What happensPermalink
Jonah is furious that God has spared Nineveh and reveals that this mercy is why he fled from God’s original call. He asks to die, then waits outside the city to see what will happen. God appoints a plant to shade Jonah, then a worm to destroy it and a scorching wind to afflict him. When Jonah again wishes for death, God confronts his concern for the short-lived plant while he shows none for Nineveh.
Why it mattersPermalink
Jonah’s angry prayer reverses his grateful prayer in chapter 2: he rejoiced when God mercifully rescued him but resents that same mercy toward Nineveh. The plant becomes a lived lesson in compassion. Jonah pities something that benefited him; God pities a vast city of spiritually lost people, even extending His concern to its animals. The book ends by asking whether Jonah—and the reader—will share God’s compassion.
Key versePermalink
And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?