Christine Hayes closes her Yale course Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) by examining how the books of Esther and Jonah treat foreign nations. She contrasts Esther, where human initiative rather than divine intervention defeats Israel's enemies, with the earlier book of Daniel's reliance on God to punish the wicked. She then turns to Jonah, where the Assyrians of Nineveh repent and are spared, presenting a God concerned with the welfare of all creation, not just Israel. The lecture runs about twenty-nine minutes, divided into a section on Esther, one on Jonah, and closing remarks in which Hayes reflects on the range of theological positions found across the Hebrew Bible, from strict retribution to universal compassion, as a way of summing up the course's central themes.