Bible Strands
Jonah 4:8
As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports God’s direct action upon Jonah at dawn, immediately after the plant withers and before God questions Jonah’s anger. The moment captures Jonah’s physical collapse under the sun’s heat.
The words — ר֣וּחַ קָדִ֗ים חֲרִישִׁית (ruach qadim charishit) translates literally to “an east wind, hot.” וַ/יְמַ֨ן (va/yaman) means “he appointed,” indicating divine direction of the weather.
The thread — The scorching east wind appears in Ezekiel 19:12 as a force that dries up fruit, while Jonah 4:3 records his earlier wish to die. Psalms 121:6 contrasts this by promising the sun will not strike the believer by day.
Why it lands — The text states that God appointed the wind and sun to strike Jonah’s head until he wished to die. It asks the reader to acknowledge that physical distress follows divine action, not random chance.
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 it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
Cross-references
- Psalms 121:6 The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
- Jonah 4:3 And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
- Ezekiel 19:12 But it was uprooted in fury, cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit. Its strong branches were stripped off and they withered; the fire consumed them.
- Isaiah 49:10 They will not hunger or thirst, nor will scorching heat or sun beat down on them. For He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.
- Revelation 3:19 Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.
- Revelation 7:16 ‘Never again will they hunger, and never will they thirst; nor will the sun beat down upon them, nor any scorching heat.’
- Leviticus 10:3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD meant when He said: ‘To those who come near Me I will show My holiness, and in the sight of all the people I will reveal My glory.’” But Aaron remained silent.
- 1 Samuel 3:18 So Samuel told him everything and did not hide a thing from him. “He is the LORD,” replied Eli. “Let Him do what is good in His eyes.”
- 2 Samuel 15:25 Then the king said to Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, He will bring me back and let me see both it and His dwelling place again.
- Job 2:10 “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.