Bible Chapter Summary
Jonah 4 Summary
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?
Key themes
Key verses
Jonah 4:1
“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.”
Jonah 4:2
“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.”
Jonah 4:6
“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.”
Jonah 4:11
“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?”
Read Jonah 4 in full
Study the complete chapter with interlinear Hebrew & Greek, verse-by-verse, in the Gospel Daily reader.
Open the full chapter