Jonah 4:5-11 ▼

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?