Jonah’s Anger at God’s Kindness

 Greatly displeased, Jonah flew into a rage. 
2 So he prayed to the Lord, “Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my home country? 
That’s why I fled previously to Tarshish, because I knew you’re a compassionate God, 
slow to anger, overflowing with gracious love, and reluctant to send trouble.
3 Therefore, Lord, please kill me, because it’s better for me to die than to live!”
4 The Lord replied, “Does being angry make you right?”


Jonah’s Discouragement
5 Then Jonah left the city and sat down on the eastern side.
 There he made a shelter for himself and sat down under its shade to see what would happen to the city.
6 The Lord God prepared a vine plant, 
and it grew over Jonah to shade his head and provide relief from his misery. 
Jonah was happy—indeed, he was ecstatic—about the vine plant. 
7 But at dawn the next day, God provided a worm that attacked the vine plant so that it withered away. 
8 When the sun rose, God prepared a harsh east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head, 
he became faint, and he begged to die. “It is better for me to die than to live!” he said.
9 Then God asked Jonah, “Is your anger about the vine plant justified?”
And he answered, “Absolutely! I’m so angry I could die!”
10 But the Lord asked, 
“You cared about a vine plant that you neither worked on nor cultivated? 
A vine plant that grew up overnight and died overnight? 
11 So why shouldn’t I be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, 
in which there are more than 120,000 human beings who do not know their right hand from their left,
 as well as a lot of livestock?