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Jonah 4

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Jonah's Anger at God's Mercy 1–4

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? ​

The Object Lesson of the Gourd 5–8

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. ​

God Challenges Jonah's Compassion 9–11

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? ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Jonah 4

Verse 1

it displeased Jonah exceedingly — Literally ‘it was evil to Jonah, a great evil’ (ra’ah, gadol), the word of 1:2 and 3:10: the ‘evil’ God turned from is ‘evil’ to Jonah. ‘Very angry’ is charah, to burn, the root of the ‘fierce’ (charon) anger the king hoped God would turn from in 3:9. Cain was ‘very wroth’ with the same verb (Gen 4:5).

Verse 2

gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger — Jonah recites the creed of Ex 34:6 as Joel 2:13 gives it: ‘gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil’. He says it is why he ‘fled’ (barach, as in 1:3). ‘I pray thee’ is anna, the sailors’ word in 1:14, and ‘repentest’ is nacham, the verb of 3:10.

Verse 3

it is better for me to die than to live — The wish stands beside those of Moses, ‘kill me, I pray thee, out of hand’ (Num 11:15), and Elijah, ‘It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life’ (1 Kings 19:4). Jonah repeats the words in v.8. In 1:12 he had asked to be thrown into the sea to spare the sailors; here the cause is his own anger at the mercy shown to Nineveh.

Verse 4

Doest thou well to be angry? — ‘Doest thou well’ is yatab, to be good, and the question is the one put to Cain, ‘Why art thou wroth?… If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?’ (Gen 4:6–7). The LORD asks it here and again in v.9. Jonah gives no reply, and leaves the city in v.5.

Verse 5

made him a booth — A sukkah, the word of the shelters of Lev 23:42, ‘Ye shall dwell in booths seven days’. ‘Shadow’ (tsel) is what the LORD himself gives: ‘The LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand’ (Ps 121:5). Jonah sits ‘till he might see what would become of the city’, the outcome of the forty days announced in 3:4.

Verse 6

the LORD God prepared a gourd — Qiqayon, ‘gourd’, occurs only in this chapter (vv.6, 7, 9, 10), and ‘prepared’ (manah) is the verb of the fish in 1:17. ‘Grief’ is ra’ah, ‘evil’, so the plant delivers Jonah from his ‘evil’, the word of 1:2 and 4:1. ‘Exceeding glad’ is ‘glad with a great gladness’, the only time the book says Jonah was glad.

Verse 7

God prepared a worm — Tola’at, ‘worm’, is the creature of Deut 28:39, where ‘the worms shall eat’ the vineyards of the disobedient, and of Ex 16:20, the stored manna that ‘bred worms’. ‘Prepared’ is the same verb as the fish and the gourd. ‘Smote’ (nakah) is the verb used of the sun in v.8, which ‘beat upon the head of Jonah’.

Verse 8

a vehement east wind — Qadim, the east wind, is the scorching wind of Hos 13:15, ‘the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness’, and the one that breaks ‘the ships of Tarshish’ in Ps 48:7. ‘Vehement’ (charishit) means sultry. This is the fourth thing the LORD ‘prepared’ (1:17; 4:6, 7, 8), and a ruach, the word of the ‘great wind’ of 1:4. Jonah again ‘wished in himself to die’.

Verse 9

I do well to be angry, even unto death — The question of v.4 is asked again with the gourd added, and Jonah, who gave no reply then, answers: ‘I do well’ (yatab) ‘to be angry’ (charah). ‘Even unto death’ follows his wishes to die in vv.3 and 8. The LORD’s reply in v.10 sets the gourd beside Nineveh.

Verse 10

Thou hast had pity on the gourd — Chus, ‘pity’, is the verb of v.11, ‘should not I spare Nineveh’. ‘Made it grow’ is gadal, the root of gadol, ‘great’. ‘Came up in a night’ is literally ‘was a son of a night’, and the plant ‘perished in a night’. Jonah neither laboured for it nor made it grow.

Verse 11

should not I spare Nineveh, that great city — The book opens with ‘that great city’ (1:2) and closes with the same words. ‘Spare’ (chus) is the verb of Jonah’s ‘pity’ in v.10. ‘Cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand’ describes those without knowledge, as ‘little ones… no knowledge between good and evil’ in Deut 1:39. ‘Much cattle’ answers ‘man and beast’ in 3:8.