Jonas, repining to see that his prophecy is not fulfilled, is reproved by the type of the ivy.

 1 And Jonas was exceedingly troubled, and was angry:  2 And he prayed to the Lord, and said: I beseech thee, O Lord, is not this what I said, when I was yet in my own country? therefore I went before to flee into Tharsis: for I know that thou art a gracious and merciful God, patient, and of much compassion, and easy to forgive evil.  3 And now, O Lord, I beseech thee take my life from me: for it is better for me to die than to live.  4 And the Lord said: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry?  5 Then Jonas went out of the city, and sat toward the east side of the city: and he made himself a booth there, and he sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would befall the city.

[1] "Was exceedingly troubled": His concern was lest he should pass for a false prophet; or rather, lest God's word, by this occasion, might come to be slighted and disbelieved.

 6 And the Lord God prepared an ivy, and it came up over the head of Jonas, to be a shadow over his head, and to cover him (for he was fatigued), and Jonas was exceeding glad of the ivy.  7 But God prepared a worm, when the morning arose on the following day: and it struck the ivy and it withered.  8 And when the sun was risen, the Lord commanded a hot and burning wind: and the sun beat upon the head of Jonas, and he broiled with the heat: and he desired for his soul that he might die, and said: It is better for me to die than to live.  9 And the Lord said to Jonas: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry, for the ivy? And he said: I am angry with reason even unto death.  10 And the Lord said: Thou art grieved for the ivy, for which thou hast not laboured, nor made it to grow, which in one night came up, and in one night perished.

[6] "The Lord God prepared an ivy": Hederam. In the Hebrew it is Kikajon, which some render a gourd: others a palmerist, or palma Christi.

 11 And shall not I spare Ninive, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons that know not how to distinguish between their right hand and their left, and many beasts?