and Hosea so clearly saw (Amos 6:14). Jonah had a personal stake in the matter, for his own home town, Gath-hepher (Kh. ez-Zurra’, modern Mashhad), on the northeastern shoulder of the high limestone ridge that separates Galilee from the Jezreel Valley, lay directly in Assyria’s line of attack. If Israel could hang on to its Aramean vassals in the north, one or another of these states could act as a buffer the next time Assyria burst on the scene. Better yet, what if Assyria just didn’t come back