Bible Commentaries
Jonah 4

Verse 1

4:1 But it displeased {a} Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

(a) Because by this he would be taken as a false prophet, and so the name of God, which he preached, would be blasphemed.

Verse 2

4:2 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 {b} 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.

(b) Read Jonah 1:3 .

Verse 3

4:3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life {c} from me; for [it is] better for me to die than to live.

(c) Thus he prayed from grief, fearing that God’s name by this forgiveness might be blasphemed, as though he sent his Prophets forth to make known his judgments in vain.

Verse 4

4:4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be {d} angry?

(d) Will you judge when I do things for my glory, and when I do not?

Verse 5

4:5 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, {e} till he might see what would become of the city.

(e) For he doubted as yet whether God would show them mercy or not, and therefore after forty days he departed out of the city, to see what God would do.

Verse 6

4:6 And the LORD God prepared a {f} 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.

(f) Which was a further means to cover him from the heat of the sun, as he remained in his booth.

Verse 9

4:9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be {g} angry, [even] unto death.

(g) This declares the great inconveniences into which God’s servants fall when they give place to their own affections, and do not in all things willingly submit themselves to God.

Verse 11

4:11 And should {h} not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that {i} cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and [also] much cattle?

(h) Thus God mercifully reproves him who would pity himself and this gourd, and yet would keep God from showing his compassion to so many thousand people.

(i) Meaning that they were children and infants.