4
For Jonah, it was terribly wrong that God did not destroy Nineveh. He became very angry about it. 2 He prayed to Yahweh, “O Yahweh, This is exactly what I said would happen even before I left home! I know 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. The reason that I ran away to go to Tarshish was to stop this very thing from happening, because I wanted you to punish Nineveh. 3 So now, Yahweh, please kill me, because I would rather die than continue to live, if you do not destroy Nineveh.”4 Yahweh replied, “Is it right for you to be angry that I did not destroy Nineveh?”
5 Jonah did not answer, but went out of the city 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.
6 Then Yahweh God caused a plant to grow up very quickly above Jonah to shade his head from the sun. Yahweh did that in order to help Jonah change his evil attitude. Jonah was very happy to have this plant that shaded him from the sun. 7 Then, at dawn the next day, God caused a worm to chew the plant so much that the plant withered away. 8 Then, shortly after the sun had risen, God caused a hot wind to blow from the east. The sun shone very hot on Jonah’s head, and Jonah began to feel faint. He wanted to die, and he said, “It would be better for me to die than to continue living!”
9 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!”
10 Then Yahweh said to him, “You yourself 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 at the end of the next night. 11 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.”