Jonah 4 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Jonah took this very badly, and he was burning with anger.

He prayed to Yahweh: "Please, Yahweh, isn't this exactly what I said while I was still at home? That's why I ran for Tarshish the first time. I knew you are a God who is kind and full of pity, slow to get angry, overflowing with loyal love, the sort who changes his mind about doing harm."

"So now, Yahweh, take my life. I would rather be dead than alive."

Yahweh said, "Is it right for you to be this angry?"

Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of it. He built himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.

Then Yahweh God assigned a plant, and it grew up over Jonah to shade his head and get him out of his misery. Jonah was thrilled about the plant.

But at first light the next morning, God assigned a worm. It went at the plant, and the plant withered.

When the sun came up, God assigned a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah's head until he was faint, and he asked to die. He said, "I would rather be dead than alive."

God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be this angry about the plant?" He said, "It is. I'm angry enough to die."

Yahweh said, "You cared about this plant, which you did nothing for and did not grow. It came up in a night and it died in a night."

"And I am not to care about Nineveh, that huge city, where there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and a great many animals as well?"