4:1. And Jonas was exceedingly troubled, and was angry:
Was exceedingly troubled, etc.... His concern was lest he should pass
for a false prophet; or rather, lest God’s word, by this occasion,
might come to be slighted and disbelieved.
4:2. And he prayed to the Lord, and said: I beseech thee, O Lord, is
not this what I said, when I was yet in my own country? therefore I
went before to flee into Tharsis: for I know that thou art a gracious
and merciful God, patient, and of much compassion, and easy to forgive
evil.
4:3. And now, O Lord, I beseech thee take my life from me: for it is
better for me to die than to live.
4:4. And the Lord said: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry?
4:5. Then Jonas went out of the city, and sat toward the east side of
the city: and he made himself a booth there, and he sat under it in the
shadow, till he might see what would befall the city.
4:6. And the Lord God prepared an ivy, and it came up over the head of
Jonas, to be a shadow over his head, and to cover him (for he was
fatigued): and Jonas was exceeding glad of the ivy.
The Lord God prepared an ivy.... Hederam. In the Hebrew it is Kikajon,
which some render a gourd: others a palmerist, or palma Christi.
4:7. But God prepared a worm, when the morning arose on the following
day: and it struck the ivy and it withered.
4:8. And when the sun was risen, the Lord commanded a hot and burning
wind: and the sun beat upon the head of Jonas, and he broiled with the
heat: and he desired for his soul that he might die, and said: It is
better for me to die than to live.
4:9. And the Lord said to Jonas: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be
angry, for the ivy? And he said: I am angry with reason even unto
death.
4:10. And the Lord said: Thou art grieved for the ivy, for which thou
hast not laboured, nor made it to grow, which in one night came up, and
in one night perished.
4:11. And shall I not spare Ninive, that great city, in which there are
more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons, that know not how to
distinguish between their right hand and their left, and many beasts?