4
1 But it
displeased Jonah
exceedingly, and he
was angry.
2 He
prayed to the
LORD, and said, “Please, LORD, wasn’t this
what I said
when I was
still in my
own country? Therefore
I hurried to flee
to Tarshish, for
I knew that
you are a
gracious God and
merciful, slow to anger,
and abundant
in loving kindness,
and you relent
of doing harm.
3 Therefore
now, LORD, take,
I beg you,
my life from
me, for it
is better for
me to die
than to live.”
4 The
LORD said, “Is it
right for you
to be angry?”
5 Then
Jonah went out
of the city
and sat on
the east side
of the city,
and there made
himself a booth
and sat under
it in the
shade, until
he might see what
would become of
the city.
6 The
LORD God prepared
a vine and made
it to come
up over Jonah,
that it might
be a shade
over his head
to deliver him
from his discomfort.
So Jonah was
exceedingly glad
because of
the vine.
7 But God
prepared a worm
at dawn the
next day, and
it chewed on
the vine so that
it withered.
8 When
the sun arose, God
prepared a sultry
east wind; and
the sun beat
on Jonah’s head,
so that he
was faint and
requested for
himself that he
might die. He said,
“It is better
for me to
die than to
live.”
9 God said
to Jonah, “Is
it right for you
to be angry about
the vine?”
He said, “I am right
to be angry, even
to death.”
10 The
LORD said, “You
have been
concerned for
the vine, for
which you have
not labored,
neither made it
grow; which came
up in a
night and perished
in a night.
11 Shouldn’t I
be concerned for
Nineveh, that
great city, in
which are more
than one hundred
twenty thousand persons
who can’t discern
between their
right hand and
their left hand,
and also
many animals?”