约拿书 4

1 这事约拿大大不悦，且甚发怒，

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

2 就祷告耶和华说：“耶和华啊，我在本国的时候岂不是这样说吗？我知道你是有恩典、有怜悯的 神，不轻易发怒，有丰盛的慈爱，并且后悔不降所说的灾，所以我急速逃往他施去。

And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, [was] not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou [art] a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

3 耶和华啊，现在求你取我的命吧！因为我死了比活着还好。”

Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for [it is] better for me to die than to live.

4 耶和华说：“你这样发怒合乎理吗？”

Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

5 于是约拿出城，坐在城的东边，在那里为自己搭了一座棚，坐在棚的荫下，要看看那城究竟如何。

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 耶和华 神安排一棵蓖麻，使其发生高过约拿，影儿遮盖他的头，救他脱离苦楚；约拿因这棵蓖麻大大喜乐。

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 次日黎明， 神却安排一条虫子咬这蓖麻，以致枯槁。

But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

8 日头出来的时候， 神安排炎热的东风，日头曝晒约拿的头，使他发昏，他就为自己求死，说：“我死了比活着还好！”

And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon 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 神对约拿说：“你因这棵蓖麻发怒合乎理吗？”他说：“我发怒以至于死，都合乎理！”

And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, [even] unto death.

10 耶和华说：“这蓖麻不是你栽种的，也不是你培养的；一夜发生，一夜干死，你尚且爱惜；

Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:

11 何况这尼尼微大城，其中不能分辨左手右手的有十二万多人，并有许多牲畜，我岂能不爱惜呢？”

And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and [also] much cattle?