But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
(7) The conversion of Nineveh was the doom of Jonah himself, as far as any further acceptable relationship with Israel was concerned.  Jonah could not, after the conversion of the greatest pagan city on earth, return in triumph and honor to his native land.  No indeed!  Take a look at the case of Saul of Tarsus.  The uncompromising hatred and animosity of Israel which already existed toward Nineveh, would, after the conversion of that city, have been intensified and transferred to Jonah.  "He saw the utter weakening of his hands, the destruction of his usefulness among his countrymen."[8]  All of Jonah's hope of bringing his own nation to do the will of God perished, in the event of Nineveh's conversion, which as it seemed to Jonah, "would eclipse the honor of God, destroy the credit of his ministry, and harden the hearts of his countrymen.[9]   To ascribe Jonah's anger to such motivations as this explains his desire to die (Jonah 4:3,8). Did not Paul also prefer to die rather than accept the lost condition of Israel?   (Romans 9:2).  Regarding the speculation mentioned in the previous chapter concerning the funeral for Jonah in Israel, see under Jonah, the Great Old Testament Type, at the end of this chapter.