Megillot III ix Jonah 3 Jonah Prophesies to Nineveh

From the Haftarah that is very rarely read in Ashkenazi synagogues for Shabbat Parashat Kedoshim.

This Haftarah includes one of Ezekiel's prophecies against the people of Judah, between 597 and 586 BCE--

(1) The word of GOD came to me: (2) Further, O mortal, arraign, arraign the city of bloodshed [=Jerusalem!]; declare to her all her abhorrent deeds!

The conclusion of the Haftarah that is almost always read on Shabbat Kedoshim

(14) I will restore My people Israel. / They shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them; / They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine; /They shall till gardens and eat their fruits.

(15) And I will plant them upon their soil, / Nevermore to be uprooted / From the soil I have given them / —said the ETERNAL your God.

God

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it what I tell you.”

Jonah

Jonah went at once to Nineveh in accordance with the LORD’s command.
Nineveh was an enormously large city [or: a great city of/for God], a three days’ walk across. Jonah started out and made his way into the city the distance of one day’s walk, and proclaimed:

“Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

The people

The people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast, and great and small alike put on sackcloth.

The king

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he had the word cried through Nineveh: “By decree of the king and his nobles: No man or beast—of flock or herd—shall taste anything! They shall not graze, and they shall not drink water! They shall be covered with sackcloth—man and beast—and shall cry mightily to God. Let everyone turn back from his evil ways and from the injustice of which he is guilty. Who knows but that God may turn and relent? He may turn back from His wrath, so that we do not perish.”

God

God saw what they did, how they were turning back from their evil ways. And God renounced the punishment He had planned to bring upon them, and did not carry it out.

(1) The word of GOD came to Jonah son of Amittai:

(2) Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim judgment upon it; for their wickedness has come before Me.

(3) Jonah, however, started out to flee to Tarshish from GOD’s service. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went aboard to sail with the others to Tarshish, away from GOD’s service.

(1) The word of GOD came to Jonah a second time:

(2) “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it what I tell you.”

(3) Jonah went at once to Nineveh in accordance with GOD’s command. Nineveh was an enormously large city, a three days’ walk across.

(4) Jonah started out and made his way into the city the distance of one day’s walk, and proclaimed:

“Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown/נהפכת/ne'hpakhet!”

(4) Then [God] said to me, “Mortal, go to the House of Israel and repeat My very words to them. (5) For you are sent, not to a people of unintelligible speech and difficult language, but to the House of Israel— (6) not to the many peoples of unintelligible speech and difficult language, whose talk you cannot understand. If I sent you to them, they would listen to you. (7) But the House of Israel will refuse to listen to you, for they refuse to listen to Me; for the whole House of Israel are brazen of forehead and stubborn of heart.

[DR transl.]: in the case of Jonah, they [the heavenly court] revoked [a decree of destruction] and did not inform him [of the fact]!

At the outset, they [the heavenly court] told him to say “Nineveh will be overturned” (Jonah 3:4).

[Sefaria transl.] Still, he did not know if the sentence would be for the good, as their corruption would be overturned through repentance, or if it would be for the bad, as the city would be overturned through destruction.

Therefore, the prophecy was never revoked, but simply fulfilled in accordance with one of its possible interpretations.

(5) The people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast, and great and small alike put on sackcloth.

(15) Blow a horn in Zion, /Solemnize a fast, / Proclaim an assembly!

(16) Gather the people, / Bid the congregation purify themselves. Bring together the old, / Gather the babes / And the sucklings at the breast; / Let the bridegroom come out of his chamber, /The bride from her canopied couch.

(17) Between the portico and the altar, / Let the priests, GOD’s ministers, weep / And say: / “Oh, spare Your people, ETERNAL One ! / Let not Your possession become a mockery, / To be taunted by nations! / Let not the peoples say, / ‘Where is their God?’”

This passage is part of the Haftarah for the morning of Yom Kippur

(5) Is such the fast I desire, / A day for people to starve their bodies? / Is it bowing the head like a bulrush / And lying in sackcloth and ashes? / Do you call that a fast, / A day when GOD is favorable?

(6) No, this is the fast I desire: / To unlock fetters of wickedness, / And untie the cords of the yoke / To let the oppressed go free; / To break off every yoke.

