It appears that Jonah's preaching was successful, if he was able to bring even the inhabitants of a city like Nineveh to repentance. Indeed, in the pre-exilic period (when the Book of Jonah was written), Nineveh was the symbol of everything worst in the world (after the Babylonian exile, Nineveh's place in the biblical books was taken by Babylon). This is not surprising, since it was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, whose rulers and soldiers stood out for their cruelty even in the ancient world, where cruelty in general was hard to make remarkable. But the matter was not only the legendary cruelty of the Assyrians; it was also the spirit of the empire they created.

In essence, Assyria gave the world the first example of a practically nonreligious society. Of course, the Assyrians, like all peoples of antiquity, had their own gods, whose honor and dignity they zealously protected. But these gods were for the Assyrians symbols of imperial power rather than objects of religious worship. The situation resembled the state of affairs in the late Roman Empire: of course, no one seriously believed in Jupiter Capitolinus anymore, but failing to render him the proper honors meant humiliating Rome, with all the consequences that followed.

A very remarkable witness to this is the speech of the commander of the Assyrian expeditionary corps sent to conquer Egypt, who on the way decided to put an end to Judah's relative autonomy and besieged Jerusalem (it can be found in the Book of Isaiah). He speaks not about the greatness of the Assyrian gods, but about the power of the Assyrian Empire.

He says to the besieged: what God are you hoping in? How many gods have different peoples had, and did even one god ever help anyone? For war, according to him, what is needed is "counsel and strength," that is, a strong army and effective administration, not the support of some gods. These speeches clearly reveal the practical atheism of the speaker, whether or not it was officially declared. And it is reasonable to think that such a worldview was characteristic not of the commander of the expeditionary corps alone.

To make people of this kind repent, one had to make an effort. More than that, a special, purposeful effort by God was needed to achieve such an effect. But the author of the Book of Jonah, as can be seen, understood well: the only possibility for Nineveh and for all Assyria to survive was conversion and repentance for the sins committed. And the historical fate of Assyria, which as a whole proved incapable of such repentance, confirms that he was right.

It happens that in the life of individuals and peoples, there is something that we say that it cannot be because it can never be. The massive repentance of the inhabitants of Nineveh can be attributed to such events. That is in particular why the prophet did not want to leave over there, it was absolutely certain: to preach to Nineveh, to call its inhabitants to repentance is a thing manifestly absurd. But God sent him all the same in particular over there. Why? Bible scholars until now still argue, if the history told by the author of the Book of Jonas, is real or invented, but, be that as it may, one thing is obvious: we have before us a parable, and no matter what is on its basis: a historic fact or an artistic invention.

It is a parable about the prophet, who achieved an unexpected success where success was not expected, and not understanding that his success was really a success, and not a failure, as it seemed to him after the conversion of the Ninevites. Maybe the prophet compared them to his own people: because the Jews did not always take seriously the words of the prophets. And here, Jonah thought, probably, that the Ninevites, heathen and again living in the country, which was for his contemporaries and compatriots the symbol of all that is worst in the world, the symbol of the wickedness and theomachism.

Can such people hear God's call to conversion and to repentance? And here is happening exactly what the prophet considered improbable: his testimony is heard, the city repents. How it could arrive? The answer seems paradoxical, but it is in particular the measure of the sinfulness of the inhabitants of the city which could persuade them into repentance. The compatriots of the prophet (if it is not all, then many) usually considered themselves not at all as sinners; they sinned of course and knew it, and sinned "as all" and also lived "as everybody".

The feeling "we are not worse than others", "we are as everybody" is familiar to everyone, but not everyone thinks, which brake it can become on the spiritual way, not letting the thinker see his acts such as they are, from the point of view of the commandments of God and the way of righteousness. To the religious Jews this feeling was much stronger than to the non-religious Ninevites. That is why it was easier for them to repent: they had no illusions on their own account. And they [ninevites] outpaced on the way of repentance the compatriots of the prophet, who believed that, not considering some small things, everything is in order in their spiritual life.

The repentance of the Ninevites enters a new, more powerful stage when the impulse to repent reaches the king. Although we know of no historical kings of Assyria who repented, it is important to see something else here: the king does not stand aside from the movement of repentance that has seized the people and does not reject this “initiative from below.” As head of the people, he does not separate himself from those who repent and acknowledges his own sins, which are inseparable from the sins of all his subjects. The example of one who holds power can influence his subjects in either direction. Just as we should not reject the possibility that hardened sinners may change their ways, neither should we think that rulers are incapable of being guided by considerations other than purely utilitarian ones.

The Lord revoked the calamities He had foretold because their repentance was genuine. This means that we too may hope that the calamities which frighten us today need not happen if we change our ways. If only our repentance does not turn out to be a mere formality.