The second prophecy begins with "And the Word of G-d came to Yonah a second time" until the end of the book and it has two sections. The first begins here and the second with G-d asking Yonah "are you that deeply grieved?"And I have six questions.

The first question: Yonah called out that in 40 days Nineveh would be overturned. But this never happened, and we know that every word of prophecy is true, and how could the words of prophecy fall to the ground [unfulfilled]? And if you say that it was a conditional prophecy("if they repent [they will be spared]"/"If they do not repent [they will be destroyed]"), like the conditional prophecy in Jeremiah 18:7-9("For a moment I speak [about a nation... to be destroyed...]"/"And for a moment I speak [about a nation... to be built..."]), there is no doubt that since the people of Nineveh were gentiles they didn't know how to interpret a conditional prophecy, so Yonah should've made the condition clear in his warning to them so that the Word of G-d would be vindicated and the words of the prophet would be made true and would teach people to repent, and it should not be that the destiny [detailed by the prophecy] should be [taken as] certain and afterwards not be fulfilled.

The second question is about that which it says in the verse: "It was bad for Yonah and distressed him"- why was he so distressed, and why did he lower his face and consider this as a terrible thing for him? And what was made new to him now with this [occurring], for when he got onto the boat to flee to Tarshish he only did so because it was revealed and known to him that such would be- that they would repent and Hashem would relent from doing the evil he had said to do; and [also] he left the belly of the fish in order to do this [to deliver the prophecy]! What was he thinking in the beginning [such that he fled on the ship even though he knew that the prophecy would be fulfilled] and what was he thinking in the end, because after Hashem, blessed is he, commanded him a second time [to deliver the prophecy] and he went to do his mission, he went on condition of this[that they would repent], and what was made new to him now such that he was infuriated and it was such a bad thing for him?

The third question: when Yonah asked Hashem "take my soul because my death is better than my life"- Is there a crazy person in the world that would say something like this, that since Hashem forgave the Assyrians and the people of Nineveh he should die and that death was preferable to life?! Why should Yonah die because the people of Nineveh did not die- How could embarrassment not have covered his face to pray like this after he just prayed for Hashem to save his life from inside the fish and he vowed to go to Nineveh to call out his proclamation- How could he pray to die now? Didn't Avraham our forefather pray for the people of Sodom and Amorah for them to be elevated and not to make them worthy of death? Also, with regards to what Hashem said to Yonah "Are you so deeply distressed?"- we do not find that Yonah answered anything to him, and this is strange.

The fourth question is about how Hashem rebuked Yonah: " you cared about the Kikayon tree that you didn't work for..." This seems not to make sense for many reasons. The first is that it is a greater question he could have answered to Him from the fact that Yonah had more reason to care about the Kikayon than Nineveh since: "The Kikayon tree saved my life and therefore I am distressed in it's absence, not for it's sake but for my own. Could the same be said of the city of Nineveh with regards to You, for it did not save You nor help You at all- therefore it is not fitting that you should have pity on it." The second reason [this seems not to make sense] is [found in that] Hashem replied that: "The Kikayon tree was only a day old was gone in a day." In his statement "you didn't work for it, and you did not grow it" there is a element of comparison since Nineveh [like the Kikayon] was [also] the work of G-d in the category of his creations, but [the statement] that the Kikayon was [created] in one night and gone in one night does not seem to be an element of the comparison, because Nineveh was not created in one night and was not destroyed.

The fifth question is in Hashem saying to Yonah, "Should I not have mercy on Nineveh, the great city, that has more than 120,000 people who do not know their right from left, and many animals?" And this [question] is that the Holy One, Blessed is He, should have responded to Yonah:"How should I not have mercy on the people who returned to me with all their hearts and all their souls?" And based on the letter of the law, one who admits [his wrongdoing] and abandons [the sin] is granted mercy! And how could he not mention this strong claim to him, and [instead] mentioned the weaker claim of the [innocence of the] youths and the many animals, who did not know their right from their left, and it is known that because of their[the sincere penitents] repentance Hashem relented of [doing] the evil, and not because of the youth and animals.

