And God said to Jonah,
Do you do well to be angry about the plant?
And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
Read Chapter 4
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Death. The spirit of prophecy changes not the temper. (Calmet)
Jonas had reason to be grieved, and so had God to show mercy. In this history and prediction, who would have thought that Jonas had been a figure of our Saviour's death and resurrection, if he himself had not declared it? (Matthew xii.) (Worthington)
The prophet comes out of the fish alive, as Christ does from the tomb. He was cast into the sea to save those on board; Christ dies for the redemption of mankind. Jonas had been ordered to preach, but did not comply till after his escape; thus the gospel was designed to be preached to the Gentiles, yet Christ would not have it done till he had risen, Matthew xv. 26. The prophet's grief intimates the jealousy of the Jews; as his shade destroyed, points out the law, which leaves them in the greatest distress. The very name fish, ichthus, is a monogram of "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a Saviour, (Calmet) or crucified. "(Haydock) (St. Paulinus, ep. 33.)
Hence Jonas most strikin...
LXX: 'and the Lord God said to Jonah, are you so afflicted for a gourd? He replied, 'I am very afflicted even to the point of death'. When he was asked about the repentance of the inhabitants of Nineveh and the safety of the city of the gentiles, 'do you well to be angry?', the prophet replied nothing, yet justified God's question by his silence. For he knew that God is kind, merciful, patient, and full of pity, pardoning wickedness and he did not feel sad for the safety of the gentiles; but once the gourd, (Israel) had dried up, when he is asked, 'do you well to be angry for the gourd?', he replies with assurance, 'I do well to be angry and to suffer even unto death. I did not want to save one only to see the others perish, to gain foreigners only to lose my own'. And in truth up until this day Christ weeps for Jerusalem and he weeps until death; not his own death, but that of the Jews, so that they die refusing and rise up again confessing the Son of God.
