Commentary for Jonah 1:2

and proclaim against—My proclamation.

The questions: we do not find in any text that God would send a prophet of Israel to go to another country to get them to repent. This is specific to Israel, to whom divine providence applies, as our sages said...How was Nineveh different, that God sent Jonah? And why did Jonah not heed God's voice? He should have sprinted joyfully to get human beings to repent from their evil way, and what matter is it that they were not of Israel? And how could Jonah transgress God's command by suppressing his prophecy? A prophet who does this is liable to the death penalty! And why did God say, "Proclaim" without saying what to proclaim, and only specifying the second time "Proclaim that which I shall tell you"?

Nineveh - the royal seat of Assyria, which is a ruin today. And the sages of Israel in Greece say that it is the city called Ortei [Ortygia, Sicily?], but I do not know. Note that God did not command Jonah to say "In forty days..." only that "their evil has come before Me."