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 consider the dimensions of the city, as given chap. Jonah 3:3. So large a city might easily contain such a number of inhabitants, and many more; and at the same time there might be, as there are in most of the great cities in the East, large vacant spaces for gardens or pastures; so that there might be, as the sacred text asserts there was, also much cattle. It has been observed, that the book of Jonah ends as abruptly as it begins. It begins with a conjunction copulative, And the word came unto Jonah, דבר ויהי vaihei debar, &c. which has made some commentators think, that it was but an appendix to some of his other writings: and it ends without giving us any manner of account, either of what became of the Ninevites, or of Jonah himself, after this expedition. It is likely, indeed, from the compassionate expressions which God makes use of towards the Ninevites, that for this time he reversed their doom; and it is not improbable that Jonah, when he had executed his commission, and been satisfied by God concerning his merciful procedure, returned into Judaea. We may presume, however, that the repentance of the Ninevites was of no long continuance; for, not many years after this, we find the prophet Nahum foretelling the total destruction of that city. See Calmet and Bishop Newton.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Never was perverseness more strange and unaccountable than here appears in this angry prophet.
1. He is exceedingly displeased at the repentance of the Ninevites, and the mercy extended to them, which one should have thought would have been the very joy of his heart. Perhaps he had imbibed the common Jewish prejudice against the heathen, and was unwilling that the crumbs of mercy should be cast to these dogs. Probably also he esteemed this a deep reflection upon Israel, that heathens should repent so readily, and they continue obdurate. But what seems most to have touched him was his own reputation, lest he should be counted a false prophet. So apt are we to be selfish, and more concerned about the vain world's opinion, than about God's glory, and the good of men's souls.
2. He dares expostulate with God on the subject. It is said that he prayed; but very unlike was this prayer from what he had so lately offered up to God. He begins with justifying himself to God for his flight to Tarshish, insolently insinuating that he was then in the right, having foreseen that this would be the consequence, because, as he suggests, he knew God's gracious character, and his readiness to receive and pardon returning sinners: a most amazing cause indeed for his displeasure! So ready are passionate people to suggest the most absurd reasons to justify their anger. And now in a passion he is tired of life, and wants God instantly to dispatch him, as if it was better for him to die than to live, and bear the reproach of a false prophet: a temper, indeed, very unfit for a dying man: but those who are blinded by their passions are destitute of reflection, and usually deaf to advice.
3. God justly rebukes him for his impatience and causeless perverseness. Doest thou well to be angry? what a mild rebuke for so great a provocation! If God be thus gentle, much more ought we to be so, and use that soft answer which turneth away wrath: or is doing good displeasing to thee? which should have been his delight. Surely never was greater forbearance; instead of striking him dead in judgment, as he deserved, the Lord kindly seeks to soften his resentment, and bring him to a better mind. What miserable, eternally miserable souls had many been, if God had given them their wishes, and sent that death which they impatiently invoked!
2nd, The beginning of strife is usually like the letting out of water; passion, having once taken the reins, goes from evil to worse.
1. Jonah retires in sullen silence, and waits without the city, to see what would become of it, having made for himself a booth with boughs of trees, to shelter him from the sun and rain. (See the Notes.) Probably he thought that if the greater judgments were removed, some lesser ones might be inflicted, and save his credit as a prophet; or he might presume that the repentance of the Ninevites would be of no long continuance, and then their ruin would return upon them.
2. Though in his present spirit he little deserved any favour from God, yet He, who is good to the evil and unthankful, thought upon him in his incommodious habitation, and caused a gourd, or, as others interpret it, a tree called the ricinus, or palma-christi, to spring up suddenly, and spread its shadow over him, to deliver him from his grief: probably the heat of the sun was very troublesome, and added to his other vexations. Note; (1.) They who vex themselves with imaginary ills, are often suffered to feel real misery. (2.) Though we are often froward children, God is a tender father, and pities us even when we deserve punishment.
3. Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd; he rejoiced with a great joy, as the words may be rendered; excessive in his gladness, as he had been in his anger. So easily do hot and hasty spirits run to extremes; and they who vex themselves about the loss of worldly trifles are usually as easily and as much elated with their gain.
4. God smote the gourd by a worm that he had prepared next morning, and left Jonah as much exposed as ever; and, to make him feel more sensibly the loss, he sent a vehement east-wind, which with the hot sun-beams beat upon him; so that he was quite overpowered, and ready to die with the heat, from which he had no shelter. So quickly fading are all our earthly comforts, when God pleases to send a worm to our gourd; and when we are most happy in them, perhaps even then the instruments are at work to destroy them. In all sublunary goods, therefore, we should rejoice as if we rejoiced nor, that we may be ready to bless God when he takes away, as well as when he gives.
5. Jonah relapses into his former fretfulness, and, with impatient discontent at the loss of the gourd, again wishes for death, as a deliverance from his misery. Thus inordinate affection lays a foundation for inordinate affliction.
6. God expostulates with him on his sin and folly. Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? Note; It becomes us in all our losses and crosses to check our inordinate discontent and anger, and ask, Do I well to be angry? so long, so often, on such frivolous occasions? One moment's reflection should shame and silence us.
7. Far from standing abashed at this reproof, he daringly vindicates his perverseness: I do well to be angry even unto death. Thus do ungoverned passions bear down reason and conscience; and, deaf to conviction, men vindicate the most glaring absurdity and guilt. Nay, self-murderers, many fret themselves into diseases of body, as well as bring sin upon their souls, and will indulge their fretfulness and rage, though death be the consequence.
8. God, for his conviction, applies to him the case of this gourd, about which he so vexed himself. If he was so concerned about a poor shrub, the growth of a night, or the creature of a day, which he had used no pains to plant or water; with how much more pity might God well regard the vast city of Nineveh, where, besides the other inhabitants, were more than sixscore thousand infants, unable to distinguish good from evil, besides much cattle. The animal life was far preferable to the vegetable, and much more immortal souls to both; and here were thousands, and such as never by actual transgression had offended—arguments which should for ever silence his discontent, and lead him to adore the transcendant mercy and righteousness of God. We may reasonably hope that the prophet was convinced, and humbled to the dust; and that he left us this faithful record of his sin and folly, that we might be warned against the like perverseness, or be encouraged to repent of it, and find mercy.