But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry - literally, hot, probably with grief or vexation rather than anger (Fairbairn). Jonah's repugnance to the mission to Nineveh was probably mistaken patriotism, which set the welfare of his country above the will of God. It is true, Ivalush or Pul, who, it is thought, was then reigning at Nineveh, was destined soon to be the first punisher of Israel under Menahem. But if Israel remained impenitent, it was sure to be punished by some other power, even if God had destroyed the Assyrian. Jonah's resistance of God's merciful purpose toward Nineveh was, therefore, altogether mistaken. How sad the contrast between God's feeling, on the repentance of Nineveh toward Him, and Jonah's feeling on the repentance of God toward Nineveh! Strange in one who was himself a monument of mercy on his repentance! We all, like him, need the lesson taught in the parable of the unforgiving, though forgiven, debtor (Matthew 18:23-35).
Jonah was grieved because Nineveh's preservation, after his denunciation, made him seem a false prophet (Calvin). Jonah was grieved because Nineveh's preservation, after his denunciation, made him seem a false prophet (Calvin). But it would make Jonah a demon, not a man, to have preferred the destruction of 600,000 men rather than his prophecy should be set aside, through God's mercy triumphing over judgment. And God in that case would have severely chastised, whereas he only expostulates mildly with him, and, by a mode of dealing at once gentle and condescending, tries to show him his error.
Moreover, Jonah himself, in apologizing for his vexation, does not mention the failure of his prediction as the cause; but solely the thought of God's slowness to anger. This was what led him to flee to Tarshish at his first commission: not the likelihood then of his prediction being falsified: for in fact his commission then was not to foretell Nineveh's downfall, but simply to "cry against" Nineveh's "wickedness" as having "come up before God." Jonah could hardly have been so vexed for the letter of his prediction failing, when the end of his commission had virtually been gained in leading Nineveh to repentance. This, then, cannot have been regarded by Jonah as the ultimate end of his commission. If Nineveh had been the prominent object with him, he would have rejoiced at the result of his mission. But Israel was the prominent aim of Jonah, as a prophet of the elect people.
Probably, then, he regarded the destruction of Nineveh as fitted to be an example of God's judgment at last suspending His long forbearance, so as to startle Israel from its desperate degeneracy, heightened by its new prosperity under Jeroboam II, at that very time, in a way that all other means had failed to do. Jonah, despairing of anything effectual being done for God in Israel, unless there were first given a striking example of severity, thought, when he proclaimed the downfall of Nineveh in 40 days, that now at last God is about to give such an example; so, when this means of awakening Israel was set aside by God's mercy on Nineveh's repentance, he was bitterly disappointed, not from pride or mercilessness, but from hopelessness as to anything being possible for the reformation of Israel, now that his cherished hope is baffled. But God's plan was to teach Israel, by the example of Nineveh, how inexcusable is their own impenitence and how inevitable their ruin, if they persevere. Repenting Nineveh has proved herself more worthy of God's favour than apostate Israel; the children of the covenant have not only fallen down to, but actually below, the level of a pagan people: Israel, therefore, must go down, and the pagan rise above her. Jonah did not know the important lessons of hope to the penitent, and condemnation to those amidst outward privileges impenitent, which Nineveh's preservation on repentance was to have for later times, and to all ages. He could not foresee that Messiah Himself was thus to apply that history. A lesson to us that if we could in any particular alter the plan of Providence, it would not be for the better, but for the worse (Fairbairn). The chief cause of Jonah's displeasure was probably that he grieved at the preservation of Nineveh, the foretold destroyer of Israel (Hosea 9:3; Hosea 11:5; Hosea 11:11; Amos 5:27). The sparing of penitent Nineveh Jonah felt to be the sealing of ruin to impenitent Israel, his country.