Jonah's Flight

Et surrexit Jonas, ut fugeret in Tharsis a facie Domini.  LXX similiter. Scit propheta, sancto sibi Spiritu suggerente, quod poenitentia gentium, ruina sit Judaeorum. Idcirco amator partiae suae, non tam saluti invidet Ninive, quam non vult perire populum suum. Alioquin legerat Moyse rogantem dixisse pro eo: Si dimittis eis peccatum, dimitte: sin autem non dimittis, et me dele de libro tuo, quem scripsisti, et ad preces iliius servatum Israel, et Moysen de libro non fuisse deletum, quin potius Dominum occasionem acceptisse per servum, ut caeteris conservis illius parceret. Dum enim dicit, dimitte me, ostendit se posse retineri. Tale quid et Apostilus loquitur: Optabam anathema esse pro fratribus meis, qui sunt Israelitae secundum carnem. Non quod ipse perire desideret, cui vivere Christus, et mori lucrum; sed magis meretur vitam, dum salvare vult caeteros. Praeterea videns Jonas comprophetas suos mitti ad oves perditas domus Israel, ut ad poenitentiam populum provocarent, Balaaem quoque divinum de salute Israelitici populi prophetasse, delet se solum electum, quo mitteretur ad Assyrios inimicos Israel, et ad civitatem hostium maximam, ubi idololatria, ubi ignoratio Dei; et quod his majus est, timebat ne per occasionem praedicationis suae, illis conversis ad poenitentiam, Israel penitus relinqueretur. Noverat enim eodem spiritu, quo illi gentium praeconium credebatur, quod quando nationes credidissent, tunc periret domus Israel, et quod aliquando futurum erat, hoc ne in suo fieret tempore, verebatur. Unde imitatus Cain Jonas et recedens a facie Domini. Sanctus Hieronimus, Commentarius In Jonam Prophetem

''And Jonah rose up and fled from the face of the Lord to Tharsis.' 1 The Septuagint reads the same. The Prophet inspired by the Holy Spirit knows that the penitence of the Gentiles would be the ruin of the Jews. Therefore he is a lover of his fatherland, not so much begrudging Nineveh its salvation but rather not wishing the destruction of his own people. One may also read that Moses pleaded for the same people, saying, 'If you forgive them their sin, forgive, yet if you do not forgive, even remove me from your book which you have written' 2 and by his prayers Israel was spared and Moses was not removed from the book, since through his servant the Lord took the opportunity to spare his fellow servants. For since he said, 'forgive', he shows that it was possible that sins be retained. And so the Apostle said, 'I chose to be anathema to my brothers, who are Israelites according to the flesh.' 3 Not that he desired destruction, to whom to live is Christ, and to die profit; 4 but rather he merited life while he wished to save others. Moreover Jonah, perceiving that his fellow prophets were sent to the lost sheep of Israel so that they call the people to penance, and that the inspired Balaam also prophesied the salvation of the people of Israel 5, feared that he would destroy the elect by being sent to the Assyrians, the enemies of Israel, to the great city of the enemy, a place of idolatry and ignorance of God, if by his preaching they turn to penitence and Israel be utterly forsaken. For he knew by the same spirit by which he was confirmed as a preacher to the Gentiles, that when the nations believed, then would perish the house of Israel, and so that sometime in the future this was, lest in his own time it come to be, was his fear. Whence like Cain 6 Jonah withdrew from the face of the Lord. Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jonah 1 Jonah 1.3 2 Exod 32,31-32 3 Rom 9.3 4 Philipp 1.21 5 Num 24 6 Gen 4.16