And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
Gourd - Hebrew, qiyqaayown (H7021); the Egyptian kiki, the 'ricinus' or castor oil plant, commonly called palm-christ (palma-christi). It grows from eight to ten feet high. Only one leaf grows on a branch, but that leaf being often more than a foot large, the collective leaves give good shelter from the heat. It grows rapidly, and fades as suddenly when injured. It is a native of North Africa, Arabia, Syria, India. It is the Arabic Elkeroa. It has leaves like the plane or the vine, only larger, smoother, and darker. The miraculous instantaneousness of the growth of Jonah's gourd followed according to the analogy of the nature of the plant.
And made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. It was therefore grief, not selfish anger, which Jonah felt (note, Jonah 4:1). Some external comforts will often turn the mind away from its sorrowful bent.
So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd - Hebrew, 'was glad with great gladness.'