Jonah Chapter 3

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...

Rabbi Yitzchak Abarbanel wrote on that which our sages of blessed memory said(which is that God spoke to Yonah for a second time but not a third time) that it is proven from that which is written in the Seder Olam, [which says] that Yonah anointed Yeihu in the year 3062 from the creation of the world, and he lived until Zechariah, who ruled as king in 3164, and thus from the day he began to prophesy he lived 102 years, and we don't find any other prophesy for him during this time except for these two prophesies that he prophesied about Ninvei. Based on this we know that that prophecy ceased to come from him from then [onwards], and this was fitting to be done, after he had flounted the prophecy and did not wish to fulfill the word of God. This [comment by the Abarbanel] is astounding, because he is contradicting himself, that which he said after this close by, [which is] that the prophecy of Yonah about Ninvei was six years before the destruction of Samaria, which was in the days of Hoshua ben Aylah, and afterwards he he prophesied for ten more years in the days of Menachem ben Gadi, two [more] years in the days of Pekachyah his son, twenty [more] years in the days of Pekach, and the three years of [his prophecy in the days of] Hoshua [ben Aylah], thus his prophecy lasted for 137 years?! Furthermore, wasn't the prophecy on Ninvei [received] at the end of his life, and how can we bring a proof from the fact that God did not speak to him before this event to say that he was going to take his prophethood from him? At that point[before God gave him the prophecy of Ninvei) he had not yet refused to do his duty [as a prophet, thus it would be unjust for God to take it away with no warning]!? Another astounding thing is that in the book of Nachum it is written that the destruction of Shomrom was forty years from the time that Yonah prophesied and another eighty years can be added to this until the destruction of Ninvei, but weren't there 114 years between the destruction of Shomron and the destruction of Ninvei, which was in the fourth year of [the reign] of king Yehoyakim? This also contradicts that which he[the Abarbanel] wrote- that Yonah's prophecy was six years before the Destruction of Shomron.

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. The verse says: "And Nineveh was an immensely great city to [like unto] God"- it relates the city to God because of its size, like it says in other verses "The mountains of God," "a flame of God." Or it is saying that it was important in the eyes of God being that it was a large city, to the point that God therefore had pity on it from destroying it.

Question — Why did Yonah delay in calling out the prophecy until he had gone a day's journey into the city?

"Jonah started out and made his way into the city the distance of one day’s walk, and proclaimed..." He did this because he was unsure of when the forty days count should start, since it was in was a three day journey [across the whole city], and if he were to call out immediately [upon entering the city], the residents in that end of the city would start counting the forty days starting on the first day [of the three day journey], whereas the residents of the other end of the city would start counting on the third day [of the journey]; therefore, he delayed until he had gone a full day's journey [into the city] and called out on the second day, thinking [to himself] that that day should start the count being that it is was the median day [of the three day journey], "and [then he] proclaimed: 'Forty days more...'" [adding on] 'aside from this day,' which would total forty days plus the final day. In this way, his prophecy [with regard to the forty days] would be fulfilled according to any method [of calculation].

Rabbi Yitzchak Abarbanel performed many calculations here of how Yonah's prophecy might not be fulfilled [according to every possible interpretation, and how Yonah evaded these issues]- he explains: That which the verse says "and Nineveh will be overturned" was fulfilled according to every [possible] method [of interpretation], because the intention of this [phrase] was either that Nineveh's actions and attributes would be overturned from bad to good, or that it would literally be "overturned." He writes further that [through Yonah's prophecy a different] matter [of prophecy involving a calculation] was fulfilled- that which explains forty days as forty years, plus the calculation of the word "עוד" [in Gematria], which equals eighty. He is saying here that [if one adds a number of years equal to] "עוד" and forty [years from the forty days, it] totals 120 years, [and this fulfills a prophecy,] for 120 years after this Nineveh was destroyed by Nebuchadnetzar.

[With regards to this,] I have already written that there is a contradiction in his calculation in these calculations of his, and in truth there is no need for all of this [explanation], because the destinies of [the will of] God [in prophecies] are [to be understood] as conditions, [ thus, the prophecy of Yonah is saying] "If they do not return from their evil ways, Nineveh will be overturned," like it says [in Yirmiyah] "At one moment I may decree that a nation...shall be uprooted and pulled down...but if that nation turns back..."

