Jonah 4.8-God Sends A Hot East Wind And The Sun Beats Down On Jonah So That He Wants To Die
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday December 14, 2010
Jonah: Jonah 4:8-God Sends A Hot East Wind And The Sun Beats Down On Jonah So That He Wants To Die
Lesson # 58
Please turn in your Bibles to Jonah 3:10.
This evening, we will note Jonah 4:8, which records that God sent an east wind when the sun began to shine upon Jonah.
The verse goes on to record that the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint from the heat, despaired of life and sought to die rather than live.
Jonah 3:10, “When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it. 4:1 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.’ 4 The Lord said, ‘Do you have good reason to be angry?’ 5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, ‘Death is better to me than life.’” (NASU)
Verse 8 takes the reader from the Lord commissioning a worm to destroy the plant He provided Jonah to teach him about grace to the Lord appointing a scorching east wind when the sun came up the next day.
“God” is the articular masculine plural form of the noun ʾělō∙hîm (אֱלֹהִים) (el-o-heem), which emphasizes with the reader that the sending of a hot east wind expresses the Lord’s sovereign control over His creation and His omnipotence over creation as well as His love for Jonah.
By sending this hot east wind to beat against Jonah, He is teaching Jonah about His grace policy.
The noun ʾělō∙hîm also pertains to the fact that the Lord is Jonah’s deliverer in the sense that by sending this hot east wind, He is teaching the prophet about His grace policy towards the Ninevites so as to deliver Jonah from his evil, self-righteous attitude towards the Ninevites.
The Lord wanted to deliver Jonah from his uncompassionate attitude toward these people.
“Appointed” is the third person masculine singular piel active imperfect form of the verb mā∙nā(h) (מָנָה) (men-aw), which means “to send” and emphasizes with the reader the Lord’s sovereign control over His creation and His omnipotence over creation.
“A scorching east wind” refers to the hot sirocco east wind, which blows today in the Middle East occurring every fall and spring during the transitions between the rainy and dry season.
It parches the body by evaporating its perspiration and kicks up incredible dust storms that block out the sun.
It is not unusual for the temperature to reach 110 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity to go as low as two percent when this wind blows.
The New American Commentary writes, “When this wind is experienced in the Near East, the temperature rises dramatically, and the humidity drops quickly. It is a constant and extremely hot wind that contains fine particles of dust. It contains ‘constant hot air so full of positive ions that it affects the levels of serotonin and other brain neurotransmitters, causing exhaustion, depression, feelings of unreality, and occasionally, bizarre behavior.’ The Septuagint translates it succinctly as a ‘scorcher.’” (The New American Commentary: Amos, Obadiah and Jonah; pages 279-280)
Stuart has this comment, he writes, “This wind may have been that sort called elsewhere the scirocco, i.e., constant hot air so full of positive ions that it affects the levels of serotonin and other brain neurotransmitters, causing exhaustion, depression, feelings of unreality, and, occasionally, bizarre behavior. In some Moslem countries, the punishment for a crime committed while the scirocco is blowing may be reduced at judicial discretion, so strongly does the prolonged hot wind affect thinking and actions.” (Word Biblical Commentary, volume 31: Hosea-Jonah; pages 505-506)
Sasson states that “whenever Hebrew narrators call upon the east wind, they are alerting readers to God’s controlling presence.”
This temporal clause “when the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind” makes clear that Jonah is under divine discipline by God.
Jonah 4:8, “When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, ‘Death is better to me than life.’” (NASU)
“And the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint” indicates that once the hot east wind died down and the dust settled so as to let the sun shine, the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, which would lead to suffering heat stroke.
The symptoms of which involve a loss of physical strength and mental anguish and even depression or some cases delirium.
“And begged with all his soul to die” is composed of the conjunction wa (וָ) (wa), “and,” which is prefixed third person masculine singular qal active imperfect form of the verb šā∙ʾǎl (שָׁאַל) (sheh-ole), “begged” and the object marker ʾēṯ (אֵת) (oath), “with” and the feminine singular construct form of the noun ně∙p̄ěš (נֶפֶשׁ) (neh-fesh), “soul” and the third person masculine singular pronomial suffix –hû (־הוּ) (who), “his” and the preposition le (לְ) (lamed), “to” and the qal active infinitive construct form of the verb mûṯ (מוּת) (mooth), “die.”
The verb šā∙ʾǎl does not mean “to beg, to ask” but rather it is used in a weakened sense meaning “to seek, desire.” (See Ecclesiastes 2:10).
It refers to Jonah’s desire to die.
The object marker ʾēṯ does not function as a structural marker of the case of the direct object meaning it does not mark the ně∙p̄ěš, “soul” as the direct object of the verb šā∙ʾǎl.
Rather it is marking this noun as the subject of this intransitive verb instead.
The noun ně∙p̄ěš does not refer to the biological life of Jonah but rather it refers to the soul life of Jonah since the verb šā∙ʾǎl means “to desire” referring to Jonah’s desire to die physically or in other words that his soul desired to leave his physically body due to its suffering.
The verb mûṯ means “to die” in the sense of physically dying indicating that Jonah desire to die after the sun beat down against his head.
The word is the object of the preposition le and is in the construct form and together, they function as the object of the verb šā∙ʾǎl.
Therefore, we will translate this clause as “Then, his soul desired to die.”
“Death is better to me than life” expresses Jonah’s desire that physical death would be superior to living.
The prophet’s discussion with himself or in his own soul of his desire to die is simply another way of asking God to kill him or end his life so that he won’t have to suffer anymore under the hot Middle Eastern sun.
Jonah 4:8: “Now, it took place, when the sun arose, God sent a hot east wind. Then, the sun beat down against Jonah’s head so that he became faint. Then, his soul desired to die. Specifically, he said, ‘my death would be better than my living.’” (My translation)
To summarize, this verse is transitional moving to another episode in this seventh and final scene.
God is disciplining Jonah when He sends a hot east wind to destroy his make shift shelter, leaving him to suffer the elements.
When the wind died down, then the prophet had to suffer the sun beating down against his head since he no longer had any shade to hide from the sun.
Consequently, Jonah became faint because of sun stroke and dehydration.
His circumstances were so intolerable that he desire that he could die.
Jonah is not responding to the divine discipline properly at all.
He has not repented of his evil attitude towards the Ninevites.
Instead, gets involved in self-pity.
The prophet’s response to the discipline echoes his complaint to God in verse 3 where he asked God to take his life because God did not destroy the Ninevites since they believed in God and as a result repented of their evil way of living.
He knows that he is being disciplined again and he knows that this time it is not because he disobeyed the Lord but rather that he has such an evil attitude towards the Ninevites.
Therefore, it appears that he wants to die here in verse 8 because he would rather die than repent of his hatred toward the Ninevites!
He does not want God to be impartial but partial to him and Israel.
This verse expresses his total frustration with God’s grace policy toward the Ninevites and the Gentiles.
Again, this frustration is due to his self-righteousness in that he thinks that the Israelites are superior to the Ninevites.
However, he is comparing the two races to each other rather than comparing the two in relation to God and His perfect holy standards, which neither live up to!