Jonah then tells them to push him into the sea, but the mariners refuse and try to save Jonah, the ship, and themselves by their own efforts. In my opinion Jonah wanted to die because he was ashamed and did not want to commence God's mission, but since he cannot commit suicide he wanted them to push him of the ship. .
The Lord became angrier so the mariners proceed to throw Jonah into the sea. To Jonahs" surprise he did not drown. Instead the Lord sent a huge fish to swallow him. I think that disobedience does not always disqualify one from the task God has assigned, but it can cause delays, unnecessary problems, or long-term consequences. Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish, there he prayed for forgiveness. I see this as an example of human nature because most of us only in our time of need do we look for the Lord, but in our time of glory we forget him. The fish was being directed back to Nineveh, were the Lord gave Jonah a second chance to do his mission. .
Jonah arrives at Nineveh and announces to the people that if they do not change their wicked ways the city will be destroyed in forty days. It took three days for Jonah to cover the entire city, but repentance began after the first day. This part of the story is very strange because the city had no apparent enemy, nor anyone marching against the city. Yet, when they heard Jonah, a foreigner, preach his simple message from this "foreign" God they took it to heart and put on sackcloth and sat on ashes to externally show their repentant attitude. Even the king repented and he ordered everyone to fast. Since everyone repented the Lord did not carry out his punishment of destroying the city.
This angered Jonah and he reveals to the readers that the reason he fled to Tarshish (identified as Tartessus, an ancient Phoenician colony southwest of Spain) was because he knew God would forgive them if they repented. This shows again Jonah's vindictive narrow mindedness because he believes that only his people deserve forgiveness.
