What Does Jonah 4:11 Mean?
Two renderings of the same sentence, the verses it belongs to, and what the passage is doing — so you can decide what it means rather than take someone's word for it.
"And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?" Jonah 4:11, King James Version
The same verse in modern English
"So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”" Jonah 4:11, Berean Standard Bible
What it sits inside
A verse quoted on its own is the commonest way one gets misread. Here it is with what comes immediately before and after, in the King James Version.
Jonah 4:9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
Jonah 4:10 Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
Jonah 4:11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
A conversation built on it
Jonah was angrier about a dead plant than a living city. Sometimes our bitterness tells us more about us than about the person we're bitter toward. God's mercy for someone else is not punishment for you.
Questions people ask
What does Jonah 4:11 mean?
In modern English (Berean Standard Bible) it reads: “So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”” The King James rendering most people know is: “And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”
What is the context of Jonah 4:11?
The verses immediately around it read: (Jonah 4:9) And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. (Jonah 4:10) Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: (Jonah 4:11) And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
How is Jonah 4:11 used in a conversation about this?
Jonah was angrier about a dead plant than a living city. Sometimes our bitterness tells us more about us than about the person we're bitter toward. God's mercy for someone else is not punishment for you.
Reading it is one thing. Saying what it stirs up is another.
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