“... The book of another prophet, Nahum, however, tells another story about what God thinks of the Ninevites: he hates them. Nahum in fact celebrates the demise of Nineveh and interprets it as an act of God. The book concludes: There is no assuaging your hurt, your wound is mortal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For who has ever escaped your endless cruelty? (3:19). Translation: God destroyed Nineveh and everyone cheers as if it were the golden goal in the World Cup finals. Jonah and Nahum clearly see the matter of God’s attitude toward the Ninevites differently, and the reason is . . . wait for it . . . they were written at different times and under different circumstances for different purposes. Nahum lived at the time of the fall of Nineveh and, historically speaking, he was right. Nineveh fell to the Babylonians in 612 BCE and, as all prophets do, Nahum interpreted the event as an act of God. Jonah, however, was written in the postexilic period, after (perhaps generations after) the return from Babylonian exile in 538 BCE. And this author doesn’t seem to be in the least bit interested in recording history. ...”