Jonah's Anger at the LORD's Compassion
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but Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.
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He 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 graious and compassionate God,
slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relensts from sending calamity.
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Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."
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But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry?"
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Jonah 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.
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Then 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 happey about the vine.
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But at dawn the next day God provided a worm,
which chewed the vine so that it withered.
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When 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."
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But 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."
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But the LORD said, "You have ben concerned about this vine though you
did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.
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But 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?"