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Jonah

Jonahchapter 4

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A.Angry enough to die: I knew you were a gracious Godvv. 1-4

1 Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry. 2 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. 3 And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

B.A gourd, a worm, and a scorching east windvv. 5-8

5 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. 6 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. 7 When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. 8 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.”

C.Should I not spare a city of 120,000 and much cattle?vv. 9-11

9 Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!” 10 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. 11 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?”

Commentary on this chapter: read the Exposition
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Chapter summary

The revival that delights heaven infuriates the preacher.

Read the rest, the context and the outline ▾

The revival that delights heaven infuriates the preacher. Jonah's prayer finally admits why he ran: 'I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness' (the Exodus 34 creed quoted as an accusation) followed by 'take, I beseech thee, my life from me.' God asks, 'Doest thou well to be angry?' then teaches by object lesson: a prepared gourd for shade, a prepared worm that kills it, a prepared sultry east wind. Jonah pities the plant he did not grow. God's closing question ends the book unanswered: should not I have regard for that great city, and its sixscore thousand who cannot discern their right hand from their left?

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Prophecy · Jonah — Jonah overview

  • A. 1–4 Angry enough to die: I knew you were a gracious God
  • B. 5–8 A gourd, a worm, and a scorching east wind
  • C. 9–11 Should I not spare a city of 120,000 and much cattle?
Top cross-references8 chapters ▾
  • Jonah 42 verses
    • Jonah 4:3And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
    • Jonah 4:9Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”
    • Read Jonah 4 →
  • 1 Kings 192 verses
    • 1 Kings 19:4while he himself traveled on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
    • 1 Kings 19:9There Elijah entered a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
    • Read 1 Kings 19 →
  • Jonah 12 verses
    • Jonah 1:2“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”
    • Jonah 1:17Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
    • Read Jonah 1 →
  • Luke 151 verse
4 more chapters this one speaks with
  • Matthew 201 verse
  • Psalms 861 verse
  • Exodus 341 verse
    • Exodus 34:6Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,
    • Read Exodus 34 →
  • Numbers 141 verse
    • Numbers 14:18‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’
    • Read Numbers 14 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.