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| Photo by James Tracy |
1 But Jonah is very angry.
2 And he prayed to the I Am, and said, “I pray thee, O I AM, isn't this just what I was saying when I was still at home? That's why I ran away to Tarshish; because I knew that You are a gracious God, and merciful (can't you just hear the sneer in his voice?), slow to anger, and so very kind, and You trun away from destruction.
Jonah wasn’t afraid of the Ninevites 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 “and so, O I Am, I beg You to kill me. It's 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 the I Am said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and made himself a shelter there, and sat under it in the shade, until he saw what would happen to the city.
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 God, I AM, made a gourd to grow up over him to give him more shade and rescue him from his grief. So Jonah was very glad for 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 came the next day, and it ate the gourd plant so 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 happened, when the sun rose, that God sent a powerful east wind; and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah, so that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9 And God said to Jonah, “Are you doing right to be angry because of the gourd?” And he said, “I do have the right to be angry, even unto death.”
10 Then said the I AM, “You have had pity on the gourd, which you didn't even plant or take care of, which came up in a single night, and perished in a night:
11 “And shouldn't I spare Nineveh, that great city, where there are more than 120,000 people who can't even tell their right hand from their left hand; and also much cattle?”
This may be referring to children too young to know their right from their left, or it may be referring to adults who have never been taught right from wrong. Either way, more than 120,000 people 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.
6 And the God, I AM, made a gourd to grow up over him to give him more shade and rescue him from his grief. So Jonah was very glad for 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 came the next day, and it ate the gourd plant so 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 happened, when the sun rose, that God sent a powerful east wind; and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah, so that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9 And God said to Jonah, “Are you doing right to be angry because of the gourd?” And he said, “I do have the right to be angry, even unto death.”
10 Then said the I AM, “You have had pity on the gourd, which you didn't even plant or take care of, which came up in a single night, and perished in a night:
11 “And shouldn't I spare Nineveh, that great city, where there are more than 120,000 people who can't even tell their right hand from their left hand; and also much cattle?”
This may be referring to children too young to know their right from their left, or it may be referring to adults who have never been taught right from wrong. Either way, more than 120,000 people 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.