Jonah 4:7 (LSB)

Passage

But God appointed a worm at the breaking of dawn the next day, and it struck the plant, and it dried up.

Nearby Context

Jonah 4:5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. And there he made a booth for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.

Jonah 4:6 So Yahweh God appointed a plant, and it came up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his miserable evil. And Jonah was extremely glad about the plant.

Jonah 4:7 But God appointed a worm at the breaking of dawn the next day, and it struck the plant, and it dried up.

Jonah 4:8 Then it happened that as the sun rose up, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun struck down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and asked with all his soul to die and said, “Death is better to me than life.”

Jonah 4:9 Then 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.”

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "appointed", "worm", "breaking", "dawn", "next", "struck", "plant", and "dried". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "appointed" and "worm", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 6's "So Yahweh God appointed a plant and..." into verse 8's "Then it happened that as the sun...", so "appointed" and "worm" belong inside that flow. In Jonah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "appointed" and "worm" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.