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About this chapterJonah is furious that God spared Nineveh, and prays that this is exactly why he fled to Tarshish: he knew God is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. He asks to die. God asks him gently if he has a right to be angry. Jonah sits outside the city, and God causes a plant to grow to shade him, which makes him very glad; the next day a worm attacks it and it withers, and Jonah is faint and angry again. God then asks whether he should not be concerned about the great city with more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many animals. The book ends with the question, unanswered.

Jonah is furious that God spared Nineveh, and prays that this is exactly why he fled to Tarshish: he knew God is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. He asks to die. God asks him gently if he has a right to be angry. Jonah sits outside the city, and God causes a plant to grow to shade him, which makes him very glad; the next day a worm attacks it and it withers, and Jonah is faint and angry again. God then asks whether he should not be concerned about the great city with more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many animals. The book ends with the question, unanswered.

Themes

  • Anger at mercy
  • God's compassion for outsiders
  • A question left open

Key verses

Audio Bible · Jonah 4

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Jonah 4

Berean Standard Bible11 verses · 1 min read

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?”
Verses in Jonah 4

Chapters of Jonah

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