Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| LORD | יְהוָ֔ה Yah.weh | H3068 | Jehovah · proper noun, a title |
| take | קַח kach- | H3947 | to take (in the widest variety of applications) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular |
| life | נַפְשִׁ֖י naf.Shi | H5315 | properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix |
| better | ט֥וֹב Tov | H2896 | good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · adjective, masculine singular absolute |
| die | מוֹתִ֖י mo.Ti | H4194 | death (natural or violent) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix |
| live | מֵחַיָּֽי me.chai.Yai | H2416 | alive · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix |
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 from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Jonah's impatience of life under disappointed hopes of Israel's reformation through the destruction of Nineveh, is like that of Elijah at his plan for reforming Israel (1Ki. 18:1-46) failing through Jezebel ().
Take, I beseech thee, my life from me - קח נא את נפשי kach na eth naphshi, "Take, I beseech thee, even my Soul." Do not let me survive this disgrace. Thou hast spared this city. I thought thou wouldst do so, because thou art merciful and gracious, and it was on this account that I refused to go at first, as I knew that thou mightest change thy purpose, though thou hadst commanded me to make an absolute denunciation of judgment. God has left this example on record to show that an inconsiderate man is not fit to be employed in his work; and he chose this one example that it might serve as an endless warning to his Church to employ no man in the work of the ministry that is not scripturally acq…
Read the whole note in the consoleTherefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me,.... Or, "my soul" (x). This, as Drusius remarks, may be observed against those that think the soul is not immortal; for by this it appears that it my be taken from the body, and that it exists separate from it, and does not die with it; and since the body dies upon its removal, for "the body without the spirit is dead", as James says; death is expressed by this phrase, Job 27:8; here Jonah allows that God is the God of life, the author and giver of it, and is the sole disposer of it; it is in his own power to take it away, and not man's: so far Jonah was right, that he did not in his passion attempt to take away his own life; only…
Read the whole note in the consoleJonah 4:3 3. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. 3. Et tu Jehova, tolle, quaeso, animam meam a me; quia melius mori meum quam vivere. We here see how angry Jonah was in his zeal: for this prayer cannot certainly be ascribed to his faith, as some think, who say that Jonah took a flight as it were in his soul to heaven, when he made this prayer, as though he dreaded not death, but having been divested of all fear, being free and disengaged, he presented himself to God. I do not think that the mind of Jonah was so heroic. There is indeed no doubt, as I have already said, but that he still retained some seed of piety; and…
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).
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…
Read the whole note in the consoleJonah’s desire to die rather than embrace God’s will (see also 4:8-9), and his willingness to wait in hope that the city would be destroyed (4:5), are signs of his hard-heartedness and his hatred for the Assyrians.
was this not my contention—I know that, if they repent, You will not destroy them, and I will appear to them as a liar.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
