“Go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim [judgment] against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”

But Jonah ran away to Tarshish to escape from the presence of the Lord [and his duty as His prophet]. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish [the most remote of the Phoenician trading cities]. So he paid the fare and went down into the ship to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord.

“Go to Nineveh the great city and declare to it the message which I am going to tell you.”