Jonah 4:9
in Jonah 4Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
KJV
And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
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This verse in Jonah 4
Commentary
9 notes on this verse"And God said to Jonah, Do you well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death." LXX: 'and the Lord God said to Jonah, are you so afflicted for a gourd? He replied, 'I am very afflicted even to the point of death'. When he was asked about the repentance of the inhabitants of Nineveh and the safety of the city of the gentiles, 'do you well to be angry?', the prophet replied nothing, yet justified God's question by his silence.
This site's exposition
Have you any right to be angry about the plant?
God repeats His question, narrowed now to the plant, and Jonah's answer, "I am angry enough to die!", defends his anger over a dead plant. He grieves a plant that cost him no labor, as Pusey notes, while he begrudges mercy to a city of more than 120,000 people.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
And God said to Jonah, dost thou well to be angry for the gourd?.... Or, "art thou very angry for it?" as the Targum: no mention is made of the blustering wind and scorching sun, because the gourd or plant raised up over him would have protected him from the injuries of both, had it continued; and it was for the loss of that that Jonah was so displeased, and in such a passion.
Sin and death are two very dreadful things, yet Jonah, in his heat, makes light of them both. He has so little regard for God as to fly in the face of his authority, and to say that he did well in that which God said was ill done. Passion often over-rules conscience, and forces it, when it is appealed to, to give a false judgment, as Jonah here did.
Jonah had said, I do well to be angry, but he could not prove it. God says and proves it, I do well to be merciful; and it is a great encouragement to poor sinners to hope that they shall find mercy with him, that he is so ready to justify himself in showing mercy and to triumph in those whom he makes the monuments of it, against those whose eye is evil because his is good.
Let us therefore own that we do ill, that we do very ill, to be angry for the gourd; and let us under such events quiet ourselves as a child that is weaned from his mother. His justification of his passion and discontent; and it is very strange,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Doest thou well to be angry? - o “See again how Almighty God, out of His boundless lovingkindness, with the yearning tenderness of a father, almost disporteth with the guileless souls of the saints! The palm-christ shades him: the prophet rejoices in it exceedingly. Then, in God’s Providence, the caterpillar attacks it, the burning East wind smites it, showing at the same time how very necessary the relief of its shade, that the prophet might be the more grieved, when deprived of such a good. He asketh him skillfully, was he very grieved? and that for a shrub?
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
But even this was not an unmitigated evil. Jonah was a type, as of Christ, so also of Israel. Jonah, though an outcast, was highly honored of God in Nineveh; so Israel's outcast condition would prove no impediment to her serving God's cause still, if only she was faithful to God.
I do well to be angry, even unto death - Many persons suppose that the gifts of prophecy and working miracles are the highest that can be conferred on man; but they are widely mistaken, for the gifts change not the heart. Jonah had the gift of prophecy, but had not received that grace which destroys the old man and creates the soul anew in Christ Jesus. This is the love of which St. Paul speaks, which if a man have not, though he had the gift of prophecy, and could miraculously remove mountains, yet in the sight of God, and for any good himself might reap from it, it would be as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Jonah was a prophet, and yet had all his old bad tempers about him, in a shameful predominancy. Balaam was of the same kind. So we find that God gave the gift of prophecy even to graceless men. But many of the prophets were sanctified in their nature before their call to the prophetic office, and were the most excellent of men.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
for which you did not toil —with plowing, sowing, or watering.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
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.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
15 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיֹּ֤אמֶר | vaiyomer | and he said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| אֱלֹהִים֙ | ʾelohim | God | H430 → | 2601 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| יוֹנָ֔ה | yonah | Jonah | H3124 → | 19 times |
| הַהֵיטֵ֥ב | haheitev | ¿ rightly <do well> | H3190 → | 117 times |
| חָרָֽה־ | charah- | does it burn | H2734 → | 91 times |
| לְךָ֖ | lekha | to <the> you | ||
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| הַקִּֽיקָי֑וֹן | hakikayon | the plant | H7021 → | 5 times |
| וַיֹּ֕אמֶר | vaiyomer | and he said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| הֵיטֵ֥ב | heitev | rightly <do well> | H3190 → | 117 times |
| חָֽרָה־ | charah- | it burns | H2734 → | 91 times |
| לִ֖י | li | to <the> me | ||
| עַד־ | ʾad- | to | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| מָֽוֶת׃ | mavet | death | H4194 → | 156 times |
וַיֹּ֤אמֶרand he said
vaiyomerH559 →5305 times
אֱלֹהִים֙God
ʾelohimH430 →2601 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
יוֹנָ֔הJonah
yonahH3124 →19 times
הַהֵיטֵ֥ב¿ rightly <do well>
haheitevH3190 →117 times
חָרָֽה־does it burn
charah-H2734 →91 times
לְךָ֖to <the> you
lekha
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
הַקִּֽיקָי֑וֹןthe plant
hakikayonH7021 →5 times
וַיֹּ֕אמֶרand he said
vaiyomerH559 →5305 times
הֵיטֵ֥בrightly <do well>
heitevH3190 →117 times
חָֽרָה־it burns
charah-H2734 →91 times
לִ֖יto <the> me
li
עַד־to
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
מָֽוֶת׃death
mavetH4194 →156 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 5:2For resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 7:9
Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger settles in the lap of a fool.
- Proverbs 12:16
A fool’s anger is known at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.
- 1 Samuel 18:8–9
And Saul was furious and resented this song. “They have ascribed tens of thousands to David,” he said, “but only thousands to me. What more can he have but the kingdom?”
- Psalms 107:17
Fools, in their rebellious ways, and through their iniquities, suffered affliction.
- Ecclesiastes 7:9
Through
Judges 16:16Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death,
it leads to
- Proverbs 7:21–23
With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him.
- Luke 18:5
yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice. Then she will stop wearing me out with her perpetual requests.’”
- Proverbs 7:21–23
Through
Job 18:4You who tear yourself in anger—should the earth be forsaken on your account, or the rocks be moved from their place?
it leads to
Where this verse is studied
About Jonah
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jonah, Chapter 4; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.