< 約拿書 4 >

1 約納因此很不高興,遂發起怒來。
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
2 他懇求天主說:「上主,當我還在故鄉時,我豈不是已想到這事﹖所以我預先要逃往塔爾史士去,因為我知道你是慈悲的,寬仁的天主;是緩於發怒,富於慈愛,憐憫而不願降災禍的天主。
And he prayed to the LORD, and said, I pray you, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before to Tarshish: for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repent you of the evil.
3 上主,現在,求你從我身上收去我的性命,因為,我死了比活著還好! 」
Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
4 上主說:「你的憤怒合理嗎﹖」
Then said the LORD, Do you well to be angry?
5 約納出了城,坐在城東,在那裏為自己搭了一個棚坐在棚蔭下,要看看那城究竟要發生什麼事。
So 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.
6 上主天主安排了一株篦麻,使長得高過約納,為他的頭遮蔭,消除自己尸煩惱。約納很喜愛這株篦麻。
And 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.
7 但第二天曙升起時,天主安排了一個蟲咬死了篦麻,篦麻便枯萎了
But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
8 當太陽升起時,天主又安排了灸熱的東風,太陽射在約納頭上,使他無法忍受,遂要求死去,說:「我死了比活著還好! 」
And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on 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.
9 天主血約納說:「你為這株篦麻發怒合理嗎﹖」他回答說:「我發怒以致於死,是合理的! 」
And God said to Jonah, Do you well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even to death.
10 上主說:「你為這株篦麻,並沒有勞過力,也沒有使它生長,還憐惜它:它不過是一夜生,出一夜死去的植物;
Then said the LORD, You have had pity on the gourd, for the which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
11 對尼尼微這座大城,其中有十二萬不能分辨自己左右手的人,且有許多牲畜,我就不該憐他們麼﹖」
And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

< 約拿書 4 >