NOTES for Jon 3:4-5
As we see, Jonah's sermon had success, if he managed to bring to repentance the inhabitants of such a city, as Nineveh. Indeed: in the pre-captivity period (when was written the Book of Jonah), it is in particular Nineveh that was the symbol of all the worst things in the world (after the Babylonian captivity, Babylon took the place of Nineveh in the biblical books). It is not surprising: because it is about the capital of the Assyrian empire, among which the regents and the soldiers distinguished themselves by their cruelty in the ancient world, where it was generally difficult to amaze with the cruelty.
But the problem is not only in the legendary cruelty of the Assyrians, the problem again is also in the spirit of this empire, which they have created. In fact, the Assyria gave to the world the first example of a practically non-religious society. Of course, the Assyrians, as all the peoples of the antiquity, had their own gods, honor and the dignity of which they jealously protected. But for the Assyrians, these gods were rather symbols of the power of the empire, than objects of religious worship. The situation reminded the state of things in the late Roman Empire: already in the Capitoline Jupiter, of course nobody believed in it seriously, but not giving him the suiting honors meant to humiliate Rome, with all the resulting consequences.
The most remarkable proof of it is the word of the commander of the Assyrian expeditionary force aimed at the conquest of Egypt and on the way deciding to finish with the relative autonomy of Judah and besieged Jerusalem (it can be found in the book of Isaiah). He doesn’t speak about the greatness of the Assyrian gods, but about the power of the Assyrian empire. He says to the besieged: on which God do you hope? How many gods various peoples had, and did even one of them helped at least anyone? For war, is necessary according to him, "counsel and power", that is, a strong army and an effective management, and not the support of certain gods.
These words give clearly in practice (maybe, and officially not declared) the atheism of the one who speaks. And, we can think, such a conception of the world was appropriate not only to the commander of the expeditionary force. In order to oblige this kind of persons to repent, it was necessary to try. Not only that: a devoted effort of God was needed to obtain such an effect. But the author of Book of Jonah, as we see, understood well: the only possibility for Nineveh and for all the Assyria to survive was the conversion and the repentance of the committed sins. And the historic fate of Assyria, being generally incapable of such a confession, confirms its right.