1But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. 2He prayed to the LORD and said, "Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my [own] country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. 3"Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life." 4The LORD said, "Do you have good reason to be angry?"
5Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with [all] his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life."
9Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death." 10Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and [which] you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11"Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120000 persons who do not know [the difference] between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"
