Jonah is an interesting book: a picture of a man being brutally honest about a less-than-noble episode of his younger days. Given a perfectly clear command from God to go to Ninevah, he high-tails it in the opposite direction. When he finds he can't escape God's punishment, he'd rather die than obey; and asks the sailors to chuck him over the side. Faced with the chance of really drowning he reconsiders, and recalls a hymn of salvation while in the highly unpleasant and dangerous custody of the fish. He gets a second chance at obedience, but seems only interested in carrying out the barest letter of the command (no mention of repentance at all). While Jonah waits to gloat over the city's destruction God forces Jonah to face his own impetuous foolishness and hatefulness.

It's not exactly a history to be proud of, but I gather Jonah learned, and was willing to make an example of himself. We don't have any details about the infamous fish, but I remember a fossil of a fish which had partly swallowed a smaller fish, choked and died; and I can imagine a very uncomfortable fish wondering how to get rid of this inconvenient prophet it couldn't quite get down.