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LXX Jonah

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 4

1 But Jonah was very deeply grieved, and he was confounded.⁠ 2 And he prayed to the Lord, and said, Lord, were not these my words when I was still in my land? therefore I made haste to flee to Tarshish; because I knew that you are merciful and compassionate, patient, and abundant in kindness, and repent of evil. 3 And now, Lord God, take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. 4 And the Lord said to Jonah, Are you very much grieved? 5 And Jonah went out from the city, and sat over against the city; and he made for himself there a booth, and he sat under it in the shade, until he should perceive what would become of the city. 6 And the Lord God commanded a gourd,⁠ and it came up over the head of Jonah, to be a shadow over his head, to shade him from his calamities: and Jonah rejoiced with great joy for the gourd. 7 And God commanded a worm the next morning, and it struck the gourd, and it withered away. 8 And at the rising of the sun, God commanded a burning east wind; and the sun struck on the head of Jonah, and he fainted, and despaired of his life, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. 9 And God said to Jonah, Are you very much grieved for the gourd? And he said, I am very much grieved, even to death. 10 And the Lord said, You had pity on the gourd, for which you have not suffered, neither did you rear it; which came up before night, and perished before another night: 11 and shall I not spare Nineveh, the great city, in which dwell more than twelve myriads of human beings, who do not know their right hand or their left hand; and also much cattle?

Texts in conversation

Compare Jonah 4:6 and LXX Jonah 4:6

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

The Hebrew version of Jonah describes him being shaded by a qiqayon, a plant named only here and never identified with certainty. The Greek Septuagint makes it familiar by changing the plant to a gourd.

Passages

Jonah 4:6

Hebrew Bible
5 Jonah left the city and sat down east of it. He made a shelter for himself there and sat down under it in the shade to see what would happen to the city. 6 The Lord God appointed a little plant and caused it to grow up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to rescue him from his misery. Now Jonah was very delighted about the little plant. 7 So God sent a worm at dawn the next day, and it attacked the little plant so that it dried up.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonah

LXX Jonah 4:6

Septuagint
5 And Jonah went out from the city, and sat over against the city; and he made for himself there a booth, and he sat under it in the shade, until he should perceive what would become of the city. 6 And the Lord God commanded a gourd, and it came up over the head of Jonah, to be a shadow over his head, to shade him from his calamities: and Jonah rejoiced with great joy for the gourd. 7 And God commanded a worm the next morning, and it struck the gourd, and it withered away.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Jonah

References

... It does not help that the qiqayon occurs only this once in Scripture and that, like the fish, this plant is displayed with minimal realism: In less than a full day, the qiqayon grows to remarkable stature and then withers. Altogether, this description cannot apply to the average shrub or tree—be it a gourd, an ivy, or a castor bean. I may be permitted, therefore, not to attach a specific label to qiqayon; instead, I shall follow Aquila and Theodotion who, with their kikeona, found it prudent just to approximate a transcription of the Hebrew ...
Jack M. Sasson, Jonah: A New Translation with Introduction, Commentary, and Interpretation (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 291–292.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Jonah 4:6 and LXX Jonah 4:6

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