Jonah 4

2. Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, etc. Or, as R.V., “Therefore I hastened to flee,” etc. Jonah’s want of sympathy with God’s sparing mercy was due partly to a selfish regard to his own safety and reputation, and partly to national exclusiveness which made him unwilling that the doom of a heathen city should be averted.

3 take, I beseech Thee, my life from me. The language has been compared with that of Moses (Numb. xi. 15) and Elijah (1 Kings xix. 9-18; where see note), who both had been weary of their lives, but in how different a spirit! They mourned over the people’s hardness of heart: Jonah resents the sparing mercy of God.

5. Jonah went out of the city. Apparently before the forty days had expired. Had he remained in the city, and fulfilled his ministry of repentance, the reformation of the Ninevites might have been more thorough and lasting.