4:1 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. |
4:2 He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my {own} country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. |
4:3 "Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life." |
4:4 The LORD said, "Do you have good reason to be angry?" |
4:5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. |
4:6 So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. |
4:7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. |
4:8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with {all} his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life." |
4:9 Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant? And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death."" |
4:10 Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and {which} you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. |
4:11 "Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know {the difference} between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?" |