Jonah 4
1 Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly; and he was wroth.
2 So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.
And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my word, while I was yet in my own country? Therefore made I haste to fly unto Tharshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, long-suffering, and abundant in kindness, and repentant of the evil.
3 And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
And now, O Lord, take, I pray thee, my soul from me; because it is better for me to die, than to live.
4 But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”
And the Lord said, Art thou very wroth?
5 Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.
Now Jonah was gone out of the city, and dwelt on the east side of the city; and he had made himself there a booth, and sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.
6 So the LORD God appointed a vine, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.
And the Lord God made ready a gourd, and it grew up over Jonah, to be a shade over his head, to relieve him from his affliction. And Jonah rejoiced because of the gourd exceedingly.
7 When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.
But God made ready a worm when the morning dawned on the morrow, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
8 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God made ready a hot east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he became faint; and he wished for himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
9 Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”
And God said unto Jonah, Art thou very wroth for the gourd? And he said, I am very wroth, even unto death.
10 But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night.
And the Lord said, Thou wouldst have spared the gourd, for which thou hadst not labored, neither hadst thou made it grow; which came up in one night, and perished in one night;
11 So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”
And shall I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than twelve times ten thousand persons, who know not how to discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?
