Jonah

Jonah son of Amittai was an Israelite prophet from Gath-hepher in Zebulun (2 Kings 14:25) who, according to the book bearing his name, was called by God to preach repentance to the Assyrian city of Nineveh. Fleeing instead by ship toward Tarshish, he was thrown overboard in a storm and swallowed by a great fish, from whose belly he prayed and was vomited out onto dry land (Jonah 1–2). He then reluctantly preached to Nineveh, which repented en masse—to his great displeasure. Jesus cited the sign of Jonah (his three days in the fish) as a foreshadowing of his own death and resurrection (Matthew 12:39–41; 16:4) and held up the Ninevites' repentance as a rebuke to his generation. The book is a profound meditation on divine mercy extending beyond Israel.