But it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became ^aangry. 2 Then he ^aprayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was this not ¹what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore in anticipation of this I ^bfled to Tarshish, since I knew that You are a ^cgracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and One who relents of disaster. 3 So now, LORD, please ^atake my ¹life from me, for death is ^bbetter to me than life.” 4 But the LORD said, “Do you have a good reason to be angry?”

5 Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of ¹it. There he made a shelter for himself and ^asat under it in the shade, until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the LORD God designated a ¹plant, and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to ²relieve him of his discomfort. And Jonah ³was overjoyed about the plant. 7 But God designated a worm when dawn came the next day, and it attacked the plant and it ^awithered. 8 And when the sun came up God designated a scorching ^aeast wind, and the ^bsun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint, and he begged with all his soul to die, saying, “^cDeath is better to me than life!”

9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to the point of death!” 10 Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant, for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which ¹came up overnight and perished ²overnight. 11 Should I not also ^ahave compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 people, who do not ^bknow the difference between their right hand and their left, as well as many ^canimals?”