[Avodah] can a navi make a mistake

[hankman]

RET wrote:
When King David wanted to build the bet hamikdash
Natan told him it was a great idea. Next morning he came and retracted and
said that G-d told him last night not to build the Temple
...
Another famous case is Yonah where he runs away for whatever reason.
As Yonah himself mentions although he prophesied the destruction of Ninveh
their teshuva overrode his nevuah. So in the end he was "wrong"

CM comments:
You are of course correct to say that "We must first distinguish between private actions of a navi and receiving a
prophecy. Obviously a Navi can make personal mistakes." That is exactly the situation you cite with Dovid hamelech and Noson hanovi. the novi's personal (and incorrect) evaluation was that Dovid's desire to build the Mikdosh was well founded and timely (but no nevuoh was involved). This was subsequently corrected by a nevuoh to the novi.

However, the case of Yona is not a parallel. When Yona runs away he did not misunderstand the nevuoh, he was kovesh nevuoso - not at all the same. When you write "So in the end he was "wrong"," this too, has nothing to do with misunderstanding the nevuoh. Whether the nevuoh comes to pass as the novi predicts is another parsha and is not an indicator as to whether the novi misinterpreted his nevuoh. (as you state here by Yona as a consequence of teshuva).

Kol Tuv 

Chaim Manaster




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