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Abarbanel on Jonah
Abarbanel on Jonah — CC0 English partial community translation
Unverified edition · Chapter 1
Reading language: eng · Original language (catalog): English
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:1:1
The first prophecy goes until...."And the Word of Gd came to Yonah a second time." And it has two sections. The first is "The Word of Gd came to Yonah..." and the second is "And Gd said to the fish". And I have 6 questions about this.
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:1:2
The first questions is about Gd's command to Yonah to "get up and go to Ninveh the big city and call forth about it because its wickedness has come up before me." Why is Gd concerned about Ninveh's great sons that He sends His servants the prophets to rebuke it and straighten it. Isn't it clear from the beginning that this is the extra care that Gd takes for His nation and His portion Israel, specifically that they have this extra level of Divine Providence like it says (Deut 32:12) "Hashem alone guides him". Gd's portion is His nation, Jacob is His nachala. The other nations are under the general leadership that Hashem has given to them but among Israel are prophets that are the tools of Gd and His messengers to rebuke them and straighten their paths and Gd doesn't do this to every nation. Why did Gd therefore send Yonah to Ninveh, the city of the Chaldeans, and not to Egypt or Babylon or any other of the large nations with many wicked sinners among them.
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:1:3
The second question: Why did Yonah seek to flee from beore Gd like it says in the midrash, "Did he think he could from from before Hashem when it says (Psalms 139:7) 'where will I go away from Your spirit and how can I flee' and (Zecharia 4:10) 'the Eyes of Gd range across the whole land." Chazal already gave two answers for Yonah's behavior. The first is that the nations were preapred to repent and he didn't want to implicate Israel. But this is weak reasoning because perhaps Ninveh's teshuva would inspire Israel to repent and Gd would have mercy on their doings even more so since He had mercy on the nations. The second reason is that Yonah suspected that the Ninveh residents would repent and Gd would relent from His decree of destruction and they would say he was a false prophet. And this doesn't make sense to me either, since the people of Ninveh clearly believed Yonah and therefore repented based on his words and it is known that if his words inspired their repentance, that they believed his prophecy and if they didn't believe it they would not have repented. Had they not believed him, they would not have repented and then his prophecy of destruction would have come true, so there is no situation where they would consider him a false prophet. And also why does it matter to Yonah if the people of Ninveh would consider him a false prophet since he didn't live among them and after giving his prophecy could have returned to his land. Why would fear of their opinion of him cause him to flee from before Gd especially since he knows that a prophet that withholds his prophecy is liable to death.
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:1:4
The third question is regarding the words of the sailors on the ship that decided to pull lots to know who was responsible for the storm. Storms are natural occurances for ships so why did they think the lots would give them a true judgement about this and maybe the lots would actually give an incorrect response, implicating an innocent person like it says in the midrash on sefer yehoshua when Achan asked Yehoshua "why are you pulling lots between me and my family. If I pulled a lot between you and between Pinchas, would it not fall on one of you. What about in this case, if there was no man responsible for the storm.
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:1:5
The fourth question: What the sailors said to Yonah, "tell us who this trouble has come upon us and what is your work." when they already knew that the lots had fallen on Yonah and that the storm was because of him. So why did they ask who the trouble came because of. And why abut his work, where he came frm and where is he going. They were in the middle of storm so why did they need to know his work...And Yonah's response did not answer the questions. Instead he said "I am an Ivri and I fear Gd of the heavens." And the sailors responded with "what did you do" after he already told that he had fled from Gd. The whole dialogue needs to be explained.
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:1:6
The fifth question: Yonah said "pick me up and throw me into the sea."Since, Yonah knew it was futile to flee from Hashem, why did he not do teshuva and pray and confess and promise to complte his assigned mission since we know that nothing stands in the way of teshuva. And he was already roused against his will to repent by the sailors who said "why are you sleeping. Get up! Pray to your Gd". How did he prefer to risk his life and be thrown to the sea and stand firm in his rebellion even though he was a wise prophet of Gd.
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:1:7
The sixth question: Why did Hashem command the fish to spit out Yonah on the dry land. If Yonah continued to refused to repent and to listen to Gd's command why did Hashem forgive His anger when Yonah clung to his sin. He did pray inside the fish, but how did the prayer help him when he was still clinging to his sin. Woudn't this be comparable to going in a mikveh holding an abominable animal and when he withheld from sharing his prophecy he was still deserving of death inside the fish and not to be saved from there. Even his prayer demonstrated stubborness when he said "I will fulfill my vows" but we don't know of any vows he made. I will now explain these pesukim according to these questions.
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:1:8
The overarching theme of the prophecy is to tell us that Gd's Will will prevail forever and the words of Gd will be fulfilled forever. And therefore we can trust the prophets words about the future because Gd isn't a man who lies. And Gd already commanded as an action to Yonah to prophecy not about his nation but about Ninveh the capital city of the Kingdom of Assyria. And Yonah did not want to go because he knew Assyria would in the future do wickedness to Israel and he was disgusted by helping Assyria and Ninveh and therefore he ran away. And Gd who is the Master of man's actions made a powerful storm in the sea until the sailors were forced to throw the sinner, Yonah, into the water and even there he did not find rest because the fishi n the sea swallowed him and guarded him like the pupil of his eye until Yonah was forced to pray to Gd and He took him out and he went on his mission. Because nothing is impoosible for Gd and man is like clay in His hands and He can do whatever He Wills.
