Jonah 4 Commentary

Jonah becomes angry because the LORD spares the Ninevites. He asks the LORD to take his life. The LORD responds to Jonah with a question to urge him to evaluate his anger.

While Jonah sits under his shelter outside of Nineveh, God appoints a plant to provide extra shade for him, making him very happy. But when God assigns a worm to destroy the plant and a scorching east wind to cause the sun to beat down on Jonah’s head, he grows faint and wishes to die.

God asks Jonah if it is proper to be angry over a plant. Jonah affirms he has every reason to be angry, even to death. God rebukes him for having more sympathy for a plant he neither planted nor cultivated than for the souls of the Ninevites.