Jon 4 | LSB | STEP | But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry.

Jonah 4

Jonah’s Anger

1 But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “Ah! O Yahweh, was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land? Therefore I went ahead to flee 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 evil. 3 So now, O Yahweh, please take my ^{▼▼Lit soul}life from me, for death is better to me than life.” 4 And Yahweh said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”

5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. And there he made a booth for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So Yahweh God appointed a ^{▼▼Probably a castor oil plant, so through v 10}plant, and it came up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his miserable evil. And Jonah was ^{▼▼Lit greatly}extremely glad about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm at the ^{▼▼Lit rising}breaking of dawn the next day, and it struck the plant, and ^{▼▼The plant}it dried up. 8 Then it happened that as the sun rose up, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun struck down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and asked with all his soul to die and said, “Death is better to me than life.”

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.” 10 Then Yahweh said, “You had pity on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which ^{▼▼Lit was a son of a night}came to be overnight and perished ^{▼▼Lit a son of a night}overnight. 11 So should I not have pity 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 ^{▼▼Lit beasts, cattle; cf. 3:7-8}animals?”