4
1 But it displeased Yonah with a ra'ah gedolah, and he was very angry. 2 And he davened unto Hashem, and said: I pray Thee, Hashem, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I was quick to flee unto Tarshish before; for I had da'as that Thou art an EL CHANNUN V'RACHUM ERECH APAYIM V'RAV CHESED* and relentest Thee of the ra'ah. 3 Therefore now, Hashem, take, I beseech Thee, my nefesh from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
4 Then said Hashem: Doest thou well to be angry?
5 So Yonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a sukkah, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would happen to the city. 6 And Hashem Elohim prepared a climbing gourd, and made it to come up over Yonah, that it might be a tzel (shade) over his rosh, to deliver him from his displeasure. So Yonah had simchah gedolah about the climbing gourd.
7 But HaElohim prepared a tola'at (worm) when the shachar (dawn) came the next day, and it chewed the climbing gourd that it withered. 8 And it came to pass, when the shemesh did arise, that Elohim prepared a vehement scorching east ruach (wind); and the shemesh beat upon the rosh Yonah, that he grew faint, and wanted to† die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
9 And Elohim said to Yonah: Doest thou well to be angry for the climbing gourd? And he said: I do well to be angry, even unto mot (death).
10 Then said Hashem: Thou hast had pity on the climbing gourd, though thou hast not labored for it, neither madest it grow; which came up a ben lailah, and perished a ben lailah; 11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that ir hagedolah, wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their yamin (right hand) and their semol (left hand); and also much cattle?
* 4:2 Ex 34:6 † 4:8 Moshiach is the Navi like Moshe, the Navi like Yonah, whom Mavet swallows and then vomits up so that he can divide the spoil with those whose chet he bears away to death like the Yom Kippur scapegoat (see Isa 53:12).