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The Prophets · Old Testament

Jonah 4

Jonah 4: anger outside the city, a gourd, a worm and a question

General context

"But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry." He prays and gives his reason: this is what he said "when I was yet in my country," and it is why he fled to 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." He asks to die: "it is better for me to die than to live." The Lord answers with a question, "Doest thou well to be angry?" Jonah goes out and sits east of the city under a booth he makes, "till he might see what would become of the city." The Lord God prepares a gourd to shade his head and "to deliver him from his grief," and Jonah is "exceeding glad of the gourd." The next morning God prepares a worm that smites the gourd so it withers, and at sunrise "a vehement east wind"; the sun beats on Jonah's head, he faints and again says it is better to die. God asks, "Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?" and Jonah answers, "I do well to be angry, even unto death." The Lord closes the book with an argument and a question: Jonah pitied a gourd he did not labour for, which "came up in a night, and perished in a night," 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?"

Cited passages: Jonah 4:1, Jonah 4:2, Jonah 4:3, Jonah 4:4, Jonah 4:5, Jonah 4:6, Jonah 4:7, Jonah 4:8, Jonah 4:9, Jonah 4:10, Jonah 4:11

Jonah 4 (KJV)

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?

This page shows the King James Version. In the app, reading opens in the Berean Standard Bible unless you have chosen another translation. The reader includes five translations: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), the King James Version (KJV), the World English Bible (WEB), the Bible in Basic English (BBE), and the American Standard Version (ASV). Search covers three of them: Berean Standard, King James, and World English. Basic English and American Standard readers search the King James words.

Historical context

Jonah's reason for fleeing appears here for the first time, in his own words, and he says he had spoken it before, "when I was yet in my country." That earlier speech is not printed anywhere in chapter 1, so the reader has it only on his account. The words he uses for the Lord, "a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil," run close to Joel 2:13, "for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil." Four things in the book are said to be prepared: the fish at 1:17, then the gourd, the worm and the east wind here. The count at the end, "more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand," is given without explanation of who is meant, and "also much cattle" is added to it. The book ends on the Lord's question. Jonah makes no reply, and nothing further is said about him or about the city.

Cited passages: Jonah 4:2, Joel 2:13, Jonah 1:17, Jonah 4:6, Jonah 4:7, Jonah 4:8, Jonah 4:11

Literary context

The chapter works in pairs. Twice Jonah says "it is better for me to die than to live," once over the sparing of the city and once over a withered plant. Twice he is asked the same question, "Doest thou well to be angry?", and only the second time does he answer. The gourd rises and falls in a day, given and taken by the same hand, and the one recorded gladness in the whole book is spent on it, "exceeding glad of the gourd." Jonah sits east of the city to watch "what would become of the city," so his last posture is a spectator's. The closing argument sets a plant against a city and a night's growth against "more than sixscore thousand persons", and it ends with the cattle, which brings back the beasts the king had put in sackcloth. The book stops on a question with no answer printed, and Jonah's last words are "I do well to be angry, even unto death."

Cited passages: Jonah 4:3, Jonah 4:8, Jonah 4:4, Jonah 4:9, Jonah 4:6, Jonah 4:10, Jonah 4:5, Jonah 4:11, Jonah 3:7

Key moments

  1. Very angry (Jonah 4:1). The sparing of the city displeases Jonah exceedingly and makes him angry.
  2. Was not this my saying (Jonah 4:2). Jonah says he fled because he knew the Lord to be gracious and ready to relent.
  3. Take my life from me (Jonah 4:3). He asks the Lord to take his life, saying death is better than living.
  4. A booth east of the city (Jonah 4:5). Jonah sits outside Nineveh under a shelter to watch what will happen to it.
  5. Glad of the gourd (Jonah 4:6). God raises a gourd for shade and Jonah is exceeding glad of it.
  6. A worm and an east wind (Jonah 4:7). A worm withers the gourd, and the next day a vehement east wind comes with the sun.
  7. Should not I spare Nineveh (Jonah 4:11). The book ends with the Lord's question about the city, its people and its cattle.

For reflection

The book ends with a question put to Jonah and no answer printed, and his last recorded words are "I do well to be angry, even unto death." What is left with the reader by stopping there instead of reporting what he said next?

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