Jonah 4:5-11
Should I Not Care About That City
5Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.
6So the LORD God appointed a vine, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.
7When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.
8As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”
10But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night.
11So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”
Berean Standard Bible
God asked Jonah a question and Jonah did not answer it. He walked out of the city instead, went east, put up a shelter and sat down in the shade to see what would happen to the place. Nineveh has already repented and God has already relented, and he still goes and finds himself a good seat in case it burns after all.
Then God appoints three things, one after another, and the same verb carries all three. First a vine, which grows up over Jonah's head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah is greatly pleased with it. A man who could not be glad about a city being spared is glad about a plant.
Then a worm, which comes at dawn and attacks the vine so that it withers, and a scorching east wind, with the sun beating down on his head until he grows faint and says again that dying would be better than living.
God appoints four things in this book: a great fish, a vine, a worm, and a wind. The fish kept him alive. The other three go after what is inside him.
Then God puts the question from the start of the chapter to him again, with the plant named in it.
Have you any right to be angry about the plant?
Jonah answers this one. He does have the right, he says, and he is angry enough to die.
You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night.
Every word of it is true and Jonah knows it. He did not plant it, water it or wait on it. The vine arrived overnight, it was gone overnight, and losing it undid him.
So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?
The reason God gives is not that the Ninevites are good or that they have earned anything. It is that they cannot tell their right hand from their left. The book does not explain the phrase. The rest of it is the size of the place and then, in the closing words of the book, the cattle.
Then it stops. There is no verse 12 and The book records no reply from Jonah, so we are never told whether he understood, or went home, or sat on in the sun. The book ends with God's question in front of a man who says nothing back, which leaves it in front of whoever is reading.
How We Know
One verb ties the whole book together, and it is visible in English. The LORD appointed a great fish in 1:17. God appointed a vine in verse 6, a worm in verse 7, and a scorching east wind in verse 8. Four appointments, running from a sea creature down to a single insect, all using the same word.
That repetition is consistent with the four chapters forming one coherent piece, because the pattern crosses the chapter break and lands on the book's closing argument.
What the closing question means is left open. Verse 11 describes more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and the book never explains the phrase.
Questions
1 God asks Jonah a question and Jonah walks out of the city. What does he do out there?
AnswerHe goes east, builds himself a shelter, sits in the shade and waits to see what will happen to Nineveh. The city has already repented and God has already relented, and Jonah still goes looking for a good view in case it burns anyway.
2 What does God appoint in this book, and what is each one for?
AnswerA great fish, a vine, a worm and a scorching wind. The fish kept him alive. The vine, the worm and the wind are all aimed at what is going on inside him.
3 What is the last thing you can remember being really upset about, and was it big or small?
AnswerMost of the answers around this table will be small ones, and an honest small answer is better than a tidied-up big one. Jonah lost a plant he had never grown or watered and it flattened him, and a city of a hundred and twenty thousand people left him cold.
4 Why does God say he cares about Nineveh?
AnswerNot because the people there are good, and not because they have earned it. He names the size of the city, the hundred and twenty thousand who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and the cattle. The book never explains that phrase, and it is left standing exactly as God said it.
What This Means for Us
The book ends on a question and records no reply. Jonah says nothing back, the page runs out, and the question stops being aimed at him and starts sitting in front of us.
The comparison God makes is the uncomfortable part. Jonah grieved over a plant he had not grown, that cost him nothing and lasted a day, and he was unmoved by a hundred and twenty thousand people. We are no different. Any of us can be genuinely upset about a scratch on the car and hear about real suffering somewhere else and feel almost nothing.
His trouble was never that he cared about the plant too much. He cared about the city too little.
Prayer
Father, we cry over small things and stay calm about enormous ones, and Jonah shows us how ridiculous that looks from outside. Thank you that you care about people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, because that has been us. Give us your question, and do not let us ignore the question. Amen.