compassion on the “outsiders” in Nineveh. This could be true if Jonah’s primary issue was the insider/outsider tension between Jews and Gentiles. The tension of Jonah’s life, however, is that he loves Yahweh but has taken serious action against God’s intention to offer forgiveness to the violent (as he and Yahweh discuss in ch. 4). The tension between his “temple piety” and his attitudes toward the unjust world are true to life. The tensions represents the honest struggle (and even confusion) of