Jonah 4

Should I Not Pity That Great City?

← Jonah 3  ·  Jonah: all chapters  ·  Micah 1 →

Jonah’s Grief and Prayer

4:1Jonah was grieved with great grief and was disturbed.

4:2He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, were these not my words while I was still in my own land? That is why I was quick to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are merciful and compassionate, patient, abundant in mercy, and relenting concerning calamities.

4:3And now, Master Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

4:4The Lord said to Jonah, “Are you deeply grieved?”

The Gourd and the Worm

4:5Jonah went out of the city and sat opposite the city. He made himself a shelter there and sat beneath it in the shade, until he could see what would happen to the city.

4:6The Lord God commanded a gourd, and it grew up above Jonah’s head, to provide shade over his head and shelter him from his troubles. Jonah rejoiced over the gourd with great joy.

4:7God commanded a worm at dawn the next day; it struck the gourd, and it dried up.

4:8As the sun rose, God commanded a burning, scorching wind. The sun struck Jonah’s head; he lost heart, renounced his life and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

4:9God said to Jonah, “Are you deeply grieved about the gourd?” He said, “I am deeply grieved, even to death.”

Shall I Not Spare Nineveh?

4:10The Lord said, “You spared the gourd, over which you did not suffer toil and which you did not nurture, which came to be in a night and perished in a night.

4:11And shall I not spare Nineveh, the great city, in which dwell more than one hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right from their left, and much livestock?”

← Jonah 3  ·  Jonah: all chapters  ·  Micah 1 →

Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.