Jonah 4

But all of this made Jonah very unhappy, and he became angry.

1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

NoteThe Hebrew here plays on a word that runs through the whole chapter: literally "it was evil to Jonah, a great evil." The same root word is used for the disaster God had threatened against Nineveh (verse 2), and for the discomfort the plant relieves (verse 6).

2He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please, LORD, isn't this exactly what I said back when I was still in my own country? That is why I was so quick to run away toward Tarshish. I knew that you are a kind and merciful God, slow to get angry, full of steady love, and ready to hold back the harm you said you would send.

2And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

NoteTarshish was a far-off port in the western Mediterranean, in the opposite direction from Nineveh (Jonah's attempt to get as far from his errand as a ship could take him. The string of phrases "gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness" is a fixed formula that recurs throughout the Hebrew scriptures. In the King James wording, "repentest thee of the evil" does not mean God repents of sin: "repent" here means to change course or relent, and "evil" means disaster or harm) the calamity God had announced.

3So now, LORD, please take my life from me. I would rather die than go on living."

3Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

4Then the LORD said, "Do you have any right to be angry?"

4Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

NoteThe Hebrew question is compressed and can be read two ways: "is it right for you to be angry?" or "are you really that deeply angry?" Most translators take the first. The King James "doest thou well" is old English for "are you right to."

5So Jonah went out of the city and sat down on its east side. There he made himself a rough shelter and sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would happen to the city.

5So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

NoteA "booth" was a rough temporary shelter of branches and leaves, the kind put up in fields at harvest time for shade.

6Then the LORD God provided a plant and made it grow up over Jonah, so that it shaded his head and eased his discomfort. Jonah was very glad to have the plant.

6And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

NoteThe Hebrew word for the plant, qiqayon, appears only here, and its identity is uncertain; ancient and modern guesses include the castor-oil plant and a fast-growing gourd vine. The King James "gourd" is one such guess. "Prepared" translates a verb meaning appointed or assigned, the same verb used of the great fish, and used again of the worm and the wind in the verses that follow. King James "grief" here means physical discomfort, not sorrow.

7But at dawn the next day, God sent a worm, and it attacked the plant so that the plant dried up and died.

7But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

8When the sun rose, God sent a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head until he grew faint. He wanted to die, and he said, "I would rather die than go on living."

8And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

9Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have any right to be angry about the plant?" Jonah answered, "I do have a right to be angry. I am angry enough to die."

9And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.

10Then the LORD said, "You cared about the plant, though you did not work for it and did not make it grow. It came up in one night, and it died in one night.

10Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:

11So should I not care about Nineveh, that great city? More than a hundred and twenty thousand people live in it who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and there are many animals there too."

11And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?