Charles Ellicott Commentary Jonah 4

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.

Take, I beseech you. —We naturally refer to the history of Elijah for a similar weariness and disgust of life. (Compare also the case of Moses, Numbers 11:15). It should be noticed, as a contrast of Hebrew with pagan feeling, that none of these men in their loathing of life contemplated the possibility of suicide.

Do you do well? ...—This rendering may be supported by Deuteronomy 5:28; Jeremiah 1:12, and agrees better with the context than the marginal translation, which follows the Septuagint, and is undoubtedly a very likely rendering of the Hebrew idiom if taken by itself. Jonah apparently gave his own interpretation to the question, one that suited his mood, “Is your anger just?” Such a question might imply that the doom of the city was only deferred, and that he had been too hasty in giving up the fulfillment of his prediction.

Accordingly, he went outside the walls and sat down to watch what the outcome would be. On the other hand, the rendering “Are you so very angry?” suits best the reply in Jonah 4:9, I am very angry, even to death. Probably the Hebrew word, like the French bien, kept both its original and derived meaning, and must be rendered well or very, according to the context.

So Jonah went out. —The explanation given in the preceding note avoids the necessity of giving the verb in this clause a pluperfect force, which otherwise would be necessary to account for the prophet’s continued expectation of the destruction of Nineveh after his irritation at the Divine clemency towards it.

Booth — i.e., of boughs, like those used at the Feast of Tabernacles. (See next Note.)

Prepared. See Note, Jonah 1:17.

A gourd. So the Septuagint translates the Hebrew qiqaion, which, since the time of Jerome, has usually been identified with the Arabic el keroa, the castor-oil tree (Ricinus communis, or Palma Christi; see margin). It is a large shrub, having large palmate leaves, with serrated lobes, and spikes of blossoms which produce the seed from which the well-known medicinal oil is extracted, in small rough husks. The strongest argument in favour of this view is the proposed derivation of the Hebrew name from the Egyptian kiki, and the rabbinical name for castor-oil, kiki-oil. [22]

In spite of this etymological argument, Dr. Tristram says: “Practical reasons cause me to lean strongly to the translation of our English version, gourd, that is, the bottle gourd (Cucurbita pepo).

In Palestine, the vernacular names are almost identical in sound, “kurah” being the gourd, “khurwah” the castor-oil tree. But the gourd is very commonly employed in Palestine for the purpose of shading arbours. Its rapid growth and large leaves render it admirably adapted for training on trellis-work ... But the plant withers as rapidly as it shoots, and after a storm or any injury to its stem, its fruit may be seen hanging from the leafless tendrils, which so lately concealed it, a type of melancholy desolation” (Nat Hist. of the Bible, p. 449).

[22] A Semitic origin for the word is rendered probable by its discovery in the form quqanitu on a small tablet which the Babylonian king Marduk-bal-iddin (Merodach-baladan) ordered to be set in a garden. (See letters of Dr. F. Delitzsch to the Athenœum of May 26th and June 9th, 1883.)

Made it to come up. Rather, it came up.

Deliver. In the original, there is a play of words on this word and shadow.