Jonah 4
Dated 861 BC traditional (Jones)
In this chapter
Tagged in this chapter, with the number of its verses that name each.
Alive at this point
People whose recorded lifetimes span the middle of this chapter’s dated verses, though the chapter need not name them. Years are traditional (Jones).
- Amaziah862–809 BC
The text
The Berean Standard Bible is shown; switch to the King James or American Standard Version. A verse number links to that verse.
Read Jonah 411 verses
- 1
Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry.
- 2
So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.
- 3
And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
- 4
But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”
- 5
Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.
- 6
So the LORD God appointed a vine, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.
- 7
When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.
- 8
As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
- 9
Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”
- 10
But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night.
- 11
So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”