Jonah son of Amittai of Gath-hepher in Galilee was sent by the Lord east to Nineveh, capital of Assyria, to preach repentance. He fled west to Tarshish instead; was caught in the great storm; was thrown overboard at his own request; and was swallowed by 'a great fish' that vomited him on dry land on the third day.
Christ Himself made Jonah's three days in the belly of the fish the supreme Old Testament type of His three days in the tomb: 'As Jonah was in the whale's belly three days and three nights: so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights' (Mt 12:40).
He preached forty days in Nineveh; the whole city — from king to cattle — repented in sackcloth and ashes. The Book closes: 'And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city...?' His tomb at the Mosque of the Prophet Jonah in Mosul, venerated by three faiths for centuries, was destroyed by ISIS in 2014.