The sixth question is what is this claim that because of the multitude of youth and animals, G-d should have mercy on the land while it's people are evil and sinning? Were the people of the generation of the flood exempted [of punishment] because of the many youths and animals they had, or Sodom and Amorah? And also [with regards to] Israel and Jerusalem, did Hashem overlook the people's wickedness because of the children of the study house who had never sinned or because of their animals? So why, with regards to Nineveh, is this claim made? Now I will explain the pesukim by solving them according to these questions.

The overarching intention of this prophecy is to make it known that Yonah fulfilled the word and command of G-d and called out in Nineveh the decree of Hashem: "40 days more and Nineveh will be overturned." And the people of were inspired by his words, believed in G-d, and repented with an intention that desired to do so, and Hashem relented and took back the decree. And since Yonah was upset that his words weren't fulfilled, Hashem made the kikayon tree as a parable that if he cared so much about the tree, which he did not grow nor create, should Hashem not care about Nineveh? And this [interpretation] is as will become clear from the pesukim.

"The Word of G-d came to Yonah a second time" until the end of the book: Blessed is He Who chose of their [the sages] words, may their memory be a blessing. How deep were their minds, for nothing of anything they said "fell to the ground" [was purposeless; did not accomplish anything]. They said in the Midrash (Mechilta, the beginning of Parshat Bo, page six, first entry) that because Yonah charged for the honor of the son and not the honor of the father, his punishment was that he only received this second prophecy and never got a third prophecy afterwards. And it is already discernible to an attentive student that this [knowledge] is [known] through the interpretive method(דרך דרש) and it is not necessary [to be true] that from the fact that it says "second" [it means] he did not prophesy a third time. But you do find in the Seder Olam that Yonah anointed Yehu ben Nimshi as king over Israel in the year 3072 from the creation of the world, and Yonah lived until Zechariah who ruled in Israel in the year 3174. It emerges from this [fact] that Yonah lived for 102 years after he started receiving prophecy, and since we do not find another prophecy of his in that long time except for these two prophecies that he prophesied about Nineveh, we have [now] known that he ceased to have prophesy because of this thing. And this was fitting to be done, because if he had fled from the prophecy and tried hard to remove it from himself, his punishment should be measure-for-measure- that his ability to prophesy should be flee from him and never being another word of G-d to him, since he had rejected and kicked back at it. This is [the understanding of] their statement: "a second [prophecy] was said to him, [but] a third [prophecy] was not said to him," for their is no ceasing [on the part] of the Giver, but [rather] the receiver is the one who prevents the good from [coming] to himself. And with regards to this prophecy(Yonah 3:2-3), Hashem commanded Yonah to go to Nineveh after he got on dry land and call out and announce in it's midst about the decree Hashem had decree on it, and he said: "Get up, go to Nineveh, the great city, quell [it's fear] in it's ear and say to it that Hashem was concerned about it because it was a large city," like it says that "Nineveh was a great city to G-d"- the meaning is not that its people were pious like Rabbi Avraham ben Ezra said, because it was the land of Assyria, and the people living in it were very much evil and sinners to G-d, but [rather] it is related to G-d because of it's size, in the same way as [the verse] "The mountains of G-d,"(Tehillim 36:7) [or the verse] "A flame of G-d"(Song of Songs 8:6) [do so]. Their comparison [G-d and the city] is because it was so large that in it was a three-day-walk. According [to what he thought was] the simple explanation of the verse, Rabbi Avraham ben Ezra wrote that that journey [Yonah took] was around the city which is a one day walk, but his words are not correct, for the pasuk says: "and Yonah began to come into the city for a one day journey"- this teaches that he had not yet passed the entire journey but just part of it; therefore, it seems [from here] that from one gate to the other gate was three days [of walking].