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:1:9
"The word of Gd came to Jonah ben Amittai..." until "the sailors feared". Our sages say that Yonah was from the tribe of Asher and he was the son of the widow who had sustained Eliyahu and he was the dead who Eliyahu had brought back to life. But Rabbi Yochana said he was from the tribe of Zevulun because when he is introduced in II Kings 14:25 weare told he is from Gat Chefer (in Zeveulun's portion). Rabbi Levi says that his mother was from Asher and his father was from Zevulun (who was blessed to dwell by the sea until Tzidon" and he went down to Yaffo and found a ship going to Tarshish, and Elisha trusted him as prohet to deliver the messenger abut annointng Yehu ben Nimshi as King and because he was trustworthy, he was called "Amitai" And from this were learn taht this wasi n the Kingdom of Efraim before Sancherib destroyed the Shomrom but after the Assyrians defeated the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and half of Menashe that were on the other side of the Jordan and after they exiled Zebulun and Naftali and there is no doubt that all the other prophets who remained were scared of the King of Assyria that he would come and destroy the Shomron like he did to the previously exiled tribes. And this fear was in the hearts of the wise of Israel and therefore affected Yonah's actions as will be explained in this book and what Gd commanded Yonah to (Yonah 1:2) go to Ninveh the big city which was the capital with the king's throne. And the Ibin Ezra explains that the big city for Gd because the Ninveh people feared Gd from early days but only now in the days of Yonah had begun to sin and do eveil in the eyes of Gd and only because they had previously been righteous did Gd command his prophet to rebuke them. But I disagree wit hthis and I explain " a great city for Gd" in a different way.
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:1:10
And it isn't fitting to explain "call upon it because there wickedness has come before" that hte point was to inform the city of the wickedness rather the point was to tell that Gd had decreed that they would be overturned rather it is translated like (Isiah 58:1) to call out loud and not be silent. To rebuke them and frighten them and this is because their wickedness has come up before Gd. And this wasn't in order to have Providence on them with Divine Providence like Israel and to straighten their deeds and to save them from plauge but rather because they were decreed by Gd to destroy the tribes of Israel and Shomron and it's suburbs fro mtheir sins through Assryia. Therefore Gd wanted to saved Assyria from the wickedness that would come upon them because of the violence in their hands in order to save Assyria from destruction so they could be the weapon of Gds wrath as they are refered to as "Assyria the rod of My anger." and therefoere Gd wanted to straighted their ways of the capitol city Ninveh, the head of the Kingdom of Assyria and this is why Yonah was sent to Ninveh to call upon it and not because Gd loved them and desired them, rather to save them from the evil so they would in the future be prepared for their mission against Israel. Which answers the first question.
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:4:1
And since Jonah was going against His Will, Gd made a great wind on the sea and there was a mighty storm and about this the psukim explain the reason for the storms. According to the philosophers when there wind blows on the water, the wind tries to get out from under the water according to it's lightweight nature. And the waters heavy nature holds onto the wind and that creates a storm. So therefore the informatoin that "Gd made a wind on the sea" gives the reason for the storm and tells us that the wind did n't hit the sea because of a natural reason because it wasn't the time for the wind naturally, rather Gd with Divine Providence made the wind appear there to cause a storm. And when it says "the ship was thought to be broken" from the storm because it appeared to them that it was breaking. Typically a boat doesn't break in a storm, rather it sinks in it's place. Therefore I am explaining "thought to be broken" as they were scared it would drown because of the mighty waves and the sailors would nt escape, so the sailors tried to bring the boat ashore so it would break on the shore and the men could escape because they wuld be clse t land. So this pasuk "thught to be broken" describes the mindset of the sailors who's goal was to break the boat. But because of the strong wind, the efforts of the sailors to run the boat ashore did not work, because the wind came from the land and pushed the boat into the water.
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:9:1
And because all these questions were trying to determing who had sinned and what the sin was, Yonah was able to succinctly answer all with "I am an Ivri and I fear Hashem, Gd of the heavens". Meaning, you asked my sin and whether it was related to the land or my nation or whether I sinned in a way that would make me deserving of death, now see that I am an Ivri. The word Ivri both being from the land of the Ivrim but also that he was "ovvar" disobeying the command of Gd as it is used in (Bamidbar 14:41). This explained nature of his sin and also against whom he had sinned (Hashem, Gd of the heavens) and you dont need to inquire about my land and people because I didn't sin before you but only before Gd whom I fear and the matter isn't in the realm of the heavens but in the Gd of heaven and earth who created the sea and the storm and the dry land that we cannot reach.
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Abarbanel on Jonah 1:9:2
A different explanation is the sailors asked "who caused this wickedness for us" meaning if it was a decree from heaven on his birthland that he would need to drown in the water or was it Divine Providence. So they asked questions to get more information. And it wasn't four separate questions like it seems in the pshat, but instead the questions were as follows: What is your work? What is the work that because of it may have cuased you to be punished this way. And they didn't say how did he sin in his work because maybe his punishment would have come on account of others from his land and the wickedness of his nation. And what nation are you from that would make you culpable...? and SImilarly all the questions were on this track or trying to figure out why he was culpable. So Yonah answered about the work that he was an Iviro... menaing the matter doesn't have to do with my land or my nation but I am an Ivri and you know the land of the Ivrim is a good place and the people who are there travel the sea without issue. But I fear Hashem, Gd of the heaven who looks down from His place and puts His Providence on the land. And I fear Him because not only did I sin but He created the land and the sea and everything is in His Hands like clay in the potters hands. And this is why Yonah's answer to the sailors questions made sense.
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