Single lesson
Jonah and the Plant
Jonah 4:1–11
In this lesson, students follow Jonah 4:1-11 in order, including Jonah’s repeated wishes for death, and examine how God’s questions and comparison of the vine with Nineveh shape the passage’s message.
Before you teach
Jonah 4:1-11 begins with Jonah being exceedingly displeased and angry, then praying to Yahweh. In his prayer he says Yahweh is gracious, merciful, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness. Jonah waits outside the city, and God prepares a vine, a worm and a sultry east wind before ending with a question about concern for Nineveh.
Students will be able to sequence Jonah 4:1-11 and explain from the passage that Jonah is deeply troubled while God directs attention to his own concern for Nineveh, its people and its animals.
Welcome: Preparing to read a hard passage carefully
5 minTell students this passage includes strong anger and repeated wishes for death, so it should be read soberly and truthfully. Explain that they will trace the account in order and pay close attention to what Jonah says, what God prepares, and the final question God asks about Nineveh.
Jonah 4:3, Jonah 4:8, Jonah 4:11
Read and explain: Jonah’s anger, prayer and God’s question
9 minRead Jonah 4:1-4 aloud. Explain plainly that Jonah is exceedingly displeased and angry, and that he says it is better for him to die than to live. Do not dramatise this. Notice that Jonah describes Yahweh as gracious, merciful, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, and that God answers with a question about Jonah’s anger.
Jonah 4:1, Jonah 4:2, Jonah 4:3, Jonah 4:4
Discuss the sequence: Booth, vine, worm and east wind
9 minRead Jonah 4:5-8 and list the order together: Jonah sits east of the city in a booth, God prepares a vine for shade, God prepares a worm so the vine withers, and God prepares a sultry east wind while the sun beats on Jonah’s head. Note that Jonah is exceedingly glad for the vine, then again says life is better ended than lived.
Jonah 4:5, Jonah 4:6, Jonah 4:7, Jonah 4:8
Make and respond: Sequence cards with choices and outcomes
11 minStudents create seven sequence cards: angry Jonah, prayer, booth, vine, worm, east wind, and God’s question about Nineveh. As they arrange them, ask for one text-based sentence per card. Include a teacher cue that Jonah’s death wishes in verses 3 and 8 are part of the passage and should lead discussion back to what God says and does.
Jonah 4:3, Jonah 4:5, Jonah 4:6, Jonah 4:7, Jonah 4:8, Jonah 4:11
Closing: God’s concern for the vine and for Nineveh
6 minRead Jonah 4:9-11 again. Ask students to compare Jonah’s concern for the vine with God’s concern for Nineveh. Point out that Jonah did not labour for the vine or make it grow, while God speaks of a great city with more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many animals.
Jonah 4:9, Jonah 4:10, Jonah 4:11
Questions to explore
What words does Jonah use in his prayer to describe Yahweh, and how do those words sit beside Jonah’s anger?
Use Jonah 4:2 for the description words, then compare them with Jonah being exceedingly displeased and angry in Jonah 4:1.
Jonah 4:1, Jonah 4:2
What does Jonah say in Jonah 4:3 and Jonah 4:8, and what does God say in response elsewhere in the passage?
State Jonah’s words truthfully without adding detail, then notice that God answers with questions in Jonah 4:4 and Jonah 4:9.
Jonah 4:3, Jonah 4:4, Jonah 4:8, Jonah 4:9
How does God compare Jonah’s concern for the vine with God’s concern for Nineveh?
Look for what Jonah did not do for the vine in Jonah 4:10 and whom God names in Nineveh in Jonah 4:11.
Jonah 4:10, Jonah 4:11
Make, think or respond
Jonah 4 Sequence and Comparison Cards
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pencils or textas
- scissors
- Bible
Try it together
- Draw or label seven cards for these parts of the passage: Jonah angry, Jonah’s prayer, booth, vine, worm, east wind, God’s question about Nineveh.
- Cut out the cards and place them in the order of Jonah 4:1-11.
- Write one sentence from the passage or a close summary for each card, keeping the wording tied to the verses.
- On the final card, add two short notes: Jonah’s concern for the vine and God’s concern for Nineveh.
- Share the ordered cards aloud as a retelling of the passage.
This activity helps students follow the account carefully and see that the passage ends by comparing Jonah’s concern for the vine with God’s concern for Nineveh.
Adapt for your group
- For younger teens, provide the seven card headings already written so they can focus on ordering the verses and discussing God’s questions.
- For older students, ask them to add verse numbers and underline repeated words or ideas such as angry, concerned and prepared.
An optional closing prayer
“God, help us read this hard passage honestly, listen to your questions, and learn to notice what you say matters in this account.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Jonah 4
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
2 He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.
3 Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 Yahweh said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would become of the city.
6 Yahweh God prepared a vine and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the vine.
7 But God prepared a worm at dawn the next day, and it chewed on the vine so that it withered.
8 When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he was faint and requested for himself that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
9 God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?” He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.”
10 Yahweh said, “You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night and perished in a night.
11 Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many animals?”
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.