Jonah 4

Expanded Bible

God’s Mercy Makes Jonah Angry

4 But this made Jonah very unhappy, and he became angry. ² He prayed to the Lord, “When I was still in my own country ·this is [^Lisn’t this…?] what I said would happen, and that is why I quickly ran away to Tarshish [1:3]. I knew that you are a God who is ·kind [gracious] and ·shows mercy [compassionate]. ·You don’t become angry quickly […slow to anger], and you ·have great love [abound in lovingkindness/mercy; Ex. 34:6–7]. I knew you would ·choose not to cause [relent from doing] harm. ³ So now I ask you, Lord, please ·kill me [take my life]. It is better for me to die than to live.”

⁴ Then the Lord said, “Do you think it is right for you to be angry?”

⁵ Jonah went out and sat down east of the city. There he made a shelter for himself and sat in the shade, waiting to see what would happen to the city. ⁶ The Lord made a ·plant [gourd] grow quickly up over Jonah, which gave him shade and ·helped him to be more comfortable [eased his discomfort]. Jonah was very pleased to have the ·plant [gourd]. ⁷ But the next day when the sun rose, God sent a worm to attack the ·plant [gourd] so that it ·died [dried up; withered].

⁸ As the sun rose higher in the sky, God sent a very hot east wind to blow, and the sun ·became so hot [beat down] on Jonah’s head that he became ·very weak [faint] and wished he were dead. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Do you think it is right for you to be angry about the ·plant [gourd]?”

Jonah answered, “It is right for me to be angry! I am so angry I could die!”

¹⁰ And the Lord said, “You ·are so concerned [have pity] for that ·plant [gourd] even though you did nothing to make it grow. It appeared ·one day [overnight], and ·the next day [overnight] it died. ¹¹ Then shouldn’t I ·show concern [have pity] for the great city Nineveh, which has more than one hundred twenty thousand people who do not know ·right from wrong [^Ltheir right hand from their left], and ·many animals [much cattle], too?”