¶ Therefore Ionas was sore discontent and angry.
And he prayed unto the LORD, and said: O LORD, was not this my saying (I pray thee) when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hastened rather to flee unto Tharsis, for I know well that thou art a merciful God, full of compassion, long suffering, and of great kindness, and repentest when thou shouldest take punishment.
And now, O LORD, take my life from me (I beseech thee) for I had rather die then live.
Then said the LORD: art thou so angry?
¶ And Ionas gat him out of the city, and sat down on the east side thereof: and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see, what should chance unto the city.
And the LORD God prepared a wild vine, which sprang up above Ionas, that he might have shadow over his head, to deliver him out of his pain. And Ionas was exceeding glad of the wild vine.
But upon the next morrow against the spring of the day; The Lorde ordened a worm, which smote the wild vine, so that it withered away.
And when the sun was up, God prepared a fervent east wind: and the sun beat over the head of Ionas, that he fainted again, and wished unto his soul, that he might die, and said: It is better for me to die than to live.
And God said unto Ionas: Art thou so angry for the wild vine? And he said: yea very angry, even unto death.
And the LORD said: Thou hast compassion upon the wild vine, whereon thou bestowdest no labor, ner madest it grow: which sprang up in one night and perish in another:
And should not I then have compassion on Ninive that great city, wherein there are above an hundredth and twenty thousand persons, that know not their right hand from the left, besides much cattle?
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Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.