Should I not be concerned about [Nineveh] that great city?

Jnh 4:11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”

This was God's response to Jonah, after the prophet was angry about the people of Nineveh listening to his message - repenting - and therefore not being destroyed by God.

Seriously.  One of God's own prophets was angry about the people God wanted to save actually listening to the message and being saved.

Sounds unbelievable, doesn't it?

Don't be too quick to say yes, it's unbelievable.  Because I suspect the situation isn't all that different today.  Truth is - I know it isn't any different.  My own experience tells me that.  My research into this has changed my mind, and has been one of the reasons I'm doing this series.  
Truth is - my original goal was to show how Christians and Muslims don't believe in the same God.  As I dug into it, as you can see in even the first product of that research - What religion was Abraham - that appears to not be entirely true.  As I'm moving things from my previous site to its new home here in forgiven, I'm going back and updating what I had done previously - and adding this article as the second in the series.

You see - I learned something.  Something that Jonah probably should have known all along, but didn't.  Something God's people probably should have known - certainly should have learned through Jonah's experience - but apparently never did.  The people of Nineveh, at that time, were enemies of God - enemies of God's people - but still, God cared about them.  God wanted them to be saved.  Even though God's people didn't want them to be saved, as was made quite obvious by God's prophet - Jonah.

So - how did they get to that point?

And why are we not really much / any different today?

If you haven't read What religion was Abraham, I strongly encourage you to check it out now.
Then read this one on Jonah and Nineveh.
Then, as they show up, continue with the series - with this important background information in your mind.

How did Nineveh get started?

Two things related to the blood lines of the original inhabitants of Nineveh should be obvious - since today we all share these common ancestors.

They are from Adam and Eve.

Since we are in the post-flood era - they are also descendants of Noah.

So let's follow the tree.

• We start with Noah.  Noah had three sons - Shem, Ham and Japheth.
• Ham had four sons - Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan.
• The sons of Cush were - Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Rammah, Sabteca and Nimrod.
• The following is recorded of Nimrod -

^{Ge 10:8} Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.” ¹⁰ The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar. ¹¹ From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah ¹² and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.

The "Great City" reference is generally considered to be pointing to Nineveh.
All of this - yes, those boring lists of people are useful - serves to confirm Biblical dates with recovered historical artifacts, and we see this -

The occupation of the site dates to prehistoric times (c. 4500 B.C.), in agreement with the record of the founding of the city in Genesis 10. Materials from the various early cultures (Hassuna, Samarra, Halaf, Ubaid) have been found at Nineveh.  ¹Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (p. 1554). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Things don't stop there.
Notice the reference in verse 10 to Shinar.
If you're really good with Bible trivia, you may remember something that happened at Shinar.

Footnotes

• 1
  Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (p. 1554). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.