{"id":77929,"date":"2020-07-23T13:31:23","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T10:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=77929"},"modified":"2020-07-23T13:31:23","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T10:31:23","slug":"the-repentance-of-nineveh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-repentance-of-nineveh\/","title":{"rendered":"The Repentance Of Nineveh"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Our chapter continues the story of Jonah with God telling the prophet: \u201cGo at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it what I tell you\u201d (Jonah 3:2). This time, Jonah obeys: \u201cJonah went at once to Nineveh in accordance with the Lord\u2019s command\u201d (verse 3).<\/span><\/p>\n

One day\u2019s walk into the enormous city (three days were required to traverse it entirely according to 3:3), Jonah, a true prophet of doom, cries out: \u201cForty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!\u201d (verse 4). As Jonah had feared (see 4:2), the people of Nineveh and their king immediately believe in Jonah\u2019s divine prophecy, proclaim a fast, \u201cand great and small alike put on sackcloth\u201d (verse 5).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Midrash (Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer 43) retells our chapter adding considerable detail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The biblically unnamed king of Nineveh is surprisingly identified by this Midrash as Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who previously had said: \u201c\u201cWho is the Lord that I should heed Him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go\u201d (Exodus 5:2). The Midrash goes on to describe the specific sins of the people of Nineveh. They are said to have written fraudulent deeds. Everyone in Nineveh robbed his neighbor. They committed sodomy, like the earlier people of Sodom and Gomorrah (see Genesis 19), and performed other wicked acts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as Jonah began to prophesy the destruction of Nineveh, Pharaoh, now the king of Nineveh, hearkened and arose from his throne, rent his garments and clothed himself in sackcloth and ashes. He made a proclamation that all his people should fast for two days, and that all who continued to do wicked deeds should be burnt by fire. What did the people of Nineveh do? They separated themselves into three groups — the men were on one side, and the women were on the other, and all their children were set off by themselves. Indeed, even all the clean animals were separated from their offspring, who were by themselves. When the infants saw the breasts of their mothers and wanted to nurse, they cried aloud. Similarly, when the mothers saw their children and wanted to nurse them, they too cried aloud. Because of the merit of these innocent children, more than 120,000 sinful adults were saved from death, as it says: “And should not I care about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons\u201d (Jonah 4:11).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally: “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\u201d (3:10). However, after 40 years, corresponding to the 40 days mentioned in Jonah\u2019s oracle of doom (3:4), the people of Nineveh returned to their evil ways, even more than before, and they were destroyed as Jonah had prophesied.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: John Martin: Repentance of Nineveh, c. 1840, Yale U. 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