Comentários de Citação sobre I Reis 19:18

Abarbanel, though, sees Yonah settling outside the city as an expression of Yonah’s complete distaste for the people of Nineveh. He wanted to distance himself from them. It was intolerable for Yonah to remain inside the city⁹⁴One could argue, though, that Yonah never declares that he hates the people of Nineveh. His only distaste is with Hashem's exceptionally lenient judgment of them. If their evil is the cause for distaste, then he would seemingly hate Bnei Yisrael of the Northern Kingdom as well because they were just as bad at this point (see Melachim I 19:18). Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that Yonah’s desire to distance himself from Nineveh does not stem from hatred..

Yonah, as stated in Melachim II 14:25, is from the town of Gat Chefeir, which is located in the portion of the tribe of Zevulun (whose borders are delineated in Yehoshua 19:14). This means that Yonah lived in the Northern Kingdom (during the reign of the less than excellent Yoravam ben Yoash), which was steeped in Avodah Zarah (idolatry). Indeed, Hashem reports (Melachim I 19:18) that only seven thousand of the residents of the Northern kingdom refrained from idolatry. For Yonah to emerge as a prophet in such an environment, a deep and even fanatic devotion to truth was necessary.

Seven thousand. I say that they are the ones about whom it is stated, “All those whose knees did not bend to the Baal,” were seven thousand.¹²Above 19:18.

to strike the generous who possess uprightness To strike the good people among them, who were generous and possessing uprightness, as it is said (I Kings 19:18): “And I will leave over in Israel seven thousand—all the knees that did not kneel to the Baal.”