Jonah's Fury
Mercy is exactly what Jonah dreaded. He admits he fled because he knew our Father relents, and asks to die. A plant shades him, a worm kills it, and our Father asks why a plant he did not grow matters more than a city of thousands.
4 1But this upset Jonah deeply, and he burned with anger. 2He prayed to our Father, "Please, O Father, isn't this what I said while still in my own land? That's why I fled toward Tarshish first—I knew you are a gracious, compassionate Father, slow to anger, overflowing with covenant love, one who relents from sending disaster. 3Now, our Father, please take my life from me—death is better for me than life."
4And our Father said, "Is it right for you to be so angry?"
5Jonah left the city and sat east of it, made himself a shelter there, and sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would happen to the city. 6And our Father appointed a plant and made it grow up over Jonah, to shade his head and ease his discomfort. So Jonah was overjoyed because of the plant. 7At dawn the next day, our Father appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered. 8When the sun rose, our Father sent a scorching east wind; the sun beat on Jonah's head until he grew faint. He begged to die: "Better for me to die than to live."
9But our Father asked Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?" He said, "It is right—angry enough to die."
10And our Father said, "You pitied the plant you did not work for or grow, which sprouted in a night and died in a night. 11And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many animals as well?" a a v11 The book closes with our Father's compassion-question — his heart for the nations beyond Israel. Jesus cites Jonah's three-days-and-three-nights as the sign of his own resurrection (Matthew 12:38-41), and the Ninevites' repentance as judgment against unrepentant Israel.
