Jonah 4:1-9 ▼

1 And it is grievous to Jonah—a great evil—and he is displeased at it;

2 and he prays to YHWH, and he says, “Ah, now, O YHWH, is this not my word while I was in my own land—therefore I was beforehand [going] to flee to Tarshish—that I have known that You [are] a God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in kindness, and relenting of evil?

3 And now, O YHWH, please take my soul from me, for better [is] my death than my life.”

4 And YHWH says, “Is doing good displeasing to you?”

5 And Jonah goes forth from the city, and sits on the east of the city, and makes a shelter for himself there, and sits under it in the shade, until he sees what is in the city.

6 And YHWH God appoints a gourd, and causes it to come up over Jonah, to be a shade over his head, to give deliverance to him from his affliction, and Jonah rejoices because of the gourd [with] great joy.

7 And God appoints a worm at the going up of the dawn on the next day, and it strikes the gourd, and it dries up.

8 And it comes to pass, about the rising of the sun, that God appoints a cutting east wind, and the sun strikes on the head of Jonah, and he wraps himself up, and asks for his soul to die, and says, “Better [is] my death than my life.”

9 And God says to Jonah: “Is doing good displeasing to you, because of the gourd?” And he says, “To do good is displeasing to me—to death.”