Jonah 4

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

Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, 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.

So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.

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

And now, O LORD, please 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 replied, “Have you any right to be 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 shade, till he might see what would become of the city.

Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to 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.

So the LORD God appointed a vine, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.

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

When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

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.

As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to 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.

Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

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

But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night.

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

So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”