Kommentar zu Jonah 3:14

The second prophecy begins with "And the Word of Gd came to Yonah a second time" until the end of the book and it has two sections The first begins her and the second with Gd asking Yonah "are you that deeply grieved". And I have six questions.

The first one. Yonah called out that in 40 days Ninveh would be overturned. But this never happened and we know that every word of prophecy is true. And if you say that it was a conditional prophecy that if they didn't repent like the conditional prophecy in Jeremiah 18:7-9 but the people of Ninveh were not Bnei Yisrael so they didn't know how to interpret a conditional prophecy so Yonah should've made the condition clear in his warning to them so that the Word of Gd would be vindicated and the words of the prophet would be made true and would teach people to repent.

The second question is about "It was bad for Yonah and distressed him" why was he so distressed. Didn't Yonah already know that they would do teshuva and that was why he ran away to Tarshish to begin with. And he already repented when he left the fish and he was prepared to help Ninveh repent so what changed here that made him so upset.

The third question when Yonah asked Hashem "take my soul because death is better than my life." Is there a crazy person in the world that would say something like this?! THat because Hashem forgave the Assyrians and the people of Ninveh that death was preferable to life?! And why wasn't Yonah embaressed to daven this after he just prayed for Hashem to save his life from inside the finish and he vowed to go to NInveh and now he is praying to die. Avraham Aviny prayed for the people of Sodom and Amorah for them not to die. And it doesn't seem like Hashem repsonded to this at all. And this is strange.

The fourth question is about Hashem's rebuke to Yonah that he cared about the kikayon tree that he didn't work for. This seems not to make sense for many reasons. The first is that Yonah had a reason to care about the kikayon more than Ninveh since the kikayon tree saved his life and Ninveh never helped him at all. And also Hashem replied that kikayon tree was only a day old and he didn't work for it, and the meaning of the metaphor was that Ninveh was the work of Gd but the kikayon was only a day old and it doesn't seem to apply to Ninveh whcih wasn't created a night ago and wasn't lost.

The fifth question is Hashem saying to Yonah, "should I not have mercy on Ninveh, the large city that has many people that doesn't know their right from left and many animals." And didn't Hashem take back the decree from them only because of the Atrribute of Judgement because of their teshuva. And not because of the young chilrne who don't know their right from left and not because of the animals were they saved but because of the people's repentance.

The sixth question is how would the children and animals be able to make up for the wickedness of the people. In the generation of the flood the many youngsters and animals didn't help, neither with Sodom and Amorah. And amongst Israel and Jerusalem, did Hashem overlook the people's wickedness because of the youth that had never sinned or because of the animals. So why with regards to Ninveh are they mentioned. Now I will explain the pesukim according to these questions.

The overarching meaning of the the proephcy is to let us know that Yonah fulfilled the word of Gd and called out about Ninveh that Hashem decreed in 40 days it would be overturned. And the people of Ninveh took his words to heart and believed in Gd and repented and Hashem took back the decree. And because Yonah was upset that his words weren't fulfilled, Hashem made the kikayon tree as a parable that if he cared so much about the tree wouldn't Hashem care much more about Ninveh as will become clear from the pesukim.

The Word of Gd came to Ninveh a second time...Blessed is Gd who chose the wisdom of our sages and the depth of their knowledge that they said nothing that was empty. And they say in the midrahs that because Yonah was more concerned about the honor of the "children" than the honor of the "Father", his punishment was that he only received this second prophecy and never got prophecy afterwards. And this can be explained only derech drash because we know that Yonah was the one who annointed Yehu ben Nimshi in the year 3072 and Yonah lived until King Zecharia who ruled in year 3174. Meaning that after he had his first prophecy, Yonah lived 102 years and since we don't see him recieving any other prophecy during this time, we can assumed that after the two prophecies about Ninveh he had no more prophecies about this. And this was fitting since he had fled from the prophecy and tried to avoid it so the punishment was according to the deed that the prophecy fled from him. And with regards to this prophecy, Hashem commanded Yonah to go to Ninveh after he got on dry land and tell them about Hashem's decree and that Hashem was concerned about it because it was a large city. And it is not like the Ibin Ezra said that hte people there were worthy but rather they were Assyrians who did wickedness to Gd and Gd only had mercy on them because they were a large people and this is clear from the fact that city was 3 days large and according to the simple explanation the Ibin Ezra said that the three day journey was to go all around the city and the direct route through it would only take 1 day. And I don't agree with them because it says in the pesukim that Yonah went one day's journey into the city and this seems like he was only partwa through at this point so we have to say it was actually 3 days journey through it all.

