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Jonah's Displeasure Rebuked

¹ But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became ^(C1)angry.² He ^(C1)prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this ^(F1)what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore ^(F2)in order to forestall this I ^(C2)fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a ^(C3)gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.³ "Therefore now, O LORD, please ^(C1)take my ^(F1)life from me, for death is ^(C2)better to me than life."⁴ The LORD said, "Do you have good reason to be angry?"

⁵ Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of ^(F1)it. There he made a shelter for himself and ^(C1)sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.⁶ So the LORD God appointed a ^(F1)plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was ^(F2)extremely happy about the ^(F1)plant.⁷ But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it ^(C1)withered.⁸ When the sun came up God appointed a scorching ^(C1)east wind, and the ^(C2)sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, "^(C3)Death is better to me than life."

⁹ Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death."¹⁰ Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which ^(F1)came up overnight and perished ^(F2)overnight.¹¹ "Should I not ^(C1)have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not ^(C2)know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many ^(C3)animals?"