CHAPTER 4
So he prayed
to
the LORD,
saying,
“O
LORD,
is this
not
what I said
while
I was
still in
my own country?
This is why
I was so quick
to flee
toward Tarshish.
I knew
that
You are
a gracious
and compassionate
God,
slow
to anger,
abounding
in loving devotion—
One who relents
from
sending disaster.
Then Jonah
left
the city
and sat down
east
of it,
where
he made
himself a shelter
and sat
in its shade
to
see
what
would happen
to the city.
So the LORD
God
appointed
a vine,
and it grew up
to provide
shade
over
Jonah’s
head
to ease
his
discomfort,
and Jonah
was greatly
pleased
with
the plant.
As the sun
was rising,
God
appointed
a scorching
east
wind,
and the sun
beat down
on
Jonah’s
head
so that he grew faint
and wished
to die,
saying,
“It is better
for me to die
than to live.”
Then God
asked
Jonah,
“Have you
any right
to be angry
about
the plant?”
“I do,”
he replied.
“I am angry
enough to
die!”
But the LORD
said,
“You
cared
about
the plant,
which
you neither
tended
nor
made grow.
It sprang up
in a night
and perished
in a night.
So should I
not
care
about
the great
city
of Nineveh,
which
has
more than
120,000
people
who
cannot
tell
their right hand
from their left,
and many
cattle as well?”