Jonah 4
The Message
“I Knew This Was Going to Happen!”
4 1-2 Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, “God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!
3 “So, God, if you won’t kill them, kill me! I’m better off dead!”
4 God said, “What do you have to be angry about?”
5 But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.
6 God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.
7-8 But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: “I’m better off dead!”
9 Then God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?”
Jonah said, “Plenty of right. It’s made me angry enough to die!”
10-11 God said, “What’s this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can’t I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?”
Jonah 4
Lexham English Bible
Jonah Is Angry at Yahweh’s Compassion
4 And this[a] was greatly displeasing[b] to Jonah, and he became furious.[c] 2 And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, was this not what I said[d] while I was in my homeland? Therefore I originally fled[e] to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and having great steadfast love,[f] and one who relents concerning calamity.[g] 3 And so then, Yahweh, please take my life from me, because for me death is better than life!” 4 And Yahweh said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”[h]
5 And Jonah went out from the city and sat down east of the city, and he made for himself a shelter there. And he sat under it in the shade, waiting to see[i] what would happen with the city. 6 And Yahweh God appointed a plant,[j] and he made it grow up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. And Jonah was very glad[k] about the plant. 7 So God appointed a worm at daybreak[l] the next day, and it attacked the plant, and it withered. 8 And when the sun rose,[m] God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he grew faint. And he asked that he could die[n] and said, “My death is better than my life!” 9 So God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry[o] about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry enough to die!”[p]
10 But Yahweh said, “You are troubled about the plant, for which you did not labor nor cause it to grow. It grew up in a night and it perished in a night![q] 11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, the great city, in which there are[r] more than one hundred and twenty thousand[s] people who do not know right from left,[t] plus many animals?”
Footnotes
- Jonah 4:1 Hebrew “it”
- Jonah 4:1 Literally “was displeasing with great displeasure”
- Jonah 4:1 Literally “it was hot for him”
- Jonah 4:2 Literally “my word”
- Jonah 4:2 Literally “I did the first time to flee”
- Jonah 4:2 Literally “and great of steadfast love”
- Jonah 4:2 That is, calamity sent by God as judgment
- Jonah 4:4 Literally “Rightfully is it hot for you”; some take this to mean “Are you so very angry?” (Targum Jonah 4:4; see also JPS, NEB, NET)
- Jonah 4:5 Literally “until he would see”
- Jonah 4:6 Probably a castor oil plant, though some have suggested some type of gourd plant
- Jonah 4:6 Literally “was glad with great joy”
- Jonah 4:7 Literally “at the coming up of the dawn”
- Jonah 4:8 Literally “and it happened at the rising of the sun”
- Jonah 4:8 Literally “and he asked his soul to die”
- Jonah 4:9 Literally “rightfully is it hot for you”; some take this to mean “Are you so very angry?” (Targum Jonah 4:4; see also JPS, NEB, NET)
- Jonah 4:9 Literally “Rightfully it is hot for me until death”
- Jonah 4:10 Literally “Which was a son of a night and as a son of a night it perished”
- Jonah 4:11 Literally “which there are in it”
- Jonah 4:11 Literally “than two ten myriad” (12 x 10,000)
- Jonah 4:11 “hand” is often supplied, but it is not clear just what deficiency is meant by this expression, which occurs only here in biblical Hebrew
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
2012 by Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software