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The Bible · 893 of 1189
Jonah 4
1.But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 2. And he prayed unto 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 unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. 3. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, 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?
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. 6. And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. 7. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. 8. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, 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. 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 unto death. 10. Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: 11. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
Asked of Guide
Why is Jonah so angry about Nineveh’s repentance when God shows mercy to the city?
Jonah is angry because he expected God to punish Nineveh and resents God’s compassion; he says earlier, “I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger” and would rather die than see their reprieve. The chapter shows Jonah’s pride and narrow hope: he cares more about justice as retribution than about God’s mercy toward people and animals in the city.
God responds by exposing Jonah’s misplaced sympathy for a gourd he did not plant and contrasting it with the city of “more than sixscore thousand persons” who cannot discern right from left, asking Jonah to see God’s broader compassion. This confrontation echoes themes in Luke 15 (the shepherd and the lost sheep) about God seeking the lost rather than seeking their punishment.
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