a rebuke to his contemporaries' unbelief, giving the book enduring christological significance in the New Testament.