Jonah 4
1 And it is grievous to Jonah—a great evil—and he is displeased at it;
But this really upset Jonah, and he became very angry.
2 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?
He prayed to the Lord and told him, “Lord, wasn't this what I said when I was back home? That's why I ran away to Tarshish in the first place! For I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, very patient and full of kindhearted love, who relents from sending disaster.
3 And now, O YHWH, please take my soul from me, for better [is] my death than my life.”
So just kill me now, Lord, because I'd prefer to die than to live!”
4 And YHWH says, “Is doing good displeasing to you?”
The Lord responded, “Do you have a good reason to be so angry?”
5 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.
Jonah left the city and sat down to the east of it. There he made himself a shelter so he could sit in the shade and watch what would happen to the city.
6 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.
The Lord God had a plant grow up and provide shade over Jonah's head to ease his discomfort. Jonah was very happy with the plant.
7 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.
The next day at dawn the Lord had a maggot attack the plant and it withered.
8 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.”
Then as the sun came up the Lord arranged for a scorching east wind to blow, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and wanted to die. “I'd rather die than live!” he said.
9 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.”
But the Lord asked Jonah, “Do you have a good reason to be so angry about the plant?” “Yes I do!” Jonah replied. “I'm angry enough to die!”
10 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,
Then the Lord told Jonah, “You're concerned about a plant which you did nothing about, and you didn't make it grow. It came up overnight and died overnight.
11 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?”
Shouldn't I be concerned about the great city of Nineveh where one hundred and twenty thousand people live who don't know their right hand from their left, not to mention all the animals?”
