Who are "ha'Melachim"?
Rashi: People who conduct the boat.
Radak: They are those who hold the oars.
What do we learn from "Ish El Elohav"?
Rashi: There were from [all 1 ] 70 nations there.
Surely this is Rashi's intent. It is no Chidush there were from the other nations. They asked Yonah what is his land and nation (8)! (PF)
Why did he descend to "Yarkesei ha'Sefinah"?
Malbim: (a) He feared lest the boat sink, and waves will take him to the dry land, like happened to R. Akiva 1 (Yevamos 121a). Sefinah is the hidden part of the boat (below the deck). Water would enter there and drown him; it would not take him away 2 . (b) He knew that the storm was due to him (12). He intended that water will enter there, drown him before the others above, and the storm will cease.
Why did Malbim mention R. Akiva's salvation? He acted to save himself (he found a board and floated on it); Yonah would not do so. Malbim should have cited the salvation of R. Meir ? the Gemara implies that waves carried him to the land without his participation! (PF)
Malbim: This is why Mabit (1:186) permitted women [whose husbands were in Cheder ha'Sefinah of a boat that sank] to remarry. He was not stringent like the law of 'water without end in sight.'
Did he descend to both "Yarkesei ha'Sefinah" (bottom ends of the boat)?!
Radak: He descended to one of them. Also "va'Yikaver b'Arei Gil'ad" (Shoftim 12:7) means in one of the cities of Gil'ad 1 .
Radak in Shoftim brought from Bereishis Rabah 60:3 that Yiftach was punished for killing his daughter, and wherever he went, limbs fell off and they were buried there. If so, there is no support from there. (PF)
