Jonahchapter 4
11 verses · BSBJonah book hub →
Speaks with:Jonah 4×31 Kings 19×2Jonah 1×2Luke 15×2Matthew 20×2Psalms 86×1
Summary
Chapter summary
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?
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?
The outline
A.Angry enough to die: I knew you were a gracious Godvv. 1 to 4
Read vv. 1 to 4 →B.A gourd, a worm, and a scorching east windvv. 5 to 8
Read vv. 5 to 8 →C.Should I not spare a city of 120,000 and much cattle?vv. 9 to 11
Read vv. 9 to 11 →
The world behind this chapter
Jonah 4The history
Jonah finally explains why he ran, and it is not fear. He says he knew all along that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repents of the evil — which is a direct quotation of how God described Himself to Moses at Sinai. Jonah ran because he believed the creed and did not want it applied to Assyria.
He builds a booth on the east side of the city and sits in it. The shelter would be branches over a frame, the same kind of temporary hut used at harvest and at the Feast of Tabernacles — enough for shade, not enough for a hot wind.
The plant that grows over him is called a qiqayon, often identified with the castor-oil plant, which grows fast, has broad leaves, and can wilt overnight if the stem is damaged. A worm at the stem would do it.
The east wind that follows is the sirocco off the desert: dry, dust-laden, and brutally hot, a wind that regularly makes people ill in that region. Jonah, with no shade and that wind, asks to die.
God's closing question includes a number: more than 120,000 people who cannot discern between their right hand and their left — most naturally read as young children, which would put the wider population much higher — "and also much cattle." God's last recorded words in the book mention the livestock.
What it meant to them
The book ends on a question, unanswered. That is deliberate; the reader has to answer it.
For Israel, the point was that they had a God whose compassion ran past their borders and past their enemies' record, and that this was not a flaw in Him. Jonah cared more about a plant he did not grow than about a city of people. The prophet's anger, not Nineveh's wickedness, is the last thing the book examines.
Sources cited
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets
- Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jonah 4. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 2 · Quoted here
YHWH proclaims his own Name/character ('merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love'); Jonah quotes it back near-verbatim. Most-reused divine self-revelation (also Joel 2:13, Ps 86:15, Neh 9:17).
Exodus 34:6→Then 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,
text Exod 34:6 / Jonah 4:2; Jewish Encyclopedia
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.