Jonah 4:9

9 God asked Yonah, "Is it right for you to be so angry about the castor-bean plant?" He answered, "Yes, it's right for me to be so angry that I could die!"

Jonah 4:9 Meaning and Commentary

Jonah 4:9

And God said to Jonah, dost thou well to be angry for the
gourd?
&c.] Or, "art thou very angry for it?" as the Targum: no mention is made of the blustering wind and scorching sun, because the gourd or plant raised up over him would have protected him from the injuries of both, had it continued; and it was for the loss of that that Jonah was so displeased, and in such a passion. This question is put in order to draw out the following answer, and so give an opportunity of improving this affair to the end for which it was designed: and he said, I do well to be angry, [even] unto death;
or, "I am very angry unto death", as the Targum; I am so very angry that I cannot live under it for fretting and vexing; and it is right for me to be so, though I die with the passion of it: how ungovernable are the passions of men, and to what insolence do they rise when under the power of them!

Jonah 4:9 In-Context

7 But at dawn the next day God prepared a worm, which attacked the castor-bean plant, so that it dried up.

8 Then, when the sun rose, God prepared a scorching east wind; and the sun beat down on Yonah's head so hard that he grew faint and begged that he could die, saying, "I would be better off dead than alive."

9 God asked Yonah, "Is it right for you to be so angry about the castor-bean plant?" He answered, "Yes, it's right for me to be so angry that I could die!"

10 ADONAI said, "You're concerned over the castor-bean plant, which cost you no effort; you didn't make it grow; it came up in a night and perished in a night.

11 So shouldn't I be concerned about the great city of Ninveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people who don't know their right hand from their left - not to mention all the animals?"