The king himself put on sackcloth and sat in ashes, and he and all his people, from the greatest to the least, fasted and did penance, in order to appease the anger of God. And because of their repentance God had mercy on the people of Ninive, and spared their city. Meanwhile, Jonas had gone out of the city, and sat down at some distance, towards the east, to see what would happen. And finding that God had spared Ninive, he was angry[1] and much troubled lest he should pass for a false prophet.
God, however, wishing to show his prophet the unreasonableness of his anger, caused to spring up, during the night, a large vine[2], which sheltered him next day from the scorching rays of the sun. But on the following morning God sent a worm which ate up the root of the plant, and it withered away.
Now, when the sun had risen, God sent a hot and burning wind; and the sun struck full on the head of Jonas, and he broiled with the heat to such a degree that he desired to die. Then the Lord said to him: “Thou art grieved for the ivy for which thou hast not laboured, and shall not I spare Ninive, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons that know not how to distinguish[3] between their right hand and their left, and many beasts?”
COMMENTARY.
God never changes. What! did He not change His intention towards Ninive? It may appear so; for first He made Jonas proclaim that the city would be destroyed in forty days, and yet after all He spared it. To this St. Jerome replies: “God did not change His purpose, but man changed his actions! From the first it was God’s intention to be merciful, and He proclaimed the punishment in order that He might be able to show mercy.” As God is ever ready to be merciful if only man will be converted, we must add to the words ’Ninive shall be destroyed’ this reservation: 'unless it do penance’. God threatened to punish the Ninivites for the express purpose of bringing them to repentance, so that, of His mercy, He might remit the punishment with which His justice had threatened them.
- ↑ Angry . Because he feared that Ninive’s salvation would be Israel’s destruction.
- ↑ A large vine. Over his unprotected head.
- ↑ How to distinguish. Whom did the Lord God mean by those who knew not their right hand from their left? Little children under seven. It was, therefore, as if He had said: “Shall I not have compassion on this great city, in which are 120,000 innocent children, who have not as yet committed any actual sin?”
