Jonah, odds and ends

First, the Backdrop

Nineveh was a capital of Ancient Assyria, a hugely powerful civilization and a fierce enemy of Israel.  Constable's Notes provide more context: 

"Nineveh stood on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. It had walls 100 feet high and 50 feet thick, and the main one, punctuated by 15 gates, was over seven and one-half miles long.[3] The total population was probably about 600,000 including the people who lived in the suburbs outside the city walls (cf. 4:11). The residents were idolaters and worshipped Asur and Ishtar, the chief male and female deities, as did almost all the Assyrians. Assyria was a threat to Israel’s security (cf. Hos. 11:5; Amos 5:27). This is one reason Jonah refused to go to Nineveh. He feared the people might repent and that God would refrain from punishing Israel’s enemy (4:2)."  -Constable's Notes

Next, The Sideways Nature of Anger

Later in the book, I  find God's question to Jonah amusing:  "Do you do well to be angry?"  In modern slang, this is the equivalent of "how's that working for you?" It doesn't work well to be angry or in conflict, does it.  Although it's necessary at times, it's not a good place to live.

Constable points out one key difference between the Ninevite population and our pluralistic society--the Ninevites believed in the sovereignty of God and man's ability to influence God's actions:

The Ninevites lived in the ancient Near East that viewed all of life as under the sovereign control of divine authority, the gods. Even though they were polytheists and pagans they believed in a god of justice who demanded justice of humankind. They also believed that their actions affected their god’s actions. This worldview is essentially correct as far as it goes. We should probably not understand their repentance as issuing in conversion to Jewish monotheism. It seems unlikely that all the Ninevites became Gentile proselytes to Judaism (cf. 1:16).  -Constable's Notes

In our current scientific climate, our culture would not be open to the possibility of divine offense or judgement--divine love, perhaps, divine interest in their needs, but not divine justice.  The problem is that the sword cuts two ways--love and justice go together and are not exclusive of each other.