Jonah 4

4 ¹ But this upset Jonah deeply, and he burned with anger. ² He 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.' ³ Now, our Father, please take my life from me — death is better for me than life.

⁴ And our Father said, "Is it right for you to be so angry?"

⁵ Jonah 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. ⁶ And our Father made a plant grow over Jonah, to shade his head and ease his discomfort. So Jonah was overjoyed because of the plant. ⁷ At dawn the next day, our Father appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered. ⁸ When 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."

⁹ But our Father asked Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?" He said, "It is right—angry enough to die."

¹⁰ And our Father said, "You pitied the plant you did not work for or grow, which sprouted in a night and died in a night." ¹¹ And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand 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.