Prophetic Witness Beyond the Boundaries of Israel

The feast of the Prophet Jonah (September 21) gives us an opportunity to ask: does God in the Old Testament address Israel alone, or does he also call people from other nations to himself? Nineveh offers a clear answer. God sends the prophet to a foreign city; its inhabitants believe, abandon wickedness and injustice, and destruction is averted. Divine compassion transcends national boundaries—even the resistance of the prophet himself (Jonah 3–4). Are there, however, other accounts that bear similar witness?

The answer is yes, provided that we distinguish the public preaching of repentance from personal prophetic witness and from divine revelation to non-Israelites. These encounters do not all constitute missions like Jonah’s.

Daniel offers a telling example. Addressing Nebuchadnezzar, he goes beyond interpreting a dream and urges him: “Redeem your sins through almsgiving and your iniquities through compassion for the poor” (Dan. 4:24). Repentance is linked here to practical compassion for those in need. A foreign king is called to change his life, although no particular mission by the prophet to the king’s entire people is described.

Elijah receives an explicit command to…