Jonah 4

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

Jonah became extremely angry and displeased when God spared Nineveh, and he prayed asking God to take his life. After the Lord questioned his anger, Jonah left the city, built a shelter east of it, and sat in the shade to observe the city. God then provided a vine to shade Jonah and ease his discomfort, causing Jonah to be very pleased. However, the next day at dawn, God appointed a worm that attacked the vine so that it withered, followed by a scorching east wind and intense sun that caused Jonah to grow faint and ask to die again. When God asked if he had a right to be angry about the plant, Jonah insisted he was angry enough to die. The Lord concluded by contrasting Jonah's pity for the untended plant with His own compassion for the great city of Nineveh, which contained more than 120,000 people and many cattle.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry. ²So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster. ³And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?” ⁵Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. ⁶So the LORD God appointed a vine, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant. ⁷When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. ⁸As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.” ⁹Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!” ¹⁰But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”

Test this chapter

Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.