Jonah 4
1 And it is grievous to Jonah—a great evil—and he is displeased at it;
And it was vexing unto Jonah, with a great vexation, —and it angered him.
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?
So he prayed unto Yahweh, and said—Ah now! Yahweh! Was not, this, my word, while I was yet upon mine own soil? For this cause, did I hasten to flee unto Tarshish, —because I knew that, thou, art a GOD of favour and compassion, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and art grieved over calamity.
3 And now, O YHWH, please take my soul from me, for better [is] my death than my life.”
Now, therefore, O Yahweh, take, I pray thee, my life from me, —for it were better for me, to die, than, to live.
4 And YHWH says, “Is doing good displeasing to you?”
Then said Yahweh, Art thou rightly 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.
But Jonah, went forth, out of the city, and abode on the east side of the city; and made for himself there, a hut, and sat under it, in the shade, until he should see what would become of 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.
Now Yahweh God appointed a gourd, and caused it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his vexation, —and Jonah rejoiced over the gourd, with great rejoicing.
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.
But God appointed a worm, at the uprisings of the dawn, the next day, —and it smote the gourd, that 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.”
And it came to pass, at the breaking forth of the sun, that God appointed a sultry east wind, and the sun smote upon the head of Jonah, that he became faint, —and asked his life, that he might die, and said, It were better for me, to die, than, to live.
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.”
Then said God unto Jonah, Art thou rightly angry over the gourd? And he said, I am rightly angry, unto death.
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 said Yahweh, Thou, wouldest have spared the gourd, for which thou hadst not toiled, neither hadst thou made it grow, —which, as the off-spring of a night, came up, and, as the offspring of a night, perished;
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?”
And was not, I, to spare Nineveh, the great city, —wherein are more than twelve times ten thousand human beings, who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, besides much cattle?
