Jonah’s Lesson in Divine Mercy
Scholars have long
disagreed on the central message of the Book of Jonah; a strong contender is
that Jonah plays out the ancient drama of Divine Mercy vs. Strict Justice.
Many modern scholars
subscribe to the view that the Book of Jonah is intended to be a satirical
work, given its penchant for exaggerated language and absurd, humorous
situations. While not disagreeing that
the book uses humor and irony to make its points (the full article explores
this subtle distinction), Uriel Simon asserts a serious interpretation that
retains the book’s value as a complement to the liturgy of the Days of
Awe. This article is excerpted from The
JPS Biblical Commentary: Jonah and is reprinted with permission from the Jewish Publication Society.
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It is particularly difficult to identify the central theme
that unites all the elements of the story (in the Book of Jonah) into a
literary and conceptual whole. The broad variety of opinions on this subject‑-from
the talmudic sages through modem commentaries‑-can be subsumed under four
basic headings.
Each offers its own answer to the three interrelated
questions: Why was Jonah unwilling to prophesy against Nineveh? What did the
Lord teach His prophet by means of the tempest, the fish, and the gourd? What
are readers supposed to learn from the book?
Atonement Versus Repentance
The designation of Jonah as the haftarah (prophetic reading)
for the afternoon service of the Day of Atonement (Talmud Bavli Megillah 31a) reflects the view that
this book depicts the concept of repentance so starkly and completely that it
can stir hearers to repent of their ways and even modify their conduct.
The Ninivites'
repentance does indeed seem to be an exemplary combination of fasting, prayer,
and deeds (abandoning their evil ways), just as its acceptance by the merciful
God is tantamount to a guarantee and confirmation that authentic repentance has
the power to nullify the fatal decree.
Were repentance the thread that unites the book, we could
expect that all its episodes would relate to it, in some fashion or other. Yet
only chapter 3 deals with this theme. Unlike the people of Nineveh, the sailors
are not described as transgressors. Consequently their submission to the
will of the Lord and their great
reverence for Him do not constitute a turning back from sin.
Jonah does indeed sin, but his prayer from the belly of the
fish is quite devoid of contrition, while his silence at the end of the book
leaves the extent of his change outside the narrative.
The incident of the plant and the Lord's reply to Jonah (4:6‑11)
clearly relate to quite a different subject: Nineveh merits its Creator's
protection not because of its citizens' remorse, but because it is a great
metropolis, teeming with children who have never sinned, and many beasts as
well.
Universalism Versus Particularism
The second view is
that Jonah preferred loyalty to his people Israel over his duty to obey the
Lord of the universe, his master. For this approach, the key to the story is
that it is set exclusively among gentiles, who are presented in a positive
light. Against this background, the Hebrew prophet's refusal to go to Nineveh
is explained by his fear that the anticipated repentance of the gentile city
will cast a heavy shadow on the stiff‑necked Israelites.
In the modem scholarly version of this exegesis, the Book of
Jonah is described as a polemic against the narrow exclusivism prevalent among
the returnees to Zion that resulted from the travails of the destruction of the
First Temple, the exile, and Persian domination.
According to this position, the election of Israel requires the Jews to turn away from members
of other nations and even justifies disdain for them. Jonah is accordingly
taken as the representative of this antipathy toward gentiles, and his flight
is explained as a refusal to show them the way to repentance and salvation.
The forceful blocking of his flight, by contrast, is meant
to point us toward the true meaning of election: Israel was chosen to serve as
the carrier of faith in order to disseminate it among all nations. To
demonstrate that this awesome mission can be realized, the humble spirit and
open heart of the gentiles aboard the ship and in Nineveh are juxtaposed with
the arrogance of the prophet who rejects his mission.
This universalist view, too, cannot be anchored in the text
of Jonah, unless one can show that the prophet is characterized as the
embodiment of such Israelite exclusivism, whereas the sailors and people of
Nineveh are cast as faithful representatives of the pagan gentile world and its
openness to the call of faith. Jonah's anger at the pardon extended to Nineveh
might be taken as an indication that he is a xenophobe who longs for the
destruction of idolaters.
But this explanation is refuted by his conduct during the
storm: instead of trying to force his pursuer to drown all those aboard the
ship on account of his own transgression, he acts to prevent their being
dragged into his quarrel with his God. In view of the absence of any
manifestation of hatred for gentiles and idolatry (the book contains no
condemnation of the sin of idolatry), it is impossible to interpret his self‑stated
reasons for running away (4: 2) as a protest against the display of divine
mercy toward idolaters.
