Jonah 4

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

But this seemed very wrong to Jonah and he became angry.

2 And he prayed to the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before to Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest of the evil.

He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Ah, Lord, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? That was why I fled at once to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, patient, and loving and ready to forgive.

3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

Therefore, Lord, I beg you, take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live!’

4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

But the Lord said, ‘Are you doing right in being angry?’

5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down on the east side, and there made a hut for himself and sat under it, waiting to see what would become of the city.

6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

And the Lord arranged for a bush to grow up over Jonah as a shade for his head to make him comfortable. The bush gave Jonah great pleasure;

7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

but at dawn the next day God arranged for a worm which attacked the bush, so that it wilted.

8 And it came to pass, when the sun rose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

And when the sun rose, God arranged a hot east wind. And the sun beat upon Jonah’s head, so that he was faint and begged that he might die, saying, ‘It is better for me to die than to live.’

9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even to death.

But God said to Jonah, ‘Are you doing right in being angry about the bush?’ He replied, ‘I have every right to be as angry as I could possibly be!’

10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not laboured, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:

The Lord said, ‘You care about a bush which has cost you no trouble and which you have not made grow, which came up in a night and wilted in a night.

11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than an hundred and twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also many cattle?

Should I not care for the great city Nineveh, in which there are one hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left; and many cattle too?’