And Yonah started to walk in it [the city] for one day's walk and immediately its people were roused to do repentance, even though in Bereishit Rabah they said that Nineveh was a forty-day walk, maybe that was [describing the distance] in the outskirts of the city, and therefore the decree was: "Forty more days, and Nineveh is overturned" because there were forty days [required] until the announcement was executed in the entire land- the city and its outskirts, and [only] then Nineveh could be destroyed. This decree was certain, without any conditions at all.

And what appears [proper] to me to say in solving the first question which is attached to this [definite] destiny is one of two choices; the first, that this destiny was like its simple meaning- that in forty days time Nineveh would necessarily be overturned from what it is now, because if its people return [to G-d] in repentance, it will be overturned in it's actions and it's quality, from bad to good, and from wickedness to righteousness, and be innocent. If so, the destiny that was stated: "and Nineveh will be overturned" is from the [same kind of] expression [as]: "...and you will become a different man."(Shmuel Alef, 10:6), [or the verse:] "My heart turns over inside me"(Aicha 1:20). If they do not do repentance [however], it will be overturned like the overturning of S'dom and Amorah, and this destiny would be fulfilled in any case. In order that the word "overturned" can contain these two meanings, G-d did not command the prophet to call out: "Nineveh will be overturned like the overturning of S'dom and Amorah," [but] rather simply "overturned," meaning to say that it was necessary that within the forty days Nineveh would be overturned, [but] this might be with its issues, that it would do repentance and overturn in its actions, and this might be with its inhabitants/dwelling. And behold that this decree was not according to the instruction of the Upper System [of Judgement], for G-d does not hold the system captive [so to speak] except on behalf of [the nation of] Israel, and because of its repentance, prayer, and outcry He rides heaven to help him; However, the judgement of his supervision of it [the nation of Israel] includes it with the rest of nations, and when they sin with treachery and perversion of the [proper] ways [of life], he deals with them to turn them over and to destroy them, like he did with the generation of the flood and the people of S'dom, "for the earth is filled with lawlessness because of them..."(Bereishit 6:13) and they are lessening of the [ability for] inhabiting of the world. And I have already explained in my compilation of the Mishnah [Torah] in Parshat Va'Etchanan that the value of the nation of Israel over the other nations is a matter of the system and of [other] things; the first is that each and every nation has within itself a star and constellation in the heavens, and Israel is not like this for "the portion of Hashem is his nation"(Devarim 32:9), and the second is that also with the birth of individuals of every nation they are [given a destiny] according to the time of the birth and its constellation; [but] behold that this system does not instruct about the actions of [positive] commandments and transgressions at all. The third is that the [natural outcomes of the] system of an individual of [the nation of] Israel may be nullified through prayer and merit. However, [even though] for the other nations the instructions of the system cannot be nullified through their repentance, still the all-encompassing supervision of G-d may attach to them for perpetuation of their state-wide settlement, and therefore when there is lawlessness among them [resulting] in destruction and nullification of the law [of the world], they are necessarily liable for destruction, and this was the case with Nineveh. However, because the Holy One, Blessed is He, was guarding the Assyrian nation [in order] to [later] be his rod of anger and staff of wrath on [the nation of] Israel, therefore He sent His prophet to return them to the good path so that they would not make themselves liable perishing and destruction.

