Jonah 4 (YLT)

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Chapter Text

4:1 And it is grievous unto Jonah--a great evil--and he is displeased at it;

4:2 and he prayeth unto Jehovah, and he saith, `I pray Thee, O Jehovah, is not this my word while I was in mine own land--therefore I was beforehand to flee to Tarshish--that I have known that Thou <FI>art<Fi> a God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in kindness, and repenting of evil?

4:3 And now, O Jehovah, take, I pray Thee, my soul from me, for better <FI>is<Fi> my death than my life.'

4:4 And Jehovah saith, `Is doing good displeasing to thee?'

4:5 And Jonah goeth forth from the city, and sitteth on the east of the city, and maketh to himself there a booth, and sitteth under it in the shade, till that he seeth what is in the city.

4:6 And Jehovah God appointeth a gourd, and causeth it to come up over Jonah, to be a shade over his head, to give deliverance to him from his affliction, and Jonah rejoiceth because of the gourd <FI>with<Fi> great joy.

4:7 And God appointeth a worm at the going up of the dawn on the morrow, and it smiteth the gourd, and it drieth up.

4:8 And it cometh to pass, about the rising of the sun, that God appointeth a cutting east wind, and the sun smiteth on the head of Jonah, and he wrappeth himself up, and asketh his soul to die, and saith, `Better <FI>is<Fi> my death than my life.'

4:9 And God saith unto Jonah: `Is doing good displeasing to thee, because of the gourd?' and he saith, `To do good is displeasing to me--unto death.'

4:10 And Jehovah saith, `Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou didst not labour, neither didst thou nourish it, which a son of a night was, and a son of a night perished,

4:11 and I--have not I pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than twelve myriads of human beings, who have not known between their right hand and their left--and much cattle!'

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "grievous", "jonah--a", "great", "evil--and", "displeased", "prayeth", "jehovah", and "saith". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "grievous" and "jonah--a", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The local YLT text gives this verse as the immediate unit, so "grievous" and "jonah--a" carries the first interpretive weight. In Jonah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

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