4
Jonah’s Displeasure Rebuked
But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became Aangry. He Aprayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this 1what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore 2in order to forestall this I Bfled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a Cgracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. Therefore now, O Lord, please Atake my 1life from me, for death is Bbetter to me than life.” The Lord said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”
Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of 1it. There he made a shelter for himself and Asat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. So the Lord God appointed a 1plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was 2extremely happy about the 1plant. But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it Awithered. When the sun came up God appointed a scorching Aeast wind, and the Bsun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “CDeath is better to me than life.”
Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” 10 Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which 1came up overnight and perished 2overnight. 11 Should I not Ahave compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not Bknow the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many Canimals?”
A 4:1 Jon 4:4, 9; Matt 20:15; Luke 15:28 A 4:2 Jer 20:7 1 4:2 Lit my word 2 4:2 Lit I was beforehand in fleeing B 4:2 Jon 1:3 C 4:2 Ex 34:6; Num 14:18; Ps 86:5, 15; Joel 2:13 A 4:3 1 Kin 19:4; Job 6:8, 9 1 4:3 Lit soul B 4:3 Job 7:15, 16; Eccl 7:1 1 4:5 Lit the city A 4:5 1 Kin 19:9, 13 1 4:6 Probably a castor oil plant, and so in vv 7, 9 and 10 2 4:6 Lit greatly 1 4:6 Probably a castor oil plant, and so in vv 7, 9 and 10 A 4:7 Joel 1:12 A 4:8 Ezek 19:12; Hos 13:15 B 4:8 Ps 121:6; Is 49:10 C 4:8 Jon 4:3 1 4:10 Lit was a son of a night 2 4:10 Lit a son of a night A 4:11 Jon 3:10 B 4:11 Deut 1:39; Is 7:16 C 4:11 Ps 36:6