what I tell you: and that is what Jonah later said, that in forty days Nineveh would be overturned. It wasn't necessary to spell that out here, because it is obvious.

Why did God change this time to say, "and proclaim to it what I tell you", unlike what God said the first time?

Go at once: this time, the Ninevites' decree had already been sealed. As a result, God no longer said merely that "their evil has come before Me". God sent him on the path of prophecy to tell the Ninevites what had been decreed for them, that Nineveh would be overturned in forty days.

Jonah went at once to Nineveh in accordance with the LORD's command: the first time, God commanded him to proclaim words of rebuke so that they would repent from their sins. This time, God commanded that he prophesy to them the decree decreed for them. He [Jonah] was unsure whether he should also fulfill the first command and add the rebuke to their fate of being overturned. He figured that he should only tell them of the decree, because he thought it would do them no good to repent anymore, and that the first command was no longer in effect...

went: Rabbi Yeshuah said that the sailors went to Nineveh and spoke about [or, spoke the message of!] Jonah. This is why they believed him...

overturned Destroyed. [He did not say, “Destroyed,” because “overturned” has two meanings, bad and good. If they do not repent, it will be destroyed; if they repent, then “overturned” refers to the people of Nineveh, that they will be changed from bad to good, and they will repent. Gloss of Rabbi Akiva(?)]

started out: when he started his way into the city one day's walk, he proclaimed, "There is still forty days' time", and after that Nineveh will be overturned. That is, like the overturning of Sodom and Gemorrah from existence into nothingness.

Jonah started out: The city was three days' journey from one end to the other. Jonah started by entering the city one day's journey. As he walked, he would call out, "Forty days more and Nineveh is overturned!" That is, like the overturning of Sodom and Gemorrah, because their acts were like theirs.

The people of Nineveh believed God: the novelty was that they believed right away and didn't ask for signs or wonders. They immediately began to pray, wearing sackcloth for fasting and submission. The people were not stirred to repentance, because it did not occur to them that they were sinning, because Jonah didn't say so.

believed: because the sailors were in the city and testified about Jonah that they had cast him into the sea, and the rest of his story as it happened. This is why they believed his prophecy and repented completely.

The people of Nineveh believed God: that is, that there was a purpose to His word and His decree. Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra wrote in the name of Rabbi Yeshuah that the sailors went to Nineveh and told them about Jonah. And so they believed him without him having to provide any signs or wonders. 

They proclaimed a fast: even before the king's warning, they repented on their own, they fasted, and they wore sackcloth.

his royal robe Heb. אַדַּרְתּוֹ, the cloak of his honor.

And he caused it to be proclaimed Heb. וַיַּזְעֵק, he commanded to proclaim

By the counsel of the king and his nobles—By the counsel of the king and his nobles, they commanded to announce.

and they shall call mightily to God—They bound the dams alone and the young alone. They said to Him, “Lord of the world! If You have no pity on us, we will not have pity on these.” [See Taanith 16a]

The king decreed that the people not just fast and wear sackcloth, but that they also cry mightily to God and turn back from the violence of their hands, which was the main point.

Whoever knows—the sins he has committed, shall repent.

Who knows but that God may turn: ... from the fact that God sent a prophet, the king understood that their repentance will work.

and God will relent—He will think about the evil to repent of it.

God saw what they did: that is, at first, they only regretted what they had done, but did not repent with acts that would rectify their past sins. But after the king's order, God saw through all of their acts that they had repented. They repented by actually returning stolen items and those obtained unfairly...