Jonah, like many (if not all) of the Bible's noteworthy contributors told a lie in the name of the LORD. Like most, if not all, of the liars in the Bible, Jonah credited the LORD with inspiring the lie he told Nineveh. Unlike most of the Bible's contributors, Jonah admitted to being a false prophet and to being angry with the LORD for making him so.
Jonah was purportedly sent by the LORD to Nineveh to prophesy against them of their destruction. Being a "stiff- necked" Jew, however, Jonah wanted no part of such a ministry. As he records admitting to the LORD after- the- fact: he suspected the LORD would repent of the perdition purposed against Nineveh. So Jonah ran away from Nineveh to avoid the infamy of false prophesy.
In Jonah 4:2, it's recorded, "And [Jonah] prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil."
What this confession indicates, besides Jonah's aforementioned aversion to being considered a false prophet, is that Jonah knew the LORD had repented-- with regularity-- of the evil (and the good) he had purposed against (and for) the Jews over the hundreds of years since the exodus from Egypt. It also implies Jonah suspected that, unlike the Jews, Nineveh would repent of their wickedness; allowing the LORD to repent of the destruction he purposed against Nineveh.
All the above notwithstanding, Jonah prophesied against Nineveh unequivocally: without mentioning any possibility for the Ninevites to be forgiven– by repenting; or sacrificing; or any other means. "And Jonah began to enter into [Nineveh] a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown [Jonah 3:4]." False.
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