International Standard Version

Jonah 4

1 Greatly displeased, Jonah flew into a rage.

2 So he prayed to the LORD, “LORD, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my home country? That’s why I fled previously to Tarshish, because I knew you’re a compassionate God, slow to anger, overflowing with gracious love, and reluctant ^a to send trouble.

3 Therefore, LORD, please kill me, because it’s better for me to die than to live!”

4 The LORD replied, “Does being angry make you right?”

5 Then Jonah left the city and sat down on the eastern side. ^b There he made a shelter for himself and sat down under its shade to see what would happen to the city.

6 The LORD God prepared a vine plant, ^c and it grew over Jonah to shade his head and provide relief from his misery. Jonah was happy—indeed, he was ecstatic—about the vine plant.

7 But at dawn the next day, God provided a worm that attacked the vine plant so that it withered away.

8 When the sun rose, God prepared a harsh east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head, he became faint, and he begged to die. “It is better for me to die than to live!” he said.

9 Then God asked Jonah, “Is your anger about the vine plant justified?” And he answered, “Absolutely! I’m so angry I could die!”

10 But the LORD asked, “You cared about a vine plant that you neither worked on nor cultivated? A vine plant that grew up overnight and died overnight?

11 So why shouldn’t I be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 human beings who do not know their right hand from their left, ^d as well as a lot of livestock?