Jonah 4:1

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. Jonah was "mirabilis homo", as one calls him, an "amazing man"; the strangest, oddest, and most out of the way man, for a good man and a

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry - literally, hot, probably with grief or vexation rather than anger (Fairbairn).

JONAH CHAPTER 4 Jonah, repining at God’ s mercy, , is reproved by the type of a gourd, . But, Heb. And, it, the Divine forbearance sparing the great and sinful Nineveh, displeased Jonah; was very disagreeable to Jonah’ s hasty and fierce temper, to his love of his own credit, and it afflicted him to see Nineveh survive the forty days limited for their continuance. Exceedingly; it was a great affliction to him, so highly distempered is Jonah at God’ s goodness to a repenting city. And he was very angry: this kindled a fire in his breast which was made up of envy, indignation, and grief, for that it was not done, and desire that yet it may be done. Jonah would yet have Nineveh a sacrifice to God’ s justice, and an eternal monument of his truth who foretold its ruin.

Jonah 4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.Ver. 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly] Mirabilis homo profecto fuit Ionas, saith Winckelman here, as strange a man was Jonah of an honest man as you shall lightly hear of. Well might David caution, Psalms 37:8, "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. A fretful man is easily drawn to evil. David was (once at least) displeased at God’ s dealing, which was no whit for his credit or comfort, 2 Samuel 6:8. Discontented he was, not at God’ s lenity, as Jonah, but at God’ s severity against Uzziah, and that all the people’ s joy should be dashed and damped with such a sad and sudden disaster. How much better minded was he when dumb, not once opening his mouth, because God did it, Psalms 39:9. The Greeks give this rule, Either say nothing, or say that which is better than nothing, ησιγανηκρεισσονασιγηςλεγειν. "O that you would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom," said Job to his friends, Job 13:5. Silence sometimes comes to be a virtue; and never more than when a man is causelessly displeased. Prima semper irarum tela maledicta sunt, saith Sallust. Angry people are apt to let fly, to mutter and mutiny against God and man, as here. Reason should say to choler that which the nurse saith to the child, Weep not, and you shall have it. But either it doth not, or if it do, yet the ear (which tasteth words, as the mouth doth meat) is oft so filled with gall (some creatures have fel in aure gall in gold) that nothing can relish with it. See Exodus 6:9. If Moses’ anger was pure, free from guile and gall, Exodus 32:19, yet Jonah’ s was not so. It is surely very difficult to kindle and keep quick this fire without all smoke of sin. Be angry and sin not is, saith one, the easiest charge, under the hardest condition that can be. Men, for the most part, know not what they do in their anger; this raiseth such a smoke. Put fire to wet straw and filthy stuff, and it will smoke and smutch you quickly; yea, scorch you and scald you, when once it breaks out. Leviticus 13:5, we read of a leprosy breaking out of a burning: seldom do passions burn but there is a leprosy breaking out of that burning. It blistereth out at the lips: hence the Hebrews have but one and the same word for anger and foaming at the mouth, Ketseph, spuma, Hosea 10:7 Esther 1:18 Zechariah 1:2.

IV. JONAH’S AND . (1) But it displeased Jonah.—The Hebrew (it was evil to) is stronger. The prophet was vexed and irritated. He was very angry.—Literally, it (anger) burnt to him. David’s feeling at the death of Uzziah (2 Samuel 6:8; 1 Chronicles 13:11) is described in the same terms. Selfish jealousy for his own reputation, jealousy for the honour of the prophetic office, a mistaken patriotism disappointed that the great enemy of his country should go unpunished, Jewish exclusiveness which could not endure to see the Divine clemency extended to the heathen, have each been adduced as the motive of Jonah’s anger. Possibly something of all these blended in his mind.

CHAPTER IV Jonah, dreading to be thought a false prophet, repines at God's mercy in sparing the Ninevites, whose destruction he seems to have expected, from his retiring to a place without the city about the close of the forty days. But how does he glorify that mercy which he intends to blame! And what an amiable posture does he give of the compassion of God! 1-5. This attribute of the Deity is still farther illustrated by his tenderness and condescension to the prophet himself, who, with all his prophetic gifts, had much of human infirmity, 6-11. NOTES ON CHAP. IV Verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly] This hasty, and indeed inconsiderate prophet, was vexed because his prediction was not fulfiled. He had more respect to his high sense of his own honour than he had to the goodness and mercy of God. He appeared to care little whether six hundred and twenty thousand persons were destroyed or not, so he might not pass for a deceiver, or one that denounced a falsity. And he was very angry.] Because the prediction was not literally fulfilled; for he totally lost sight of the condition.

Ch. Jonah 4:1-11. Jonah’s Displeasure, and its Rebuke Greatly displeased at the clemency of God towards Nineveh, Jonah confesses that it was the expectation that that clemency would be exercised, which rendered him unwilling to undertake the divine mission at the first, and in his annoyance and chagrin requests that he may die, 1–3. Met by the calm appeal to reason, which however he is in no mood to entertain, Doest thou well to be angry? Jonah goes out of the city, and constructs in the immediate vicinity a booth or hut, under the shelter of which he may dwell and watch, till the forty days are expired, what the fate of Nineveh will be, 4, 5. Intending to correct and instruct him by an acted parable, in which he himself should bear the chief part, God causes a wide-spreading plant to spring up and cover his booth with its refreshing shade. But scarcely has Jonah begun to enjoy the welcome shelter from the burning rays of the sun thus afforded him, when God, in pursuit of His lesson, causes the plant to be attacked by insects, which rapidly strip it of its protecting leaves and cause it to wither away, 6, 7. Once again, the hand that governs all things sets in motion, like the blast of a furnace, the burning wind of the desert, and the sun’s unbroken rays pour down on the now defenceless head of Jonah, so that faint and weary, beneath the weight of bodily distress and mental disappointment, he urges anew his passionate complaint, Better for me to die than to live! 7, 8. And now the parable is complete, and only needs to be applied and interpreted. Thou couldst have pity upon a short-lived plant, which cost thee and which owed thee nothing; thou art angry and justifiest thine anger, even unto death, for its loss; and shall not I, the Maker and the Lord of all, have pity upon a great city, which, apart from its adult population who might seem to have deserved their doom, numbers its six-score thousand innocent children, and “very much cattle”—they too “much better than” a plant? 9–11.

And Jonah was displeased exceedingly - It was an untempered zeal. The prophet himself records it as such, and how he was reproved for it. He would, like many of us, govern God’s world better than God Himself.

1, 2. Displeased Jonah exceedingly,… was very angry — Since his message remained unfulfilled, he feared that his honor as a prophet was at stake; which would be of supreme moment to a selfish person.