Jonah, 4

¹ But this was highly displeasing to Joʹnah, and he became hot with anger.

² So he prayed to Jehovah: “Ah, now, Jehovah, was this not my concern when I was in my own land? That is why I tried to flee to Tarʹshish in the first place; for I knew that you are a compassionate^*1 and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loyal love, one who feels grieved over calamity.

³ Now, O Jehovah, please take away my life,^*1 for it is better for me to die than to live.”

⁴ Jehovah asked: “Is it right for you to be so angry?”

⁵ Joʹnah then went out of the city and sat down east of the city. He made a shelter for himself there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.

⁶ Jehovah God then provided a bottle-gourd plant^*1 to grow up over Joʹnah, to give him shade for his head and to relieve his misery. And Joʹnah was very pleased with the bottle-gourd plant.

⁷ But the true God sent a worm at the break of dawn on the next day, and it attacked the bottle-gourd plant, and it withered.

⁸ When the sun began to shine, God also sent a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Joʹnah’s head, and he grew faint. He kept asking to die,^*1 and he kept saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

⁹ God asked Joʹnah: “Is it right for you to be so angry over the bottle-gourd plant?” At that he said: “I have a right to be angry, so angry that I want to die.”

¹⁰ But Jehovah said: “You felt sorry for the bottle-gourd plant, which you did not work for, nor did you make it grow; it grew in one night and perished in one night.

¹¹ Should I not also feel sorry for Ninʹe·veh the great city, in which there are more than 120,000 men who do not even know right from wrong,^*1 as well as their many animals?”