Jonah 4

Jonahʼs Anger at the LORDʼs Compassionⓘ

Jonah's anger and complaint¹Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry.^{a 2}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. ³And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

⁴But the Lord replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

The vine, the worm and the wind⁵Then 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. ⁶So the Lord God appointed a vine,^b and it grew up to provide shade over Jonahʼs head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.

⁷When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

⁸As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonahʼs head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

God's closing question about Nineveh⁹Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?”

“I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

¹⁰But 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. ¹¹So 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?”