Bible Strands
Jonah 4:2
So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jonah, angry at God's mercy toward Nineveh, prays directly to Yahweh (v. 1–2). He is not pleading for Nineveh's destruction but for his own death (v. 3).
The words — אָנָּה ('a.Nah, "I beg you") is an interjection of urgent, almost desperate appeal, not a neutral address. It marks the prayer as a raw outburst, not a composed petition.
The thread — The string of attributes (gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion, relenting from disaster) is the same formula God declared to Moses in Exodus 34:6 and echoed in Numbers 14:18 and Psalms 86:15. Jonah quotes God's revealed character back at God as a counter-argument.
Why it lands — The verse exposes that knowing who God is does not make a person want Him to act accordingly. It forces the reader to ask whether their own knowledge of God's mercy is conditional on it being directed at people they approve of.
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 he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
Cross-references
- Psalms 86:15 But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.
- Exodus 34:6 Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,
- Numbers 14:18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’
- Joel 2:13 So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.
- Psalms 145:8 The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion.
- Psalms 86:5 For You, O Lord, are kind and forgiving, rich in loving devotion to all who call on You.
- Micah 7:18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
- Exodus 32:14 So the LORD relented from the calamity He had threatened to bring on His people.
- Jeremiah 18:8 But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring.
- Psalms 78:38 And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.