Jonahchapter 4
11 verses · BSBJonah book hub →
Original Language
Jonah 4— Hebrew word study · with the Hebrew tradition
In Jewish life
Jewish practice and Jewish teaching both have something to say about Jonah 4. Three things follow: where it is read, what is done because of it, and how the rabbis have taught it. The purpose is to inform a Christian reader what Jews believe and how Judaism was and is practised.
The reading
Read whole at Yom Kippur
At the afternoon service, as the Haftarah.
Jonah is read whole as the prophetic reading of the afternoon service on the Day of Atonement, followed by the closing verses of Micah on God pardoning iniquity. The reason given is the book's subject: a city that repents and is spared.
Source: Babylonian Talmud Megillah 31a, which names the reading for that service.
The verse numbers here are the ones a Hebrew Bible carries, which differ from an English Bible by a verse or two in several places. The Sephardi reading is named only where this site records a difference; communities vary beyond what is listed. What these books are, and how a Christian reader meets them →
Where the rabbis cite this chapter
6 rows sit beside their verses in the text, on 4 verses of this chapter. No row that speaks to the chapter as a whole is recorded. Every quote links to its full source.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria (sefaria.org); excerpts follow each version’s license, and every passage opens at its source.
How to read a word below: the Hebrewword, then how it sounds, then what it means, then its number in Strong’s concordance, a widely used lookup this site follows (H for Hebrew and Aramaic, G for Greek). Square brackets hold a word the English supplies that the Hebrew does not, angle brackets mark the Hebrew’s own grammatical elements that English renders as separate words, and the mark ס or פ is where the Hebrew manuscripts end a paragraph.
Angry enough to die: I knew you were a gracious God1
Jonah 4:1· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Rashi on Jonah 4:1
Now it displeased Jonah —He said, “Now the nations will say that I am a false prophet.” [from Pirké d’Rabbi Eliezer ch. 10]
Read it in full at Sefaria · The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
Targum Jonathan on Jonah 4:1
And this displeased Jonah as greatly evil, and he raised an objection.
Read it in full at Sefaria · Sefaria Community Translation
Jonah 4:2· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Rashi on Jonah 4:2
was this not my contention —I know that, if they repent, You will not destroy them, and I will appear to them as a liar.
Read it in full at Sefaria · The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
Jonah 4:3· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Radak on Jonah 4:3
Now, please, take my life: so that I do not see the harm to Israel, like Moses our Teacher of blessed memory said, "erase me from Your book," and "kill me, please."
Read it in full at Sefaria · Sefaria Community Translation
Jonah 4:4· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
A gourd, a worm, and a scorching east wind5
Jonah 4:5· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 4:6· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 4:7· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 4:8· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Should I not spare a city of 120,000 and much cattle?9
Jonah 4:9· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Jonah 4:10· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible
Rashi on Jonah 4:10
for which you did not toil —with plowing, sowing, or watering.
Read it in full at Sefaria · The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
Targum Jonathan on Jonah 4:10
And the LORD said, “You! You had mercy on the gourd which you didn’t work for and you didn’t grow, one night it was there and the next it was gone.
Read it in full at Sefaria · Sefaria Community Translation
Jonah 4:11· Hebrew and glosses: STEP Bible