3) Prophecy: Realization Versus Compliance
The third reading, which focuses on Jonah's stubborn refusal
to prophesy against Nineveh and his anger at its deliverance, grounds the story
on Jonah's jealous concern for the veracity of prophecy and his apprehension
Iest his credibility be undermined.
According to this view‑-which was adopted by (many
earlier scholars including) Saadiah Gaon (Beliefs and Opinions 3,5), Rashi,
David Kimhi (who combined it with the second theme reviewed above), Abravanel,
and many modem scholars‑--the Book of Jonah seeks to teach us about the
educational purpose of prophecies of doom (see Ezekiel 3: 16‑21 and 33:1‑9)
through the medium of a story that criticizes a prophet who viewed announcing
future events as his role and full realization of the prophecy as his only
test.
Jonah runs away because he cannot resolve two
contradictions: between the categorization of prophecies that do not come to
pass as "false prophecies" (Deuteronomy 18:21-22) and the revocation
of the verdict against Nineveh, in response to its repentance; and between the
concept of God as unchanging and resolute (see Numbers 23:19) and His
attributes of compassion and forgiveness.
Nevertheless the Lord compelled him to prophesy against
Nineveh to teach him the paradoxical nature of true prophets, who
"foretell punishment to make it unnecessary" (St. Jerome in his
commentary on Ezekiel 33:1).
Such a definition of the prophet's role is undoubtedly an
appropriate and weighty theme for a prophetic narrative, but there is no real
sign in the Book of Jonah of the prophet's anguish that his prediction did not
come to pass, nor anything like this elsewhere in the Bible. This is why the
author of the midrash quoted above had to assume that Jonah had previously been
mocked by the people of Jerusalem.
4) Compassion: Justice Versus Mercy
The fourth view is that Jonah argues on behalf of strict
justice -- against the merciful God,
who repents of His sentence (upon the Ninevites). To the advocate of strict
justice it is clear that wickedness abounds not only because of the viciousness
of evildoers, but also because the Judge of all the earth does not treat them
with the full severity of the law.
He (Jonah) must learn that the world can exist only through
the unfathomable amalgam of justice and mercy, that fear of sin is produced not
only by fear of punishment, but also by awe at the sublimity of salvation
("The men feared the LORD greatly" [1: 16]; see Kings 17:24) and by
fascination with grace and absolution ("Yours is the power to forgive so
that You may be held in awe" [Psalm 130:41).
Jonah foresaw both the submission of the evildoers of
Nineveh, terrified by their impending destruction, and the acceptance of their
repentance by the merciful God; but he was totally wrong to believe that he
would be allowed to escape to Tarshish. Subsequent surprises undermine his
pretense to knowledge‑-the fish that saves him from death but imprisons
him in its belly until he gives up his flight and begins to pray; and the plant
that saves him from his distress but vanishes as suddenly as it appeared, so
that he can feel the pain of loss and open his heart to understand the
Creator's love for His creatures.
Jonah Must Realize His Own Need for Mercy
Only when the proponent of strict justice realizes his own
humanity can he understand the fundamental dependence of mortals on human and
divine mercy. The midrashic sages had Jonah express this recognition, in body
language and words, in the answer they report he gave to the Lord's rhetorical
question that concludes the book:
Then he fell on his face and said: "Conduct Your world
according to the attribute of mercy, as it is written: 'To the LORD our God
belong mercy and forgiveness' (Daniel 9:9)” (Midrash Jonah).
The reservations offered against the first three views do
not apply to this last. The chief reason is that it is the only one that does
not focus on a particular segment of the story; rather, it is compatible with
the entire narrative from beginning to end and encompasses most of its
elements.
The vast majority of commentators and students of the Book
of Jonah still adhere to one of the first three readings or some combination
thereof (see David Kimhi on 1:1). Our interpretation, however, explains the
plot, the characters, and the dialogue as embodying the primordial struggle
between justice and mercy.
© Uriel Simon, 1999,
The Jewish Publication Society. Uriel
Simon is Professor of Biblical Studies at Bar Ilan University. He is a founder of Oz v’Shalom, the Israeli
religious peace movement, and the author of books on the topics of Biblical
Prophecy and Psalms.
