the snme word la ueed of the effecte of beet. Neither madest it grow. As God had thiret; oomp. eh. ii. 7). Hie position on made Nineveh into a" great city." Which the eoet of the city (ver. 5) exposed him to came up in II night, and periahed in II night ; the full force of the ecorching sun and litere.lly, which 'IDIU the son of a niryht, and. wind. Wished in him ■elf to die; literally, perished the son of a night. The all nsion, aelred /or hie aoul to die; Septuagint, &,,. •• of course, is to the extraordinary rapidity of >..1-y,-ro -r'l,v ,j,11x'l/v 11/rrov, " despoired of his the growth e.nd destruction of the gourd. life" (1 Kings xix. 4). The expression Ver. 11.-Should not I apare Nineveh l implies the.t he oaked God to grant him The contra.at between the feeling and con- hie life to do with it whnt he liked. In duct of God and those of the prophet is his self-will e.nd impatience he still shows very forcible. Thon hast compe.ssion for a hie dependence upon Go<l. He may he.ve plant of little worth, in whose growth thou had in his miud the precedent of his great hast had no concern, to which thou haat no rue.star Elijah, though his spirit is very right; should I not pity a great city which clifl"erent (see note ou ver. 8 e.bove). :Better is mine, which I have permitted to grow for me to die. His wish for dee.th a.rose into power? Thou hast compe.seion on a from his now e.ssured conviction that God's flower which sprang up in a day anci mercy we.s extended to the heathen. He withered in a de.y; should I not pity this argued from the sudden withering of the town with its teeming population and its gourd the.t he was not to stay there and see multitude of cattle, the least of which is the e.ccomplishment of his wishes, e.nd, in more worth than any senseless plant, and his impotience and intolerance, he would which I uphold daily with my providence? rather die than behold Nineveh converted Six score thousand persons tha.t cannot dis- and saved. oern between their right hand and their Ver. 9.-God said. Keil and others he.ve left hand; i.e. children of tender years, who noted the variety in the use of the names of did not know which hand wa.s the strongest God in this paesage (vers. 6-9). The pro- e.nd fittest for use; or, metaphorically, who duction of the gourd is attributed to Je- "had no knowledge between good and evil" hovah-Elohim (vor. 6), 11 composite no.me, (Deut. i. 89), at present incapable of moral which serves to me.rk the transition from discernment. 'rhis limitation would include Jehovah in ver. 4 to Elohim in vers. 7 and children of three o:r four years old : and, 8. Jehovah, who replies to the prophet's taking these as one-fifth of the population, complaint (ver. 4), prepares the plant as we should set the inhabitants at six hun- Elohim the Oree.tor, e.nd the worm e.s ha- dred thousand in number. The multitude Elohim the peraonal God. Elohim, the of these innocent children, who must needs Ruler of nature, sends the east wind to perish if the city were destroyed, is an addi- correct the prophet's impatience; and in tional re11Son why it should be spared. A ver. 10 Jehovah sums up the history and still further claim for compe.ssion is ap- tee.chee the leseon to be learued from it. pended. And also muoh oattle. God's Doest thou well to be angry! The same mercy is over 1111 his works ; he preserveth tender expostulation as in ver. 4. I do well man and beast (Ps. xxxvi. 6; cxlv. 9), and to be angry, even 11J1to death. I am right as man is superior to other animals, so are to be e.ngry, so that my anger almost kills cattle better than plants. The book ends me. Deprived of the ehelter of the gourd, abruptly, but its object is accompwhed. Jonah is immediately depressed, und in his Jonah is silenced; he co.n make no reply; unreasoning anger defends himself age.inst he can only confess that he is entirely the reproaches of God's voice within him. wrong, and that God is righteous. He Septuagint, l~&lip11 >..,>.{,'"II·",.. l-yw ,,.,, 8avd- learns the lesson thot God would have a.11 -ro11, "I am greatly grieved even unto death," men saved, and that thot narrow-minded- which reminds one of our Lord's words in ness which would exclude heathen from his the garden (Mark xiv. 34). kingdom is displeasing to him and alier.. Vcr.10.-The Lord. Jehovah, closing the from his design. " For thou he.st mercy story, and driving home the lesson with un- upon a.11; for thou canst do all things, 1:1nd answerable forco, the prophet himself being winkcst at the sins of men in order that the judge. Thou hast had pity ; thou Q1I thy they should repent. For thou lovest all part hast spared; Septuagint, au /~,/ao,. the things that Bre, and abhorrest nothing J!'or the whioh thou hast not labourad ; Sep- that thou hast made; for never wouldst tuagint, lnr~p ~• ovH iHa.Ho,rd811a,u br' a.vTfiv, thou have made anything if thou hadst "for whioh thou sufl"eredst no evil." Tho 111\ted it . ... But thou sparest all; for they more trouble e. thing oosts us, the more we are thine, 0 Lord, thou Lover of souls " regord it, as II mother loves hor sickly child (Wied. xi. 23, eto.).
JONAH. G THE BOOK OF JONAH, [cH, IV, 1-11.