Jonah 4
1 But Jonah was very deeply grieved,
and he was confounded. 2 And he prayed
to the Lord, and said, O Lord, were not these my words when I was yet in my
land? therefore I
aGr. anticipate.made haste to flee to Tharsis; because I knew that thou art merciful and
compassionate, long-suffering, and abundant in kindness, and repentest of
evil. 3 And now,
bGr. sovereign Lord.Lord God, take my life from me; for it is better for
me to die than to live. 4 And the Lord
said to Jonah, Art thou very much grieved?
5 And Jonah went out from the city,
and sat over against the city; and he made for himself there a booth, and he
sat under it, until he should perceive what would become of the city.
6 And the Lord God commanded a gourd,
and it came up over the head of Jonah, to be a shadow over his head, to shade
him from his calamities: and Jonah rejoiced with great joy for the gourd.
7 And God commanded a worm the next
morning, and it smote the gourd, and it withered away.
8 And it came to pass at the rising of
the sun, that God commanded a burning east wind; and the sun smote on the head
of Jonah, and he fainted, and despaired of his life, and said,
It is better for me to die than to live.
9 And God said to Jonah, Art thou very
much grieved for the gourd? And he said, I am very much grieved, even to
death.
10 And the Lord said, Thou hadst pity
on the gourd, for which thou hast not suffered, neither didst thou rear it;
which came up
cOr, little before.before night, and perished before another night:
11 and shall not I spare Nineve, the
great city, in which dwell more than twelve myriads of human beings, who do
not know their right hand or their left hand; and
also much cattle?