< Jonah 4 >
1 Therefore it displeased Ionah exceedingly, and he was angry.
And it is grievous to Jonah—a great evil—and he is displeased at it;
2 And he prayed vnto the Lord, and saide, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my countrey? therefore I preuented it to flee vnto Tarshish: for I knewe that thou art a gratious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindnes, and repentest thee of the euill.
and he prays to YHWH, and he says, “Ah, now, O YHWH, is this not my word while I was in my own land—therefore I was beforehand [going] to flee to Tarshish—that I have known that You [are] a God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in kindness, and relenting of evil?
3 Therefore nowe O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me: for it is better for me to die then to liue.
And now, O YHWH, please take my soul from me, for better [is] my death than my life.”
4 Then saide the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?
And YHWH says, “Is doing good displeasing to you?”
5 So Ionah went out of the citie and sate on the East side of the citie, and there made him a boothe, and sate vnder it in the shadowe till he might see what should be done in the citie.
And Jonah goes forth from the city, and sits on the east of the city, and makes a shelter for himself there, and sits under it in the shade, until he sees what is in the city.
6 And the Lord God prepared a gourde, and made it to come vp ouer Ionah, that it might be a shadowe ouer his head and deliuer him from his griefe. So Ionah was exceeding glad of the gourde.
And YHWH God appoints a gourd, and causes it to come up over Jonah, to be a shade over his head, to give deliverance to him from his affliction, and Jonah rejoices because of the gourd [with] great joy.
7 But God prepared a worme when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered.
And God appoints a worm at the going up of the dawn on the next day, and it strikes the gourd, and it dries up.
8 And when the sunne did arise, God prepared also a feruent East winde: and the sunne beat vpon the head of Ionah, that he fainted, and wished in his heart to die, and said, It is better for me to dye, then to liue.
And it comes to pass, about the rising of the sun, that God appoints a cutting east wind, and the sun strikes on the head of Jonah, and he wraps himself up, and asks for his soul to die, and says, “Better [is] my death than my life.”
9 And God said vnto Ionah, Doest thou well to be angrie for the gourde? And he said, I doe well to be angrie vnto the death.
And God says to Jonah: “Is doing good displeasing to you, because of the gourd?” And he says, “To do good is displeasing to me—to death.”
10 Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pitie on the gourde for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it growe, which came vp in a night, and perished in a night,
And YHWH says, “You have had pity on the gourd, for which you did not labor, neither did you nourish it, which came up [as] a son of night, and perished [as] a son of night,
11 And shoulde not I spare Nineueh that great citie, wherein are sixe score thousande persons, that cannot discerne betweene their right hand, and their left hand, and also much cattell?
and I—do I not have pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than one hundred twenty thousand of mankind, who have not known between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”