Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”
Parallel translations
- WEB God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?” He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.”
- KJV And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
- NKJV Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!”
- NASB 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!”
- NLT Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?” “Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”
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
God asks if Jonah is right to be angry over the vine, and Jonah insists he is. It matters because Jonah defends his anger, setting up God's decisive lesson.
Overview
The Lord repeats His earlier question, now focused on the withered plant, drawing out Jonah's heart. Jonah's defiant reply, that he is right to be angry even to death, lays bare the depth of his self-pity. His readiness to grieve over a vine prepares the way for God's contrasting concern for an entire city.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Job 5:2For resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
- Gen 4:5–14but He had no regard for Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.
- Job 40:4–5“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.
- Job 18:4You who tear yourself in anger—should the earth be forsaken on your account, or the rocks be moved from their place?
- Judg 16:16Finally, after she had pressed him daily with her words and pleaded until he was sick to death,
- 2 Cor 7:10Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
- Matt 26:38Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.”
- Rev 9:6In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 4:9 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.