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Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

Jonah 4:4

‘And YHWH said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

YHWH then asked him if he really thought that he was doing well by being angry. This is leading up to the main message of the book, that what is right is for the strong to have compassion on the weak, and it is thus right for the strong to be forgiving and merciful, and for Him to have mercy on ignorant man. (As Jonah 4:10 brings out, it is not all Assyrians who are in mind as such, but those who are helpless and weak, although that might indicate all religiously).

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See also Jonah 4:4 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Jonah 4:4. _DOEST THOU WELL TO BE ANGRY?_] ההיטב הרה לך _haheitib_ _harah lac_, "Is anger good for thee?" No, anger is good for no man; but an angry preacher, minister, bishop, or prophet, is a...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    AND THE LORD SAID, DOEST THOU WELL TO BE ANGRY? - o God, being appealed to, answers the appeal. So does He often in prayer, by some secret voice, answer the inquirer. There is right anger against the...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 4 Jonah's Discontent and Correction _ 1. Jonah's discontent (John 4:1) _ 2. The correction (John 4:4) John 4:1. All that had happened displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry. Did...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    JONAH 4. JONAH'S INTOLERANCE REBUKED AND GOD'S MERCY VINDICATED. God's clemency to Nineveh made Jonah very angry. It was not, as we might be tempted to suppose, that he felt his professional credit as...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _Doest thou well to be angry_?] Two other translations of these words have been suggested. One, which though perhaps possible is far-fetched and highly improbable, is, "Does (my) doing good (that is,...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Jonah 4:1-11. Jonah's Displeasure, and its Rebuke Greatly displeased at the clemency of God towards Nineveh, Jonah confesses that it was the expectation that that clemency would be exercised, which r...

  • Charles Box Commentaries

    _WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO BE ANGRY? -- JONAH 4:4-5:_ Jonah's anger was not justified. So the Lord asked, "Do you think you have reason to be angry?" (Jonah 4:4) The question was not asked to provide...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    DOEST THOU WELL TO BE ANGRY?— _Hast thou a sufficient cause to be angry?_ God asks him, whether his reputation is of so great consequence, that for the defence of it many thousands of men who repented...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    GOD'S MESSENGER RUNNING AHEAD OF GODTHE DEMONSTRATION BY JEHOVAH TEXT: Jonah 4:4-10 4 And Jehovah said, Doest thou well to be angry? 5 Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? THEN SAID THE LORD, DOEST THOU WELL TO BE ANGRY? - or grieved; margin, 'Art thou greatly, or much, angry,' or 'grieved?' (Fairbairn, with the Septua...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    JONAH'S JEALOUSY CONTRASTED WITH JEHOVAH'S COMPASSION 1. Jonah's anger has a double cause, wounded pride that his words are proved false, and indignation that the God of Israel should pity heathen, o...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    DOEST THOU WELL TO BE ANGRY?] RM 'Art thou greatly angry?' A kindly remonstrance to awake better feelings. Jonah makes no reply yet, but goes and sits in his booth to watch whether, after all, God wil...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    THE MAN WHO DISAGREED WITH GOD JONAH _MARK KIRKPATRICK_ CHAPTER 4 V1 Jonah was upset and angry. V2 He complained, ‘Lord, did I not say before I left home that you would do this? I thought that yo...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    DOEST THOU WELL?... — This rendering may be supported by Deuteronomy 5:28; Jeremiah 1:12, and agrees better with the context than the marginal translation, which follows the LXX., and is undoubtedly a...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וַ יֹּ֣אמֶר יְהוָ֔ה הַ הֵיטֵ֖ב חָ֥רָה לָֽךְ

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    ISRAEL'S JEALOUSY OF JEHOVAH John 4:1 HAVING illustrated the truth, that the Gentiles are capable of repentance unto life, the Book now describes the effect of their escape upon Jonah, and closes by...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    THE PROPHET'S NARROWNESS REBUKED John 4:1-11 This chapter marks an era in the development of the outlook of the Hebrew people. Here, upon its repentance, a heathen city was pardoned. Clearly Jehovah...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    The final picture of the controversy between Jonah and Jehovah reveals most vividly, through Jonah, the attitude of the ancient people which his story was intended to correct, and Jehovah's care for,...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be (d) angry? (d) Will you judge when I do things for my glory, and when I do not?...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    Oh! precious, precious Lord Jesus! do we not see thee here, in this gentle tender expostulation? Reader, pray turn to Luke 9:51....

  • Introductory Lectures - Commentary by William Kelly

    Lectures on the Minor Prophets. W. Kelly. The most cursory reader can hardly avoid seeing that Jonah has a peculiar place among the prophets. There is none more intensely Jewish; yet his prophecy was...

