“... The most surprising alteration occurs in 3:4. The Masoretic Text’s 40-day grace period in which Nineveh is to decide its response to Yahweh’s warning becomes 3 days in the Septuagint. Several explanations have been offered for this difference (most are textually based) but none alters the textual certainty of this reading as the original Septuagint text. This shortening of the time allowed by Yahweh for repentance heightens the tension in the story. The drastic action of the Ninevites becomes more understandable, their impetus to refrain from evil receives a stronger motivation, the abstinence from food and water becomes more realistic, and Jonah’s decision to wait and see the results makes better sense. The Septuagint reading intensifies the action and strengthens the plot development. The second alteration in the plot is the description of the recommissioning of Jonah in 3:2. In this context the Septuagint adds the expression (τὸ κήρυγμα) τὸ ἔμπροσθεν “the former proclamation” and uses the verb ἐλάλησα, “I spoke” making it quite clear that this oracle is not a new statement but the repetition of the original one given in 1:2. The content of that oracle has not changed nor, presumably, have any of the time constraints included in it. The Masoretic Text suggests that Yahweh provides a new oracle to Jonah, not necessarily the exact duplicate of the original. ...”