Jonah's Rage 5769

Having been expelled from the belly of the fish, Jonah answers Hashem’s second call and delivers his word to Nineveh: “Forty days more and Nineveh is overturned!) The entire city immediately repents with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.  Hashem sees and relents from punishment. And this is how Jonah responds:

 

Va’ yay-rah el Yona ra-ah gedolah va’yichar lo (Yonah 4:1)

 

And it seemed to Jonah most unseemly, and he was enraged.

 

We might have expected Jonah to sing praise as he does at the end of chapter 2: “…that which I vowed I will fulfill for Hashem’s salvation (2:10).” But here there is only recrimination. Verse 4:1 gives us two different expressions of unhappiness.

 

In the first, both noun and verb, va’yay-rah and ra-ah, derive from the root  resh-ayin-ayin, meaning “be evil, bad” (BDB).  The phrase suggests that Jonah is greatly displeased about something.  The second, va’yichar, derives from the root chet-resh-hay, meaning “burn, be kindled, of anger.” Jonah burns with rage.

 

It makes no sense to suggest that Jonah is both greatly displeased and enraged about the same thing. More likely, he is displeased about one thing and enraged at something else.

 

A clue to the source of Jonah’s displeasure might be found in Nechemia 2:10, the only other place in Tanach where the expression va’yay-rah ra-ah gedolah appears. There, the expression describes the opinion of Israel’s enemies toward Israel and one of her prophets. Perhaps in Sefer Yonah, the same expression describes the prophet Jonah’s opinion of Israel’s enemy, Nineveh. Jonah may be displeased at the unfavorable comparison of Israel to Nineveh. Israel sins, seldom repents, and often is punished. Nineveh sins, repents, and is forgiven.

 

What about va’yichar lo, Jonah’s rage? It is useful to begin with Jonah’s own explanation:

 

And he prayed to Hashem, saying please Hashem, was this not my declaration when I was yet on my soil? This is why I hurried to flee to Tarshish: because I know that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and full of loving kindness and relent from harm (4:2).

 

What does Jonah mean by “when I was yet on my soil”? Elsewhere in Tanach, we find one mention of Jonah in Israel (M’lachim II 14:24-25)

 

[King Jeroboam ben Johash] did what was evil in the eyes of Hashem: he did not turn away from all the sins of Jeroboam ben Nebat that he caused Israel to sin. He restored the boundary of Israel… like the word of Hashem, god of Israel, which He had spoken by the hand of His servant Jonah ben Amittai the prophet…

 

We don’t hear the nature of Jonah’s earlier prophecy. We know only that Israel sinned and yet her boundary was graciously restored. It appears that Jonah prophesied to a sinful Israel, but Hashem relented from harming her. Jonah’s prophesy, whatever it was, did not come true.

 

When Hashem calls Jonah to prophesy to Nineveh (1:1), he runs in the opposite direction. Jonah fears a repetition of his first prophetic experience, which would provoke the nations to call him a false prophet (Rashi).

 

What explains Jonah’s rage at Nineveh (4:1)? When Hashem compels Jonah to deliver a prophesy that he knows will not come true, Jonah feels as though he is being picked up and tossed overboard all over again. It is the repetition of this trauma (and perhaps the earlier trauma alluded to in M’lachim) that triggers Jonah’s rage. After the sheltering kikayon is consumed by the worm, Jonah, consumed by his own rage, prays for death.

 

Sefer Yonah is famous as an object lesson in Teshuvah and Divine mercy. But for me it stands as the first and truest portrait of human rage from ancient antiquity until Freud.