Bible Strands
Jonah 4:11
So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Jonah in the aftermath of the prophet’s anger over the withered plant. The dialogue occurs immediately after God questions Jonah’s misplaced compassion for a temporary shade plant.
The words — אָח֔וּס ('achus) translates literally as “will I have compassion” or “will I spare,” framing the divine stance toward Nineveh. נִינְוֵ֖ה (Nineveh) identifies the specific city that God contrasts with Jonah’s narrow focus.
The thread — The rhetorical question about mercy echoes the principle in Matthew 18:33, where forgiveness is demanded between people just as God extends it. Luke 15:28 illustrates the same dynamic of divine patience meeting human resentment toward the undeserving.
Why it lands — The text states that God claims ownership over the physical and moral condition of a corrupt city, noting its 120,000 ignorant inhabitants and livestock. It asks the reader to examine whether their judgment aligns with God’s stated priority for preserving life rather than enforcing personal righteousness.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
Cross-references
- Matthew 18:33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’
- Luke 15:28 The older son became angry and refused to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.
- Psalms 36:6 Your righteousness is like the highest mountains; Your judgments are like the deepest sea. O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
- Psalms 145:8 The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion.
- Jonah 1:2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”
- Deuteronomy 1:39 And the little ones you said would become captives—your children who on that day did not know good from evil—will enter the land that I will give them, and they will possess it.
- Psalms 104:14 He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:
- Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.
- Psalms 104:27 All creatures look to You to give them their food in due season.
- Psalms 145:15 The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.