Jonah 4:5-11

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} what would happen with the city.

6 And Yahweh God appointed a plant, 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} about the plant.

7 So God appointed a worm {at daybreak} the next day, and it attacked the plant, and it withered.

8 {And when the sun rose}, 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} and said, "My death [is] better than my life!"

9 So God said to Jonah, "{Is it right for you to be angry} about the plant?" And he said, "{It is right for me to be angry enough to die}!"

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}!

11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, the great city, {in which there are} more {than one hundred and twenty thousand} people who do not know right from left, plus many animals?"

Jonah 4:5-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JONAH 4

This chapter gives us an account of Jonah's displeasure at the repentance of the Ninevites, and at the Lord's showing mercy unto them, Jon 4:1; the angry prayer of Jonah upon it, Jon 4:2,3; the Lord's gentle reproof of him for it, Jon 4:4; his conduct upon that, Jon 4:5; the gourd prepared for him; its rise, usefulness, and destruction, which raised different passions in Jonah, Jon 4:6-8; the improvement the Lord made of this to rebuke Jonah, for his displicency at the mercy he showed to the Ninevites, and to convict him of his folly, Jon 4:9-11.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "until he would see"
• [b]. Probably a castor oil plant, though some have suggested some type of gourd plant
• [c]. Literally "was glad with great joy"
• [d]. Literally "at the coming up of the dawn"
• [e]. Literally "and it happened at the rising of the sun"
• [f]. Literally "and he asked his soul to die"
• [g]. 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)
• [h]. Literally "Rightfully it is hot for me until death"
• [i]. Literally "Which was a son of a night and [as] a son of a night it perished"
• [j]. Literally "which there are in it"
• [k]. Literally "than two ten myriad" (12 x 10,000)
• [l]. "[hand]" is often supplied, but it is not clear just what deficiency is meant by this expression, which occurs only here in biblical Hebrew