Jonah 4:8

a vehement east wind Margin, silent. This, or sultry, R.V., is probably the true meaning of the word. "We have two kinds of sirocco," writes Dr Thomson, "one accompanied with vehement wind which fills the air with dust and fine sand … The sirocco to-day is of the quiet kind, and they are often more overpowering than the others. I encountered one a year ago on my way from Lydd to Jerusalem. There is no living thing abroad to make a noise. The birds hide in thickest shades; the fowls pant under the walls with open mouth and drooping wings; the flocks and herds take shelter in caves and under great rocks; the labourers retire from the fields, and close the windows and doors of their houses; and travellers hasten, as I did, to take shelter in the first cool place they can find. No one has energy enough to make a noise, and the very air is too weak and languid to stir the pendent leaves of the tall poplars." Land and Book, pp. 536, 537. The occurrence of this wind at sunrise is referred to as a usual thing by St James, James 1:11, where the same Greek word (καύσων) is used for "burning heat" as is used by the LXX. here.

fainted It is the same word as occurs in Genesis 38:14, "covered her with a veil," veiled herself, the reference being either to the film that comes over the eyes in fainting and exhaustion, or to the clouding of the mental powers from the same cause. This word is used again of fainting from thirst in Amos 8:13, and a similar word in the same metaphorical sense in ch. Jonah 2:7 of this book, where see note.

wished in himself to die Lit. asked for his life to die. Exactly the same expression occurs with reference to Elijah when he was fleeing from the wrath of Jezebel, 1 Kings 19:4. The meaning of the phrase seems to be that the prophet, both in the one case and in the other, recognizing that his life was not his own, but God's, asked for it of Him as a gift or boon, that he might do with it what he pleased. Then the object with which he asked for it, the way in which he would have it disposed of, is expressed by the word "to die," or "for death." Hezekiah might have asked for his life, as indeed he did, in his grievous sickness, but it was not "to die," but "to live." The example of Elijah may perhaps have been in Jonah's mind when he penned these words, or even when he gave vent to his impatient desire to die. If the Jewish tradition that Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath and the "servant" whom he left at Beersheba, 1 Kings 19:3, could be accepted, this would be the more probable. The cases of the two prophets were however in reality very different. Both were weary of life. Both desired to die. Both gave expression to their desire in the same words. But here the resemblance ends. Elijah's was a noble disappointment. "On Carmel the great object for which Elijah had lived seemed on the point of being realised. Baal's prophets were slain, Jehovah acknowledged with one voice: false worship put down. Elijah's life aim the transformation of Israel into a kingdom of God was all but accomplished. In a single day all this bright picture was annihilated." (Robertson.) But Jonah's was a far less worthy grief. It was not that God's kingdom was overthrown in Israel, but that it was extended to the heathen world, that made him weary of his life. Elijah grieved because he had failed in his efforts to convert and save Israel; Jonah because he had succeeded in converting and saving Nineveh.

It is better &c. The words "It is" which, as the italics in A.V. show, are not in the original, are better omitted: "And said, Better for me to die than to live."

The excess of Jonah's joy and grief over the bestowal and loss of the gourd was partly due to his sanguine and impulsive character. But the influence here ascribed to physical circumstances over the mind, especially when it is burdened with a great grief, is very true to nature. "We would fain believe that the mind has power over the body, but it is just as true that the body rules the mind. Causes apparently the most trivial: a heated room want of exercise a sunless day a northern aspect will make all the difference between happiness and unhappiness, between faith and doubt, between courage and indecision." (Robertson.)