Jonah 4 - International Standard Version (ISV)

Jonah’s Anger at God’s Kindness

4 Greatly displeased, Jonah flew into a rage. 2 So he prayed to the Lord, “Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my home country? That’s why I fled previously to Tarshish, because I knew you’re a compassionate God, slow to anger, overflowing with gracious love, and reluctant[a] to send trouble. 3 Therefore, Lord, please kill me, because it’s better for me to die than to live!”

4 The Lord replied, “Does being angry make you right?”

Jonah’s Discouragement

5 Then Jonah left the city and sat down on the eastern side.[b] There he made a shelter for himself and sat down under its shade to see what would happen to the city. 6 The Lord God prepared a vine plant,[c] and it grew over Jonah to shade his head and provide relief from his misery. Jonah was happy—indeed, he was ecstatic—about the vine plant. 7 But at dawn the next day, God provided a worm that attacked the vine plant so that it withered away. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared a harsh east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head, he became faint, and he begged to die. “It is better for me to die than to live!” he said.

9 Then God asked Jonah, “Is your anger about the vine plant justified?”

And he answered, “Absolutely! I’m so angry I could die!”

10 But the Lord asked, “You cared about a vine plant that you neither worked on nor cultivated? A vine plant that grew up overnight and died overnight? 11 So why shouldn’t I be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 human beings who do not know their right hand from their left,[d] as well as a lot of livestock?

Footnotes

  1. Jonah 4:2 Or sorrowful
  2. Jonah 4:5 Lit. down east of the city
  3. Jonah 4:6 Or castor bean plant; or gourd; and so throughout the chapter
  4. Jonah 4:11 I.e. young children or infants

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