Jonah 4

JONAH’S ANGER

4Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious.^{z 2}He prayed to the Lord,^aa “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place.^ab I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God,^ac slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster.^{ad 3}And now, Lord, take my life from me,^ae for it is better for me to die than to live.”^af

⁴The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

⁵Jonah left the city and found a place east of it.^ag He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. ⁶Then the Lord God appointed a plant, and it grew over Jonah to provide shade for his head to rescue him from his trouble.^A Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant. ⁷When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered.^ah

⁸As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind.^ai The sun beat down on Jonah’s head^aj so much that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.”^ak

⁹Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“Yes, it’s right!” he replied. “I’m angry enough to die!”

¹⁰And the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹So may I not care about the great city of Nineveh,^al which has more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left,^am as well as many animals?”^an