Jonah 4
Jonah was angry with God for sparing Nineveh, and he prayed for death, believing God's mercy was not just. God asked Jonah if he had the right to be angry, but Jonah didn't respond. Instead, he waited to see what would happen to the city, and God provided a vine to ease his discomfort, only to have it wither the next day. When Jonah became angry again, God used the vine as a metaphor to explain that He was more concerned about the people of Nineveh than Jonah was about the vine.
1But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.2He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.3Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."4But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"5Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.6Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.7But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.8When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, "It would be better for me to die than to live."9But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."10But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.11But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
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