God's Consistent Compassion

The author of Jonah seems to want us to make this connection to Exodus 32, and so to see that God's compassion to Israel then is no different from his compassion to Nineveh now, for he has cast his description of God's reaction in Jonah 3:10 in the same words as God's decision to spare Israel in Exodus 32:14. One notable difference exists, however, between those two situations: Israel in Exodus 32 had not yet even repented (though Nineveh had)--Israel was spared only because of God's gracious response to Moses' intercession!

--Daniel C. Timmer, A Gracious and Compassionate God: Mission, Salvation and Spirituality in the Book of Jonah (New Studies in Biblical Theology; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2011), 123.