Jonah 4 - Introduction
_JONAH, REPINING AT GOD'S MERCY, IS REPROVED BY THE TYPE OF A GOURD._ _Before Christ 862._... [ Continue Reading ]
_JONAH, REPINING AT GOD'S MERCY, IS REPROVED BY THE TYPE OF A GOURD._ _Before Christ 862._... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT IT DISPLEASED JONAH EXCEEDINGLY— Seeing that what he had foretold against the Ninevites did not happen, Jonah was afraid, lest he should pass for a false prophet and a deceiver, his ministry be despised, and his person exposed to the violence of the Ninevites. He was therefore very peevish and i... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE NOW, O LORD, TAKE, I BESEECH THEE— "I cannot survive the confusion of seeing my predictions vain, and to no effect: I cannot bear to live under the imputation of being a false prophet.... [ Continue Reading ]
DOEST THOU WELL TO BE ANGRY?— _Hast thou a sufficient cause to be angry?_ God asks him, whether his reputation is of so great consequence, that for the defence of it many thousands of men who repented should perish. But the reputation of Jonah was really in no danger; for the Ninevites did not doubt... [ Continue Reading ]
SO JONAH WENT OUT, &C.— _Now Jonah had gone out—and he sat,_ &c. The author of the _Observations_ asks upon this difficult passage, Did Jonah make himself a booth of boughs, in which to wait the event of his prophesy; and did the gourd come up in one single night afterward?—So our version supposes,... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST HAD PITY ON THE GOURD— God confutes the impatient grief of Jonah by a similitude. "You acquiesced in that plant, which afforded you a shade; I acquiesce in the repentance of the Ninevites. Therefore you ought not to grieve because I spare them, unless you prefer your own advantage and repu... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOULD NOT I SPARE NINEVEH, &C.— It is generally calculated, that the young children of any place are a fifth part of the inhabitants; and, if we admit of that calculation, the whole number of inhabitants in Nineveh amounted to above 600,000; which number will appear by no means incredible, if we co... [ Continue Reading ]