Jonah's preaching has led to an entire city submitting to YHWH and repenting of their wickedness. God then relents and spares the city. This was God's plan all along. But this was never Jonah's wish.
Jonah 4:1-3, I knew you would be nice to them!
But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD,
"O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."
In a surprise twist to our story, we learn that Jonah is unhappy about the repentance of the Ninevites. Indeed, this is apparently the reason that he ran west, towards Tarshish, and away from Nineveh. He did not want God to work in that city!
Jonah, in his anger, describes YHWH as gracious and compassionate, ready to forgive evil people like the Ninevites (Exodus 34:6.) The Hebrew word translated "compassionate" is rachum, linked (says Ellison) with rechem, "womb". It has carries an image of a mother's love for her child. The word translated "love" is my favorite Hebrw word, hesed.
Elijah asked God to take his life in 1 Kings 19:4. That cry was one of despair and fatigue; here Jonah seems to simply be angry at God's direction and compassion. He does not like the fact that God is good.
Jonah 4:4, Why?
But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"
A dialogue begins. Jonah is confronted a second time by YHWH, this time not by a storm but by a mere question.
Jonah 4:5-8, Shelter, shade, sirocco
Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.
Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.
But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."
Jonah finds a place east of the city to set up a shelter. He presumably wants to see what happens to this now repentant city. God provides a fast growing plant that rises up and provides shade. But after Jonah is relieved at the cool of his shelter and shade, the plant withers and dies. And suddenly a hot east wind turns Jonah's tent into a furnace.
In verse 6, the name of God is given YHWH Elohim ("LORD God"). Ellison points out that YHWH has been used in the description of God's involvement with Jonah (chapters 2 and 4) while Elohim has been used in the narration about the reactions of the pagans to God (chapters 1 and 3.) The combination YHWH Elohim here adds a certain emphasis which (as in 1:9) harkens back to the God of Creation (Genesis 2:4.)
God "provides" an east wind, as He "provided" a fish, vine and worm. The east wind is a sirocco, a common Mediterranean wind off the Sahara that brings dusty dry heat. (My wife and I have named many of our pet dogs after storms -- Chinook, Mistral, Brisa. Sirocco was a male sable sheltie.)
Jonah 4:9-11, Right from left
But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."
But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
Jonah is angry and miserable, suffering in the heat. God asks him, "Do you have a right to be angry about the withered vine?" "You bet!" shouts Jonah. And then God communicates His message. Poor self-righteous Jonah, angry about his suffering, upset to lose his precious shade, has no sympathy for 120,000 people who are clueless about righteousness. (They cannot tell their right hand from their left -- this is not really a statement about a mental handicap but a statement about their morality -- they do not know enough to choose good over evil.)
And they also have lots of cattle -- a strange comment that sounds like a non sequitur. God's final statement is, essentially, that although Jonah did not care about the people of Nineveh, He, YHWH Elohim (full of rachum and hesed) did care!
Our story ends suddenly, with that message for Jonah.
Some Random Thoughts
For the Pharisaic Jew (say, of Jesus's day) this book is a shock. It portrays a "good" legalistic Jew in poor light, who runs from God's compassionate plans and reacts in anger to God's love. The LORD God, YHWH Elohim, does indeed care for those nasty pagan Gentiles!
First published July 11, 2025; updated July 11, 2025
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