And the second way in explanation of "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned" is [the word] "day" in this case is [coming] in place of [the word] "year," like [it says in another verse]: "It's redemption shall be for days[a year]"(Vayikra 25:29); and the word "עוד"("more") [in Gematria] is a number which adds up to eighty, and when you add forty [years] onto this, the sum of it is 120 years, and it is as if he said that at the end of 120 years Nineveh will be overturned, and so it was that Nevuchadnetzar came and destroyed it after 120 years from this prophecy, and on it Nachum the Alkushi prophesied [its future] with the destruction of Nineveh. The way that we have to verify this is that Nevuchadnetzar destroyed Nineveh in the first year that he reigned like it says in the Seder Olam, and it is known that Nevuchadnetzar reigned in the beginning of the fourth year of the kingship of Yehoyakim the king of Yehudah, and [it is] like what was written in the book of Yirmiyahu: "in the fourth year of King Yehoyakim son of Yoshiyahu king of Yehudah, which was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon."(Jeremiah 25:1), and Yehoyakim reigned for eleven years; subtract from there the four years mentioned [already]- it is found to teach that Yehoyakim reigned for seven years in years of the kingship of Nebuchadnetzar, and after him Yehoyachin reigned for three months, and after him Tzidkiyahu reigned until the destruction of Yerushalayim for fourteen years, as can be seen in this verse. And it also says in the book of Kings that in the nineteenth year of the kingship of Nebuchadnetzar Yerushalayim was destroyed, and the house of G-d was burnt, and what comes out from this is that nineteen years before the destruction of Yerushalayim Nineveh was destroyed. And it is known that Yonah went to Nineveh after the exile of the Land of Zevulun and the land of Naphtali, and before the destruction of Shomron, for there were nine years between these two, from when Hoshea son of Alah ruled until the exile of the Shomron. And if so, the matter of Yonah in Nineveh would have been five or six years before the destruction of the Shomron, and from the years of the kings of Yehudah we have known that the destruction of the Shomron was 133 years before the destruction of Yerushalayim- subtract from there the nineteen years that Nineveh was already destroyed when Yerushalayim was destroyed and if [this calculation] is so from the destruction of Shomron until the destruction of Nineveh is 114 years, and the journey of Yonah to Nineveh was about six years before the destruction of Shomron, as I mentioned [already]. One can draw from this that from the calling out of Yonah in Nineveh until the destruction of Nineveh there were 120 years without a doubt, and on this he is really saying "forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed." And behold that Hashem, Blessed is He, hid the truth of this destiny and his intention with the word "עוד" and with the words "forty days" so that the people of the city would not understand it, and also Yonah did not descend into the end of the intention of his prophecy, and with this the first question is solved.

The people of Nineveh believed God: that is, that there was a purpose to His word and His decree. Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra wrote in the name of Rabbi Yeshuah that the sailors went to Nineveh and told them about Yonah. And so they believed him without him having to provide any signs or wonders.

Additionally, the king of Nineveh(who was the king of Assyria [as well]) when he knew [of] this rose from his throne and removed his [royal] mantle, and sat in ashes, as if Nineveh had already been destroyed(Verse 7), and commanded to announce in Nineveh: "[Coming] from the conception of the king and his nobles," meaning to say his advisors, "[it is decreed] man and animal not taste [food] nor drink [water], and this commandment applied to animals [even] if they did not have owners, because all [of the measures] were based on [the idea] that "the eyes of ever creature are on Him, Blessed is He," and in order that the animals in [danger of] the overturning of the city would cry out and fast before Him so that He would have mercy on them.

The king decreed that it was not enough that the people just fast and wear sackcloth, but that along with this they should also "cry mightily to God" and "turn back from the violence of their hands," which was the main point.

It is said broadly [in the verse]: "whoever knows should return," meaning to say that one who knows of something swindled or stolen in his hands should return it, or [that] one who knows the ways of repentance should return to God and he will have mercy on him, for with this is the anger of God returned [from upon people] and they will not go to destruction. And from this it can be seen that the people of Nineveh understood the Godly decree according to its [true] intention with regards to the overturning [of the city for good or for bad], for the king therefore commanded that Nineveh overturn its actions, for if it did this "spiritual overturning," then God would be overturned from [executing] his decree and there would be no physical overturning in the city afterward. [But] behold that neither the people of Nineveh nor their king were aroused to serve the honored Name [of God] and [they were] not [aroused] to remove their idols and false gods from the land, for they were continuously holding on to their deficient belief, and this is the [meaning of the verse's] statement: "and God saw their actions," meaning to say in the practical commandments between them and their fellows they had returned from their evil way, but they had not returned from their belief [in false gods] and [even] with all this [it still says in the verse]: "And God relented of all the bad he had said to do" for the decree was [based] on nothing but "the treachery in their hands."