(7) It is to share your bread with the hungry, / And to take the wretched poor into your home; / When you see the naked, to clothe them, / And not to ignore your own kin.

(1) "And they believed"- because the sailors were in the city and they testified about Yonah 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.

(6) When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. (7) And he had the word cried through Nineveh: “By decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal—of flock or herd—shall taste anything! They shall not graze, and they shall not drink water! (8) They shall be covered with sackcloth—human and animal—and shall cry mightily to God. Let everyone turn back from their own evil ways and from the injustice of which they are guilty. (9) Who knows but that God may turn and relent? [God] may turn back from wrathfulness, so that we do not perish.”

About downfall for the city of Tyre

(16) All the rulers of the sea shall descend from their thrones; they shall remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They shall clothe themselves with trembling, and shall sit on the ground; they shall tremble every moment, and they shall be aghast at you.

(3) Perhaps they will listen and turn back, each from their own evil way, that I may renounce the punishment I am planning to bring upon them for their wicked acts.

Similarly: Jer. 36:7

(14) Then all the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah son of Shelemiah son of Cushi to say to Baruch, “Take that scroll from which you read to the people, and come along!” And Baruch took the scroll and came to them. (15) They said, “Sit down and read it to us.” And Baruch read it to them. (16) When they heard all these words, they turned to each other in fear; and they said to Baruch, “We must report all this to the king.” (17) And they questioned Baruch further, “Tell us how you wrote down all these words that he spoke.” (18) He answered them, “He himself recited all those words to me, and I would write them down in the scroll in ink.” (19) The officials said to Baruch, “Go into hiding, you and Jeremiah. Don’t let a soul know where you are!” (20) And they went to the king in the court, after leaving the scroll in the chamber of the scribe Elishama. And they reported all these matters to the king.

(21) The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll and he fetched it from the chamber of the scribe Elishama. Jehudi read it to the king and to all the officials who were in attendance on the king. (22) Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in the winter house, with a fire burning in the brazier before him. (23) And every time Jehudi read three or four columns, [the king] would cut it up with a scribe’s knife and throw it into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed by the fire in the brazier. (24) Yet the king and all his courtiers who heard all these words showed no fear and did not tear their garments; (25) moreover, Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, but he would not listen to them. (26) The king ordered Jerahmeel, the king’s son, and Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. But GOD hid them.

(1) What is the customary order of fast days? Normally the sacred ark in the synagogue, which was mobile, was kept in a locked room. However, on fast days they remove the ark to the main city square and place burnt ashes upon the ark, as a sign of mourning. ...

The eldest member of the community says to the congregation statements of reproof, for example: Our brothers, it is not stated with regard to the people of Nineveh: And God saw their sackcloth and their fasting. Rather, the verse says: “And God saw their deeds, that they had turned from their evil way” (Jonah 3:10).

And in the Prophets it says: “And rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the Lord your God” (Joel 2:13). This teaches that prayer and fasting are insufficient, as one must also repent and amend his ways in practice.

...Rabbi Phineas said, [Good and upright/straightforward is the LORD; therefore He shows sinners the way.] Ps. 25:8.. Why is He good? Because He is straightforward. And why is He straightforward? Because He is good. Therefore, He teaches the way to the sinners. He instructs in the way of repentance.

There exist various versions of the following homily. In G, the text reads:

They asked the Torah, what is the punishment of the sinner? She told them, he shall bring a sacrifice and it will be atoned for him.

They asked Prophecy, what is the punishment of the sinner? She told them, the sinning soul is the one which will die.

They asked David, what is the punishment of the sinner? He told them, may sins vanish from the earth etc.

They asked Wisdom, what is the punishment of the sinner? She told them, evil will pursue sinners.

They asked the Holy One, praise to Him, what is the punishment of the sinner? He said to them, let him repent and I will accept.. That is what is written, good and straightforward is the Eternal. ...

(19) God is not human to be capricious, / Or mortal to have a change of heart. / Would [God] speak and not act, / Promise and not fulfill?

Similarly: I Samuel 15:29

(7) At one moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be uprooted and pulled down and destroyed; (8) but if that nation against which I made the decree turns back from its wickedness, I change My mind concerning the punishment I planned to bring on it.

(9) At another moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be built and planted; (10) but if it does what is displeasing to Me and does not obey Me, then I change My mind concerning the good I planned to bestow upon it.