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Jonah 4
Nineveh is spared, and Jonah is furious. He finally admits why he fled: he knew God was gracious and merciful, and he did not want the city forgiven. He asks to die. The runaway prophet would rather be dead than watch his enemies live. The book ends not with the city but with a plant. God grows a vine for shade, then sends a worm to kill it, and Jonah's grief over a weed sets up the closing question that he never answers.
- 1
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
- 2
He prayed to the LORD, and said, “Please, LORD, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.
- 3
Therefore now, LORD, take, I beg you, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
- 4
The LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
- 5
Then Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would become of the city.
- 6
The LORD God prepared a vine and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the vine.
- 7
But God prepared a worm at dawn the next day, and it chewed on the vine so that it withered.
- 8
When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he was faint and requested for himself that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
- 9
God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?” He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.”
- 10
The LORD said, “You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night and perished in a night.
- 11
Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many animals?”
- 1
Mas isso desagradou profundamente a Jonas, e ele ficou irado.
- 2
Ele orou ao SENHOR e disse: “Por favor, SENHOR, não foi isso que eu disse quando ainda estava na minha terra? Por isso me apressei em fugir para Társis, pois eu sabia que o Senhor é um Deus gracioso e misericordioso, lento para a ira e rico em amor leal, e que desiste de trazer a desgraça.
- 3
Portanto agora, SENHOR, peço que tire a minha vida, pois é melhor para mim morrer do que viver.”
- 4
O SENHOR disse: “É certo você ficar irado?”
- 5
Então Jonas saiu da cidade e sentou-se no lado leste da cidade. Ali ele fez para si uma tenda e sentou-se debaixo dela, à sombra, até ver o que aconteceria com a cidade.
- 6
O SENHOR Deus preparou uma trepadeira e fez com que ela crescesse sobre Jonas, para que fosse uma sombra sobre a sua cabeça, a fim de livrá-lo do seu desconforto. E Jonas ficou extremamente alegre por causa da trepadeira.
- 7
Mas Deus preparou um verme ao amanhecer do dia seguinte, e ele roeu a trepadeira, de modo que ela secou.
- 8
Quando o sol nasceu, Deus preparou um vento leste abrasador; e o sol bateu na cabeça de Jonas, de modo que ele desfaleceu e pediu para morrer. Ele disse: “É melhor para mim morrer do que viver.”
- 9
Deus disse a Jonas: “É certo você ficar irado por causa da trepadeira?” Ele disse: “Eu tenho razão para ficar irado, até a morte.”
- 10
O SENHOR disse: “Você se importou com a trepadeira, pela qual você não trabalhou, nem a fez crescer; que nasceu em uma noite e pereceu em uma noite.
- 11
Não deveria eu me importar com Nínive, aquela grande cidade, na qual há mais de cento e vinte mil pessoas que não sabem discernir entre a sua mão direita e a sua mão esquerda, e também muitos animais?”
The vine that argues for Nineveh
God turns Jonah's own pity against his logic. Jonah mourns a vine he neither planted nor grew, one that came and went in a night. If a plant can move him, the argument runs, how much more a city.
The final verse counts "more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can't discern between their right hand and their left hand," and adds the cattle. God's last word is a question about mercy, left hanging over Jonah's silence.
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