Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Parallel translations
- KJV Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
- BSB And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
- NKJV Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!”
- NASB So now, Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”
- NLT Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jonah asks God to take his life, saying death is better than living. It matters because it reveals how deeply his anger and self-pity have darkened his heart.
Overview
Unable to accept God's mercy to Nineveh, Jonah sinks into despair and a death wish. His attitude contrasts with Moses and Elijah, who longed for death out of burdened ministry, whereas Jonah does so out of resentment. The scene exposes the misery of a heart that resists God's grace and sets the stage for God's patient correction.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Kgs 19:4But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”
- Eccl 7:1A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth.
- Num 11:15If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and don’t let me see my wretchedness.”
- Jer 20:14–18Cursed is the day in which I was born. Don’t let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.
- Num 20:3The people quarreled with Moses, and spoke, saying, “We wish that we had died when our brothers died before Yahweh!
- Jonah 4:8When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
- Job 3:20–21“Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul,
- 1 Cor 9:15But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void.
- Job 6:8–9“Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant the thing that I long for,
- Phil 1:21–25For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
- Job 7:15–16so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Three days in the belly of the fish is the sign Jesus gave of his own death and resurrection (Matt 12:40); and God's mercy on pagan Nineveh foreshadows the gospel going to the nations.
How Jonah 4:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.