great (in any sense) · adjective, feminine singular absolute
angry
וַיִּ֖חַרvai.Yi.char
H2734
to glow or grow warm · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jonah 4:9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
Luke 15:28 And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.
Matthew 20:15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
Jonah 4:4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
Luke 7:39 Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and…
James 4:5-6 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
Acts 13:46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put i…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Adam Clarke on Jonah 4:1
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly - This hasty, and indeed inconsiderate prophet, was vexed because his prediction was not fulfilled. He had more respect to his high sense of his own honor 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.
John Gill on 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 prophet, as one shall ever hear or read of. Displeased he was at that, which one would have thought he would have exceedingly rejoiced at, the success of his ministry, as all good men, prophets, and ministers of the word, do; nothing grieves them more than the hardness of men's hearts, and the failure of their labours; and nothing more rejoices them than the conversion of sinners by them; but Jonah is displeased at the repentance of the Ninevites through his preaching, and at the mercy of God showe…
Jonah 4:1
1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
1. Et displicuit Jonae dolore magno, et succensuit apud se. [52]
Jerome commends this grief of Jonah, and compares it to the holy zeal of Paul when he wished himself to be an anathema for his brethren, (Romans 9:3:) for he denies that he grieved because God had showed mercy to so illustrious a city; but because the conversion of the Gentiles was a certain presage of the destruction of the chosen people. As then Jonah perceived as in a mirror the near ruin of Israel, he on this account grieved, if we believe Jerome: but this notion is extremely frivolous; for, immediately after, God reproved Jonah. What then will the…
After he preached in the midst of Nineveh, he went out of the city in order to observe if anything should happen. When he saw that three days had passed and nothing had happened anywhere near what was threatened, he then put forward his first thought and said, "Are these not my words that I was saying that God is merciful and longsuffering and repents for people's evils?"
When God pitied those who by their repentance were warding off the things that come from wrath, and when the appointed time had already come to its end, after which it was likely that the thing foretold would happen, and then when none of the expected things had happened, the blessed Jonah was greatly grieved, and not because the city had escaped destruction; for this would be the mark of a wicked and envious man, and in no way fitting for a saint; but because he seemed to be a liar and a buffoon, and to have disturbed them in vain, and to be speaking things from his own mind, and not at all the things from the mouth of the Lord, as it is written.
But God will reply by the mouth of Jeremiah, "At what instant I will speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to break down, and to destroy it; if that nation, concerning what I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. And at what instant I will speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it does evil in my sight, that it obeys not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them." Jonah was indignant because, at God's command, he had spoken falsely; but his sorrow was proved to be ill founded, since he would rather speak truth and have a countless multitude perish than speak falsely and have them saved.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
East wind — The wind coming from the east (Job 27:21; Isa. 27:8, etc.). Blight caused by this wind, “thin ears” (Gen. 41:6); the withered “gourd” (Jonah 4: 8). It was the cause and also the emblem of evil (Ezek.…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
on Jonah 4:1-5
Jonah, provoked at the sparing of Nineveh, prayed in his displeasure to Jehovah to take his soul from him, as his proclamation had not been fulfilled (Jon 4:1-3). ויּרע אל י, it was evil for Jonah, i.e., it vexed, irritated him, not merely it displeased him, for which ירע בּעיניו is generally used. The construction with אל resembles that with ל in Neh 2:10; Neh 13:8. רעה גדולה, "a great evil," serves simply to strengthen the idea of ירע. The great vexation grew even to anger (יחר לו; cf. Gen 30:2, etc.). The fact that the predicted destruction of Nineveh had not taken place excited his discontent and wrath. And he tried to quarrel with God, by praying to Jehovah.
(Note: Calvin observes upon…
The account takes an unexpected turn. Jonah, himself a recipient of God’s mercy, complains about the mercy that the Lord has dispensed to the Assyrians. The prophet’s insolence only magnifies God’s grace (see 4:8-11 for God’s response).
4:1 This change of plans (literally It): See study note on 3:10.
Rashi on Jonah 4:1
Now it displeased Jonah—He said, “Now the nations will say that I am a false prophet.” [from Pirké d’Rabbi Eliezer ch. 10]
