Prophet Jonah

Jonah, son of Amittai, from Gath-hepher in Galilee, is named in the second Book of Kings as a prophet in the time of Jeroboam II of Israel, in the eighth century BC. The Book of Jonah tells that God sent him to Nineveh, capital of Assyria, to announce its coming destruction. Jonah tried to flee by sea to Tarshish.

In the story, a storm arose, the sailors threw him overboard, and a great fish swallowed him and kept him for three days before releasing him. He then went to Nineveh, and the city repented. Jonah was displeased by God's mercy, and the book ends with a question put to him. Jewish and Christian traditions have read the book in different ways. Church tradition also holds that he was the son of the widow of Zarephath.