Jonah Chapter 4 – The Gourd and God's Compassion
A withered gourd teaches Jonah more about mercy than Nineveh's repentance did.
Nineveh's repentance in Jonah 3 displeases Jonah "exceedingly," and he admits the real reason he first fled to Tarshish: he knew God is "gracious, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness."
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
And he prayed to Jehovah, and said, I pray thee, O Jehovah, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hastened to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that thou are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relent thee of the evil.
Therefore now, O Jehovah, I beseech thee, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.
And Jehovah said, Do thou well to be angry?
Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth, and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city.
And Jehovah God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very glad because of the gourd.
But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered.
And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
And God said to Jonah, Do thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even to death.
And Jehovah said, Thou have had regard for the gourd, for which thou have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night.
And should not I have regard for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand men who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?