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| Photo by Jim Tracy |
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, “I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil.”
I can just hear the sneer in Jonah’s voice. You see, he wasn’t afraid of the Nenevites as so many children’s books tell us. He was a bigot. He knew very well when he first received his call that the people would repent. He wanted God to kill them all. That was why he ran the other way.
3 “Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah is so disgusted with God and His mercy, he wishes for death. There is a great deal of pride here, also. He had prophesied that the city would be destroyed but now it wasn’t going to happen.
4 Then said the LORD, “Doest thou well to be angry?”
“Why are you mad? You are not behaving right.”
5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
The “booth” was a tent or lean-to.
He is sitting there on the hill with his arms crossed waiting for God to start throwing some lightening. Maybe if he sulks long enough God will kill those people?
6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
It was a hot day and the shade from the plant brought much relief. We don’t really know what kind of gourd plant it was, though gourds have vine-like branches with leaves as big as a foot across.
7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
Again, we don’t know for sure what kind of worm this was, though the leading opinion is a Scarlet Worm. These worms are where scarlet dye was derived from.
8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah was sure in a sorry state.
9 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.”
“So Jonah, is it a good thing to be angry because a plant died?”
“God, I have every right to be mad about my plant dying.”
10 Then said the LORD, “Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
11 “And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six-score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”
This may be referring to children too young to know right from wrong or it may be referring to men who have never been taught right from wrong. Either way, more than 120,000 persons is only a fraction of the population. God thinks Jonah should be way more concerned with the humans in the city than with a dumb plant.
Unfortunately, this is where the Bible leaves us. We don’t know if Jonah repented for his bigotry or if he sat there until he died, though Jewish legend says he went back to Israel.
We do know that it would be about one hundred years (or two to four generations) before God destroys Nineveh. This generation appears to have gotten the message God sent them. Unfortunately, their descendants left God and returned to their cruel ways resulting in God’s eventual punishment.