That which he [the Abarbanel] asks, that [if this were true] then Yonah should have explained that it would be overturned [only] if the did not repent, is not a question, for they already knew this [information] from the fact that God sent them a prophet to warn them, for if the decree was absolute with no ability to change, He would not have needed to inform[them] of this through a prophet, because a prophet is only sent to bring people back [to God] with repentance and [in this way] nullify the decree.

In reality, it would have been appropriate for Yonah himself to do this[i.e. tell them there was a possibility of salvation through repentance], but he [purposely] did not fulfill all the words [of the prophecy] and he only proclaimed the decree that came to him in the second command [given to him by God, but not the counter to it], because it was Yonah's desire that they err and not repent.

If we should want to say in accordance to the words of the Abarbanel [that the prophecy had multiple outcomes which all occurred and] that the decree [for the destruction of Nineveh] was fulfilled after [some amount of] years, one could say that [it was fulfilled since] Yonah was sent in the days of Menachem the son of Gadi, and [thus] the decree was somewhat upheld upon the [destruction of] the Kingdom of Assyria in the fifteenth year of [the reign of] Chizkiyah, which was forty years after Yonah was sent, [in] that an angel of God went out and overturned the camp of the Assyrians, [the connection to Yonah's prophecy being] that Nineveh was the capital of the kingdom, and the people of the king struck it with the sword, and [in this way] the destiny [of the destruction] was somewhat upheld.

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.

"And it [the news of Yonah's prophecy] reached [the king]," but at the time the news reached the king, then he also stirred himself - if he were to submit himself [to God in repentance], with what [would he do so]? [With] that which "he rose from his throne, took off his robe," and in place of the robe "he put on sackcloth," and in place of his throne "he sat in ashes."

"And he cried," and aside from this he commanded to announce- "by decree of the king and his nobles" and advisers the announcement went out saying: 1) "human or animal"(that is, the animals found in the houses of the humans [i.e. domesticated animals]) "shall not taste anything," [and] 2) "And cattle and sheep" grazing in the fields "shall not graze," and [regarding] all of them "they shall not drink water!"

"They shall be covered"- Additionally, the animals were also included in the [decree of] covering with sackcloth [since they had not been until now]. And he added on [to the decree] 1) prayer, that "they shall cry mightily to God" [and] 2) repentance, that "everyone should turn back from their own evil ways and from the thievery" because [in repentance] for thievery confession and regret do not benefit [the sinner in repenting] until he returns the [object of] thievery found in his hands to its owner.

[He] who knows should return — [This phrase means] that everyone should repent from the iniquity he knows [of], within the matter [of the command] that he [the king] obligated them to repent for the hidden things [they had done] as well, and just as they were causing themselves to be regretful [for what they had done], so too "God may relent" from [exacting] the decree, and in [saying] this he promised them that God would turn back from his burning anger, because from the fact that God sent a prophet, the king understood that they had a remedy [for their problem] in their repentance.

God saw what they did — that is, at first when the people of Nineveh repented, they only regretted what they had done, but did not repent with acts that would rectify their past sins through [positive] action. But after the king's order, God saw through all of their acts that they had repented. They repented through [positive] actions by actually returning stolen items and those obtained unfairly, therefore [the verse says] "And God renounced the punishment," and [this is] despite [the fact] that they only repented for the sin of theft, [and] not for idol worship, [even] with [taking] all this [into account], since their decreed punishment had been sealed because of theft and they rectified this,"he did not carry out the evil"- that is, if the evil was prepared to come upon them in [the course of] nature, according to the system [of the universe], then it would come to them then as well, after that [which] they worshiped idols in Eden and were under [the control of the natural] system- God would not strip the nature [of the world with regards to reward and punishment] for idol worshipers! But since the evil was not destined to come them from the side of the nature [of the world], only God set in place for the future to do the evil through the punishment (?), and when they repented for the sin of theft he did not carry out [the evil], and left them to behave according to the nature the system.