Jonah 4

For Jonah, it was wrong, terribly wrong{, that God did not destroy Nineveh}. He became very angry about it.

He prayed to God, “See! God, This is exactly what I said would happen even before I left home! I knew that you are a God who acts very kindly and compassionately {toward all people}. You do not quickly become angry {with people who act in evil ways}. You love people very much, and you prefer to be merciful to people rather than to punish them. Therefore, I ran away to go to Tarshish in order to stop this very thing from happening.

So now, God, please kill me, because I would rather die than continue to live {if you do not destroy Nineveh}.” \*

God replied, “It is wrong for you to be angry {that I did not destroy Nineveh}.”

Then Jonah left the city {of Nineveh} and sat down {a short distance away} on the east side of the city. There he made a small shelter to shade himself {from the sun}. He stayed under the shelter and waited to see what would happen to the city. \*

Then God caused a plant to grow up {very quickly} above Jonah to shade his head {from the sun}. God did that in order to remove the bad things that Jonah was experiencing. Jonah was very happy to have this plant {that shaded him from the sun}.

Then, at dawn the next day, God caused a worm to chew the plant so much that the plant withered away.

Then, shortly after the sun had risen, God caused a hot wind to blow from the east. The sun shone very hotly on Jonah’s head, and Jonah began to feel faint. He wanted to die and he exclaimed, “It would be better for me to die than to continue living!” \*

Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about what happened to the plant?” Jonah replied, “Yes, it is right for me to be angry! I am so angry that I want to die!” \*

Then God said to him, “As for you, you felt very sad about the plant when it died, even though you did not work to take care of it, nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up in one night, and it completely withered by the end of the next night.

In the same way, but very much more, it is right for me to feel sad about {destroying} the huge city of Nineveh. There are more than 120, 000 people living there who do not know right from wrong. There are also many animals. {I created all of them, so} it is right for me to be concerned about them.”