4 But this was highly displeasing to Yoʹnah, and he became hot with anger. 2 So he prayed to Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}: “Ah, now, Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}, was this not my concern when I was in my own land? That is why I tried to flee to Tarʹshish in the first place; for I knew that you are a compassionate and merciful Yahavah {Yah'-ha-vah'}, slow to anger and abundant in loyal love, one who feels grieved over calamity. 3 Now, O Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}, please take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} asked: “Is it right for you to be so angry?”
5 Yoʹnah then went out of the city and sat down east of the city. He made a shelter for himself there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. 6 Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} Yahavah {Yah'-ha-vah'} then provided a bottle-gourd plant to grow up over Yoʹnah, to give him shade for his head and to relieve his misery. And Yoʹnah was very pleased with the bottle-gourd plant.
7 But the true Yahavah {Yah'-ha-vah'} sent a worm at the break of dawn on the next day, and it attacked the bottle-gourd plant, and it withered. 8 When the sun began to shine, Yahavah {Yah'-ha-vah'} also sent a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Yoʹnah’s head, and he grew faint. He kept asking to die, and he kept saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9 Yahavah {Yah'-ha-vah'} asked Yoʹnah: “Is it right for you to be so angry over the bottle-gourd plant?”
At that he said: “I have a right to be angry, so angry that I want to die.” 10 But Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} said: “You felt sorry for the bottle-gourd plant, which you did not work for, nor did you make it grow; it grew in one night and perished in one night. 11 Should I not also feel sorry for Ninʹe·veh the great city, in which there are more than 120,000 men who do not even know right from wrong, as well as their many animals?”