A bit about the Bible story of Jonah.
I think what the author wanted to convey was, first, that Jehovah was the only god and was universal, against the general and earlier view that he was just a particular god of the Hebrews who had picked them out and was jealous they might go to others of the various gods about.
Second, he wanted to convey that you can't escape Jehovah's observation and power.
Then he wanted to convey that Jehovah can change his mind and can be merciful, although the author avoids -- is probably not even aware of -- the theological problems that raises in the context of omniscience and perfection. It may be that the author still saw Jehovah in anthropomorphic terms, and not as infinite.
This then represents an intermediate step in the evolution of Jewish monotheism.
There is of course a huge historical problem in placing the events in Nineveh. If Jehovah had been willing to destroy the city earlier, why didn't he actually do so when they became so verifiability evil later on?
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