2

Why Hashem never send prophets for seemingly more obvious issue, like the fact that pretty much every other nation outside israel worshiped different gods.

If Hashem is God of all, the Niniveh citizen were guilty of something far worse than robbery. They worshiped the wrong elohim.

Yet throughout the tanach, I have never seen Hashem make an issue with non jews worshiping other gods. It was as is those other gods are indeed the proper gods to worship among non jews. He seems to only be concerned with jews ended up worshiping those other gods too.

http://biblehub.com/micah/4-5.htm for example says:

For all the peoples walk every one in the name of his god; and we will walk in the name of Hashem our God for ever and ever.

If Hashem is only the god for the jews, why bother sending prophet to Niniveh? They're non jews anyway. Why care about them? Don't they have their own gods?

If Hashem is god of all, why not tell pretty much every single nation at that time that they're worshiping the wrong god? Why worry so much about sodom full of violent, or niniveh full with robbery if they are all guilty of a bigger sin of worshiping idols?

Improve this question
5
  • 1
    I like your question. I hope you will excuse that I have edited out the use of the phrase "old testament" and the word J*****h. The Tanach is the testament for users of this site (who base their lives on Judaism) and the word Hashem which means "the name" is what we use instead of the J word. Now to try to think of an answer. – Avrohom Yitzchok Mar 17 '14 at 10:04
  • Ah yea, I should have said God instead of Hashem and Hashem instead of J*****h. I seriously think hiding the name of God is a very strange way of respecting Him. – user4951 Mar 17 '14 at 10:50
  • We don't hide it, we just don't pronounce it. I would imagine the concern was that having it written in transliterated english could inadvertently cause someone to utter it, which is why it was edited out. The ineffable name is written plenty in tanakh. – Baby Seal Mar 17 '14 at 15:56
  • Maybe I'm missing it, but I don't see any mention of robbery in the book of Jonah. – msh210♦ Mar 18 '14 at 1:03
  • A question in miyodeya says that niniveh sin is robbery. Also the same for sodom. – user4951 Mar 18 '14 at 4:21
1

I would like to suggest the following approach:

Your premise is that worshipping the wrong god is far worse than robbery.

In this article about Noah by Rabbi Frand, he says

Eliyahu felt that the generation of Achav (King Ahab) was worthless. They were idol worshippers. He saw no purpose in their existence. Yet, the Gemara says [Jerusalem Talmud Peah 1:1] that in the generation of Dovid (King David), when even children were well versed in the laws of purity and impurity, at times when they went out to war there were casualties -- because there were slanderers among them; however in the generation of Achav, even though they were all idolaters, they were victorious in their battles because there was unity and love of Israel among them.

From here we see that Hashem appears (so to say) to be more concerned about unity and love amongst people than about idol worship. The example is taken from the Jewish people. But both Jews and non-Jews are commanded not to rob and not to practise idolatry.

We also find that in the case of the woman suspected of adultery "Hashem even desires that His name be erased in order to restore a peaceful relationship between a man and his wife."

Returning to Niniveh, the book of Jonah testifies to the importance of the deeds of the people and not to their belief system when it says Jonah 3:10

And God saw their deeds, that they had repented of their evil way, and the Lord relented concerning the evil that He had spoken to do to them, and He did not do it.

Improve this answer
2
  • So Hashem don't even care much if non jews worship the wrong God as long as we don't kill each other – user4951 Mar 18 '14 at 4:23
  • I thought david was winning war and ahab losing them. In all cases casualties exist of course. – user4951 Mar 18 '14 at 4:24

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .