Jonah 4 11

Jonah 4:11 kjv

And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

Jonah 4:11 nkjv

And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left?and much livestock?"

Jonah 4:11 niv

And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left?and also many animals?"

Jonah 4:11 esv

And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"

Jonah 4:11 nlt

But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn't I feel sorry for such a great city?"

Jonah 4 verses

Jonah 4 11 meaning

Jonah 4:11 is God's climactic rhetorical question, directly challenging Jonah's narrow, ethnocentric perspective and revealing the immensity of His own compassionate heart. It underscores God's universal concern for the vast population of Nineveh, especially its most vulnerable (children who lack moral discernment) and even its animals, contrasting this with Jonah's misplaced pity for a single plant. The verse declares God's inherent nature of grace and mercy extending beyond nationalistic or punitive desires, asserting His right to show compassion to whom He wills.

Jonah 4 11 Context

Jonah chapter 4 unveils a striking confrontation between God's boundless compassion and Jonah's stubborn, nationalist prejudice. Following Nineveh's repentance in chapter 3 and God's subsequent decision not to destroy the city, Jonah expresses profound anger, stating in 4:2-3 that he anticipated God's mercy and thus fled in the first place, preferring Nineveh's destruction over its repentance. God questions Jonah's anger (4:4). God then provides a shade plant for Jonah, which soon withers, causing Jonah to be deeply distressed over its loss. God uses this trivial plant, which Jonah did nothing to earn or sustain, to highlight the absurdity of Jonah's self-centered pity. Verse 11 is God's concluding, unanswered rhetorical question, revealing His vastly different scale of values. Historically, Nineveh was the capital of the cruel Assyrian empire, an oppressor of Israel, which explains Jonah's extreme animosity. This background amplifies the theological challenge of God's mercy towards an enemy and criticizes the narrow, exclusive understanding of God held by many Israelites.

Jonah 4 11 Word analysis

• And should not I pity: (Hebrew: וַאֲנִי֙ לֹא־אָח֣וּס, va'ani lo-achus). This is God's direct, emphatic rhetorical question. The verb אָח֥וּס (achus), from the root חוס (chus), signifies "to have compassion, pity, spare, show mercy." It emphasizes God's inherent nature of compassion and His sovereign right to exercise it, especially contrasting with Jonah's narrow focus on his own comfort and nationalistic grievances. God implicitly compares His own boundless compassion with Jonah's limited, self-serving pity for a plant.

• Nineveh: (Hebrew: נִינְוֵה, Ninveh). The capital city of Assyria, a formidable and cruel enemy of Israel. Its mention underscores the magnitude of God's universal compassion extending even to His people's sworn adversaries.

• that great city: (Hebrew: הָעִיר הַגְּדוֹלָה, ha'ir haggedolah). This epithet, repeated throughout the book (Jonah 1:2, 3:2, 3:3), highlights Nineveh's vastness, strategic importance, and implied wickedness from an Israelite perspective. God's pity for such a powerful and notoriously cruel gentile city emphasizes the universality of His grace, far surpassing human expectations or prejudices.

• wherein are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons: (Hebrew: מֵאָה וְעֶשְׂרִים אֶלֶף אָדָם, meʾah vāʿeśrim ʾelef ʾādām). This specific number illustrates the enormous scale of human life within Nineveh that God values. While the exact demographic representation is debated among scholars, it most commonly refers to a substantial segment of the population that is particularly vulnerable and innocent, likely young children.

• that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand: (Hebrew: אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יָדַע בֵּין־יְמִינ֖וֹ לִשְׂמֹאלֽוֹ, asher lo-yadaʿ ben-yeminô lismōlô). This is an idiomatic expression for extreme youth, moral immaturity, or lack of knowledge regarding right and wrong. These are individuals too young to be held accountable for moral choices or national wickedness. God's concern for this large group of morally un-discerning children underscores His profound compassion for the innocent and defenseless, serving as a powerful plea for mercy. (Cf. Deut 1:39 for a similar usage regarding children's lack of knowledge of good and evil).

• and also much cattle: (Hebrew: וּבְהֵמָה רַבָּה, uvēhēmah rabbah). The inclusion of animals further emphasizes the comprehensive breadth of God's pity. It reminds Jonah and the reader that God's care extends beyond humanity to all His creation. The animals were even included in Nineveh's repentance (Jonah 3:7-8), indicating God's concern for their well-being is not just passive but actively responds to the choices of humankind. This also provides a final, poignant contrast to Jonah's pity for a single plant.

• Words-group Analysis:

  • "And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city": This phrase introduces the central conflict: God's universal, active compassion versus Jonah's narrow, resentful inaction. The repeated emphasis on Nineveh's "greatness" magnifies the object of God's pity, making it a truly formidable example of grace.
  • "wherein are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle": This forms the core justification for God's pity. By focusing on the innocent children and the animals, God highlights the sheer scale of life within Nineveh that has intrinsic value, completely bypassing the adult Ninevites' culpability (though they had repented). This strategic emphasis appeals to a basic sense of compassion that even Jonah could not reasonably deny, while implicitly rebuking his own lack thereof.

Jonah 4 11 Bonus section

The profound impact of Jonah 4:11 lies in its lack of an explicit answer from Jonah. The story simply ends with God's question hanging in the air, leaving the reader to provide the internal response. This literary device compels introspection and personal application, challenging us to consider if our own hearts reflect God's expansive, impartial compassion or Jonah's restrictive, self-serving perspective. The inclusion of the "right hand and left hand" idiom, which appears in various ancient Near Eastern texts and in the Old Testament, also implies a cultural understanding of human development where this inability to discern right from left signifies a state of infancy or utter lack of moral culpability, heightening the appeal to pity. The sheer number of innocent lives emphasized here – 120,000 – is particularly striking for ancient Near Eastern cities and might signify a symbolic figure representing an immensely large, uncounted populace whose innocence deserved God's pity. The entire narrative functions as a strong polemic against exclusive nationalism and demonstrates that God's covenant with Israel was always intended to be a conduit of blessing for all nations.

Jonah 4 11 Commentary

Jonah 4:11 serves as the profound, open-ended conclusion to the book of Jonah. It is God's final, unanswerable rhetorical question, designed to convict Jonah – and by extension, every reader – of their skewed priorities and limited understanding of divine grace. Jonah's anger at Nineveh's repentance and his profound grief over a single withered plant expose his narrow, ethnocentric, and ultimately selfish view of God's mercy. God's question directly contrasts Jonah's disproportionate grief for a trivial plant with His own vast concern for a city teeming with over 120,000 morally innocent children and countless animals. This highlights God's intrinsic character as One who is "gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love" (Jonah 4:2), extending compassion far beyond the boundaries of national identity or deservedness, even to those who were historically enemies. The verse compels the reader to confront their own biases, calling for a radical re-evaluation of whose lives and well-being are truly important in God's eyes, and thus should be in ours.

• Practical Usage Examples:
  • Recognizing God's compassion for all, even those we consider our enemies or who are culturally "other."
  • Challenging personal priorities when we care more about trivial losses or personal discomforts than about the eternal well-being of others.
  • Embracing a broader understanding of God's mission, which includes caring for the vulnerable (children) and all of creation (animals).