Jonah 4

Jonah’s Anger and the Lord’s Compassion

4But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,¹ and ^yhe was angry. ²And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? ^zThat is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a ^agracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and ^arelenting from disaster. ^3bTherefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, ^cfor it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴And the Lord said, ^d“Do you do well to be angry?”

⁵Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and ^emade a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. ⁶Now the Lord God appointed a plant² and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.³ So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. ⁷But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. ⁸When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching ^feast wind, ^gand the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he ^hwas faint. And he asked that he might die and said, ^c“It is better for me to die than to live.” ⁹But God said to Jonah, ⁱ“Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” ¹⁰And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹And should not I pity ^jNineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much ^kcattle?”