< Jonah 4 >
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly; and he was wroth.
2 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, take, I pray thee, my soul from me; because it is better for me to die, than to live.
4 And the Lord said, Art thou very wroth?
5 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 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 But God made ready a worm when the morning dawned on the morrow, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
8 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 And God said unto Jonah, Art thou very wroth for the gourd? And he said, I am very wroth, even unto death.
10 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 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?