Jonah (Jonas) 4

¹ And Jonas was exceedingly troubled , and was angry:

² And he prayed to the Lord, and said: I beseech thee, O Lord, is not this what I said, when I was yet in my own country? therefore I went before to flee into Tharsis: for I know that thou art a gracious and merciful God, patient, and of much compassion, and easy to forgive evil.

³ And now, O Lord, I beseech thee take my life from me: for it is better for me to die than to live.

⁴ And the Lord said: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry?

⁵ Then Jonas went out of the city, and sat toward the east side of the city: and he made himself a booth there, and he sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would befall the city. [1] "Was exceedingly troubled" : His concern was lest he should pass for a false prophet; or rather, lest God's word, by this occasion, might come to be slighted and disbelieved.

⁶ And the Lord God prepared an ivy , and it came up over the head of Jonas, to be a shadow over his head, and to cover him (for he was fatigued), and Jonas was exceeding glad of the ivy.

⁷ But God prepared a worm, when the morning arose on the following day: and it struck the ivy and it withered.

⁸ And when the sun was risen, the Lord commanded a hot and burning wind: and the sun beat upon the head of Jonas, and he broiled with the heat: and he desired for his soul that he might die, and said: It is better for me to die than to live.

⁹ And the Lord said to Jonas: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry, for the ivy? And he said: I am angry with reason even unto death.

¹⁰ And the Lord said: Thou art grieved for the ivy, for which thou hast not laboured, nor made it to grow, which in one night came up, and in one night perished. [6] "The Lord God prepared an ivy" : Hederam. In the Hebrew it is Kikajon, which some render a gourd: others a palmerist, or palma Christi.

¹¹ And shall not I spare Ninive, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons that know not how to distinguish between their right hand and their left, and many beasts? Prophecy of Jonas (Jonah) next > Chapter 4 next > TOP OF PAGE side_ads("../") var sc_project = 12672635; var sc_invisible = 1; var sc_security = "b8696459";