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Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
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Commentary & Explanation
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Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
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CHAPTER 4
Jonah is displeased with the Lord for his mercy upon the people—The
Lord rebukes him.
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1 BUT it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
2 And 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 amerciful, slow to anger, and of great
kindness, and brepentest thee of the evil.
3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
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4 ¶ Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the
east side of the city, and there made him a abooth, and sat
under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the
citya.
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5a till he might see what would become of
the city Perhaps in the spirit of the power of God did Jonah view
the city of Nineveh for to see the power of God destroy it. Jonah's own
ordeal had left him with a vested personal interest in the fate of Nineveh.
He had suffered much and he had experienced the power of God unto his own
deliverence in order that he might testify unto Nineveh of their wickedness
and that because of it the Lord God Jehovah would destory that wicked city.
Yet repentancne may defer such punishment and destruction. Hezekiah in his
appeal had his life extended. And if there is repentance the Lord does
withdraw such destruction which would otherwise over hang. Because of such as
Josiah, Jerusalem's fate was posponed. Now because of the actions of the king
of Nineveh, and his willingness to repent and have his people so repent, the
Lord would defer his destruction of Nineveh, at least until another
generation and 612 BC.
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6 And the LORD God prepared a
agourd, 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.
7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise,
that God prepared a vehement aeast 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.
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9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be
aangry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry,
even unto death.
10 Then 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:
11 And should not I aspare
Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand
bpersons that cannot cdiscern between
their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
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