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Venerdi, 29 marzo 2024 - Santi Simplicio e Costantino ( Letture di oggi)

Jonah 4


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1This made Jonah very indignant; he fell into a rage.2He prayed to Yahweh and said, 'Please, Yahweh, isn't this what I said would happen when I was stil inmy own country? That was why I first tried to flee to Tarshish, since I knew you were a tender, compassionateGod, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, who relents about inflicting disaster.3So now, Yahweh, please take my life, for I might as wel be dead as go on living.'4Yahweh replied, 'Are you right to be angry?'5Jonah then left the city and sat down to the east of the city. There he made himself a shelter and satunder it in the shade, to see what would happen to the city.6Yahweh God then ordained that a castor-oil plant should grow up over Jonah to give shade for his headand soothe his ill-humour; Jonah was delighted with the castor-oil plant.7But at dawn the next day, God ordained that a worm should attack the castor-oil plant -- and it withered.8Next, when the sun rose, God ordained that there should be a scorching east wind; the sun beat downso hard on Jonah's head that he was overcome and begged for death, saying, 'I might as wel be dead as go onliving.'9God said to Jonah, 'Are you right to be angry about the castor-oil plant?' He replied, 'I have every rightto be angry, mortally angry!'10Yahweh replied, 'You are concerned for the castor-oil plant which has not cost you any effort andwhich you did not grow, which came up in a night and has perished in a night.11So why should I not be concerned for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundredand twenty thousand people who cannot tel their right hand from their left, to say nothing of al the animals?'