Jonah 4:10

Then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd,.... Or, "hast spared it" (c); that is, would have spared it, had it lain in his power, though but a weeds and worthless thing: for the which thou

Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: Thou hast had pity on the gourd,

Then, when Jonah had showed his affection of love and pity to the gourd, said the Lord; showed Jonah the little reason he had to concern himself for the gourd, and the great reason God had on his side in pitying and sparing Nineveh. Thou, a man, of narrow and uneven compassions, hast both had and showed pity on the gourd, a common and worthless weed. For the which thou hast not laboured; it was not the work of thy hand to set it. Neither madest it grow; nor didst thou water, and give growth to it; it was not thine. Which came up, as a mushroom, was the birth of one night, and perished, died, and was only fit for the fire when withered, in a night; with equal suddenness withered.

Jonah 4:10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:Ver. 10. Then said the Lord] He did not roar upon Jonah, nor run upon him with a drawn sword, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers, Job 15:26; but gently said unto him, that he might the more admire his own impotence and God’ s lenity; both which he studiously describeth all along this prophecy; a good sign of his sound repentance. Thou hast had pity on the gourd] Here is the end, scope, and application of the parable; whereby it appeareth that God prepared not the gourd so much for the ease and use of Jonah’ s body as for a medicine to his soul, convincing him of the iniquity both of his ways and wishes, by an argument drawn from the less to the greater; and confuting him by a comparison. Thou, a sinful and wretched man, hast had pity, or spared, and art sorry it perished. The gourd a sorry shrub, a mean mushroom, and none of thine either, but as lent thee; Alas, master, said they, it was but borrowed. For the which thou hast not laboured] And so canst not be so fast affected to it. For all men love their own works rather than other men’ s, as parents and poets, saith Aristotle (παντεςαγαπωσιμαλλονταεργααυτων. Ethic. 1, 4); proving thereby, that those which have received their riches from their parents are more liberal than they which have gotten them by their own labour. Neither madest it grow] Thou hast neither planted nor watered it, or any way added to it, by thine industry; for that also was no part of thy pains, but mine. Not that God laboureth about his creatures, for he doth all his work without tool or toil, Isaiah 40:28; but this, as many other things in Scripture, are spoken after the manner of men, and so must be taken. Which came up in a night] Heb. was the son of a night, not without a miracle; though Pliny speaks of the quick and wonderful growth of this shrub. And perished in a night] Cito oriens, cito itidem moriens, quickly come, and as quickly gone; a fit emblem of earth’ s happiness. Surely man walketh in a vain show; foenea quadam faelicitate temporaliter florens: they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. They are but ημεροβιοι; their life is but a day (and such a day too, as no man is sure to have twelve hours to it), as this gourd was but of one day’ s continuance, as it came up in a night, so it perished the next; cito crevit, cito decrevit, repente prolatus, repente sublatus, quickly created, quickly destroyed, suddenly coming, suddenly cut down, of very small continuance (Tarnov.).

(10) Which came up.—The original is one of those forcible idioms impossible to reproduce, which son of a night was, and son of a night perished.

Verse 10. Which came up in a night] St. Jerome, speaking of this plant, the kikayon, assigns to it an extraordinary rapidity of growth. It delights in a sandy soil, and in a few days what was a plant grows into a large shrub. But he does not appear to have meant the ricinus; this however is the most likely. The expressions coming up in a night and perishing in a night are only metaphorical to express speedy growth and speedy decay; and so, as we have seen, the Chaldee interprets it, די בליליא הדי הוה ובליליא אוחרנא אבד "which existed this night but in the next night perished;" and this I am satisfied is the true import of the Hebrew phrase.

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.

Thou hadst pity on the palm-christ - In the feeling of our common mortality, the soul cannot but yearn over decay. Even a drooping flower is sad to look on, so beautiful, so frail.

10, 11. By his answer Jonah unwittingly offers Jehovah the opportunity to put him to shame. The prophet’s attitude is absurd.