Jonah 4 -- Old Testament -- Gospel Daily

Jonah

Chapter 4

Jonah's Anger and God's Lesson

Jonah becomes very angry that God has shown mercy to Nineveh rather than destroying it, recalling his original flight because he knew the Lord is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. He asks the Lord to take his life. Jonah sits on the east side of the city, and the Lord prepares a gourd to shade him. When a worm smites the gourd the next day so it withers, and a vehement east wind beats upon Jonah's head, he again wishes to die. The Lord questions whether Jonah does well to be angry, then teaches him a lesson: if Jonah grieves over a gourd he did not labor for, should not the Lord spare Nineveh, the great city with more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who cannot discern right from left, and also much cattle?

God's mercy toward allJonah's pride and angerDivine perspectiveValuing human souls

¹But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

²And 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.

³Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

⁴Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

⁵So 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.

⁶And 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.

⁷But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

⁸And 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.

⁹And 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.

¹⁰Then 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:

¹¹And 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?