Jonah is angry that God spared Nineveh, saying that he knew God was gracious and merciful. God makes a plant grow to shade Jonah, then sends a worm to destroy it. God asks Jonah if he should not spare Nineveh, a city with more than 120,000 people.
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly , and he was very angry .
2 And he prayed unto the LORD , and said , I pray thee, O LORD , was not this my saying , when I was yet in my country ? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish : for I knew that thou art a gracious God , and merciful , slow to anger , and of great kindness , and repentest thee of the evil .
3 Therefore now, O LORD , take , I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live .
4 Then said the LORD , Doest thou well to be angry ?
5 So Jonah went out of the city , and sat on the east side of the city , and there made him a booth , and sat under it in the shadow , till he might see what would become of the city .
6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd , and made it to come up over Jonah , that it might be a shadow over his head , to deliver him from his grief . So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd .
7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day , and it smote the gourd that it withered .
8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise , that God prepared a vehement east wind ; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah , that he fainted , and wished in himself to die , and said , It is better for me to die than to live .
9 And God said to Jonah , Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd ? And he said , I do well to be angry , even unto death .
10 Then said the LORD , Thou hast had pity on the gourd , for the which thou hast not laboured , neither madest it grow ; which came up in a night , and perished in a night :
11 And should not I spare Nineveh , that great city , wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand ; and also much cattle ?