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.”
Parallel translations
- 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.
- BSB Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”
- 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 the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple.
- Gen 4:5–14but he didn’t respect Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell.
- Job 40:4–5“Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
- Job 18:4You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?
- Judg 16:16When she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, his soul was troubled to death.
- 2 Cor 7:10For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death.
- Matt 26:38Then he said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch with me.”
- Rev 9:6In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from 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.