Jonah 4:10 (YLT)

Passage

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,

Nearby Context

Jonah 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.'

Jonah 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.'

Jonah 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,

Jonah 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 "jehovah", "saith", "thou", "hast", "pity", "gourd", and "didst". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "jehovah" and "saith", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 9's "And God saith unto Jonah Is doing..." into verse 11's "and I--have not I pity on Nineveh...", so "jehovah" and "saith" 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 "jehovah" and "saith" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.