“But God
Said to Jonah.
‘Is it right
For you
To be angry
About the bush?’
Jonah said.
‘Yes,
Angry enough to die.’
Yahweh said.
‘You are concerned
About the bush
For which you did not labor.
You did not grow it.
It came into being
In a night.
It perished
In a night.
Should I not be concerned
About Nineveh,
That great city,
In which there are more
Than a hundred
And twenty thousand persons,
Who do not know
Their right hand
From their left hand.
There are also many animals.”
Thus, the story of Jonah ends with a reprimand for Jonah. Jonah continued to argue that he had the right to be mad. At times, he sounded like Job and his complaints. God, not Yahweh, asked him if he had a right to be angry. Jonah insisted that he was so angry that he was willing to die. Then Yahweh asked him about the bush. It appeared one day and was gone the next day. Jonah did nothing to make it grow, so why was he so angry about the dead bush. On the other hand, Yahweh was concerned about the great city of Nineveh with 120,000 people and lots of animals. Yet, there was a parting shot at the people of Nineveh. Apparently, they were so dumb that they could not tell their right hand from their left hand.