  • James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary

    _USES OF ANGER_ ‘Doest thou well to be angry?’ ‘Be ye angry, and sin not.’ Jonah 4:4 (with Ephesians 4:26). The former text implies that there is an anger which is sinful; and the latter text impli...

  • John Brown Commentaries Selected Books of the Bible

    Gordo I. INTRODUCTION A. This morning we come to the 4th and final chapter of the book of Jonah. 1. As far a Nineveh is concerned, the book could have ended with chapter 3. a) They repented, the L...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    There is no doubt but that God by thus reproving Jonah condemns his intemperate warmth. But since God alone is a fit judge of man’s conduct, there is no reason for us to boast that we are influenced b...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    The God of grace has compassion on the works of His hands, when they humble themselves before Him and tremble at the hearing of His righteous judgments. But Jonah, instead of caring for them, thinks o...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    THEN SAID THE LORD, DOST THOU WELL TO BE ANGRY?] A mild and gentle reproof this; which shows him to be a God gracious and merciful, and slow to anger; he might have answered Jonah's passionate wish, a...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? Ver. 4. _Doest thou do well to be angry?_] Or, what? art thou very angry? _Nunquid recte?_ Summon the sobriety of thy senses before thine own judgment...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Doest thou well to be angry?_ What a mild reproof was this from God, for such a passionate behaviour as Jonah manifested! Here the prophet experienced that Jehovah was _a gracious God, merciful, and...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    Then said the Lord, in a preliminary, gentle reproof, DOEST THOU WELL TO BE ANGRY? Was there any justification for Jonah's attitude?...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    JONAH'S DISPLEASURE AND THE LORD'S REPROOF. That Jonah was easily swayed by his emotions is evident from the entire story of his book, but appears particularly from the last Chapter. At the same time...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    DOEST THOU WELL TO BE ANGRY?: Or, art thou greatly angry?...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-4 What all the saints make matter of joy and praise, Jonah makes the subject of reflection upon God; as if showing mercy were an imperfection of the Divine nature, which is the greatest glory of it...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    Then, so soon as Jonah's haste had sinned against his God and his own life, said the Lord; either by voice audible to Jonah, or rather by his Spirit; that Spirit which gave Jonah order to go and preac...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Jonah 4:4 LORD H3068 said H559 (H8799) right H3190 (H8687) angry H2734 (H8804) Doest thou well to be angry - or, Art thou greatly angry,...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    John 4:4 _(with Ephesians 4:20)_ The former text implies that there is an anger which is sinful; and the latter text implies that there is an anger which is not sinful. The difference lies not so muc...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    JONAH 1-4 Jonah buried and risen a type of Christ. I. More than once in the course of our Lord's ministry, among different persons and for different objects, He makes use of the similitude of the pro...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    You know all about Jonah's refusal to go upon the Lord's errand, and how he was held to it, and carried to his work in a great fish as he would not go by himself. Somehow or other, God will make his s...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Jonah's displeasure over God's action toward Nineveh. The sheltering gourd. CHARACTERS: God, Jonah. CONCLUSION: Though there be these who find it in their hearts to quarrel with the goodnes...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Jonah 4:6. _A gourd._ Plants of this genera exceed all others in the rapidity of their growth. Jonah 4:11. _Six score thousand_ infants. By consequence, the elder children and adults, must have swell...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry._ ANGER REPROVED Jonah’s anger was not justifiable; for it rose high against God, and quarrelled with the dispensations of His providence and grace. A...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    JONAH—NOTE ON JONAH 4:1 Jonah’s Angry Prayer. The sixth episode parallels the third (Jonah 1:17) and focuses on Jonah’s self-centeredness and hypocrisy. Both episodes have the same

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.] ANGRY] Lit. hot with anger; to burn inwardly: the verb usually restricted to anger, but (Jonah 4:4; Jonah 4:9) rendered to grieve. Jonah’s vexation grew to anger. Nineveh’s destructio...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION JONAH 4:1 JONAH'S DISPLEASURE AND ITS CORRECTION. JONAH 4:1 1. Jonah is grieved at the sparing of Nineveh, the expectation of which had led to his former flight

  • The Typology of Scripture by Patrick Fairbairn

    CHAPTER VIII. THE DISPLEASURE OF JONAH AT THE PRESERVATION OF NINEVEH FROM the effect produced on the mind of God by the repentance of Nineveh toward him, we now pass to the effect produced on the min...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and he said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this what I said to you, when I was still in my own country? And this...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    James 1:19; James 1:20; Jonah 4:9; Micah 6:3; Matthew 20:15;...

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