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.
And he prayed unto the Lord ... O Lord, was not this my saying? - my thought or feeling.
Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish - I anticipated, by fleeing, the disappointment of my hope (that Nineveh should fall), through thy long-suffering mercy. For I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Jonah here has before his mind Exodus 34:6, where the Lord proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." So also Joel (Joel 2:13) quotes the same passage. 'Intensely, infinitely full of gracious and yearning love: nay (as the intensive adjectives passive in form х chanuwn (H2587) rachuwm (H7349)] imply), mastered (so to speak) by the might and intensity of His gracious love.'
Of great kindness - great in loving tenderness (Pusey).