“Now the word of Yahweh

Came to Jonah,

The son of Amittai.

Saying.

‘Go at once

To Nineveh,

That great city!

Cry out

Against it!

Their wickedness

Has come up

Before me.’”

In typical prophetic fashion, the word of Yahweh came to Jonah.  However, there would be no more oracles in this book, since this work continued with a narrative account.  Jonah, the son of Amittai, was the very same prophet mentioned in 2 Kings, chapter 14 during the time of King Jeroboam II (783-743 BCE) in the northern kingdom of Israel.  Thus, this Jonah was from the northern town, Gath-hepher, that was in the Zebulun territory.  The message of this oracle was that Jonah should go to the great city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrians, who destroyed Samaria in 723 BCE.  Nineveh was on the outskirts of modern day Mosul, Iraq, on the Tigris River.  Obviously, this was a wicked city.