Jonah 4

International Standard Version

Jonah’s Anger at God’s Kindness

4 Greatly displeased, Jonah flew into a rage. ² So he prayed to the Lord, “Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my home country? That’s why I fled previously to Tarshish, because I knew you’re a compassionate God, slow to anger, overflowing with gracious love, and reluctant^[a] to send trouble. ³ Therefore, Lord, please kill me, because it’s better for me to die than to live!”

⁴ The Lord replied, “Does being angry make you right?”

Jonah’s Discouragement

⁵ Then Jonah left the city and sat down on the eastern side.^[b] There he made a shelter for himself and sat down under its shade to see what would happen to the city. ⁶ The Lord God prepared a vine plant,^[c] and it grew over Jonah to shade his head and provide relief from his misery. Jonah was happy—indeed, he was ecstatic—about the vine plant. ⁷ But at dawn the next day, God provided a worm that attacked the vine plant so that it withered away. ⁸ When the sun rose, God prepared a harsh east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head, he became faint, and he begged to die. “It is better for me to die than to live!” he said.

⁹ Then God asked Jonah, “Is your anger about the vine plant justified?”

And he answered, “Absolutely! I’m so angry I could die!”

¹⁰ But the Lord asked, “You cared about a vine plant that you neither worked on nor cultivated? A vine plant that grew up overnight and died overnight? ¹¹ So why shouldn’t I be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 human beings who do not know their right hand from their left,^[d] as well as a lot of livestock?