Jonah 4

Jonah’s Displeasure Rebuked

1But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became 1angry. 2He 2prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this 3what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore 4in order to forestall this I 5fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a 6gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. 3Therefore now, O Lord, please 7take my 8life from me, for death is 9better to me than life.” 4The Lord said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”

5Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of 10it. There he made a shelter for himself and 11sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6So the Lord God appointed a 12plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was 13extremely happy about the 14plant. 7But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it 15withered. 8When the sun came up God appointed a scorching 16east wind, and the 17sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “18Death is better to me than life.”

9Then 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.” 10Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which 19came up overnight and perished 20overnight. 11Should I not 21have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not 22know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many 23animals?”