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Jon_4:5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
Ver. 5. So Jonah went out of the city] As not yet knowing what God might do, though he found him inclinable to show them mercy upon their repentance. Or he might think, haply, that these Ninevites were only sermon sick, penitent indeed for the present, but it was too good to hold long: these seemingly righteous men would soon fall from their righteousness, and then be destroyed, though for present somewhat favoured of God. Mercer reads the text in the pluperfect tense, and makes it a hysteron proteron, {a} thus, exierat autem Ionas; but Jonah had gone out of the city, sc. before he had shown himself so hot and hasty against God, and brawled with him as above. Others think that when he saw which way the squares were like to go, he flung out of the city in a great pout: and if God had fetched him again with a sharp blow on the ear (as Queen Elizabeth did the Earl of Essex, her favourite, when being crossed by her of his will, he uncivilly turned his back, as it were in contempt), he had done him no wrong. But God is longsuffering; he considereth whereof we are made, and with what strong corruptions we are beset. He knows that sin hath a strong heart, and will not easily be done to death; that nothing cleaves more pertinaciously or is more inexpugnable than a strong lust, whether it be worldliness, wantonness, passionateness, pride, ambition, revenge, or the like: these Jebusites will not easily be driven out; these sturdy rebels will hardly be subdued; these stick closest, as a shirt doth to a leprous body, and cannot be done off but with great ado. Now if Jonah be of a choleric constitution, and soon kindled; if this evil of his nature have been confirmed by custom (a second nature); if Satan stir up the coals, and say to him, as the people did to Pilate, "Do as thou ever hast done"; God graciously considereth all this, and beareth with his evil manners.
And sat on the east side of the city] Quite out of the precincts; where he might see their ruin, and not suffer with them. Fawkes, after he had laid his train, and set it to work to fire the powder at such an hour, was to have retired himself into George’s Fields, and there to have beheld the sport. That Jonah was so uncharitable as to wish and wait for the overthrow of Nineveh, and not that they would rather return and live, admits no excuse. But that expecting its overthrow (according to that God had threatened by him), he secured himself by separating from those sinners against their own souls, was well and wisely done of him. See Isa_48:20; Isa_52:11 2Co_6:17 Rev_16:4 Lot did so from Sodom, the people from Core and his accomplices, John and his disciples from Cerinthus the heretic: he sprung out of the bath from that blasphemer ( åîçëáôï ôïõ Báëáíåéïõ ), lest he should be punished with him; so the Church of Jerusalem packed away to Pella (Euseb. 1. 3. c. 5).
And there made him a booth] A sorry something, wherein to repose himself, till the indignation were overpast. Ministers, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, must suffer hardship, be content to dwell in tents, or to lie in huts, till they come to the heavenly palace, where they shall have a better building, 2Co_5:1; yea, a throne in that city of pearl, whose master builder is God, Heb_11:13. Meanwhile, let them not seek great things for themselves, but, as the Turks never build sumptuously for their own private uses, but content themselves with simple cottages, how mean soever, good enough, say they, for the short time of our pilgrimage here; so much more should Christians, and especially ministers, whose reward, how little soever upon earth, is great in heaven, Mat_5:12. Let them live upon reversions, and though their dwelling be but mean, a booth, or little better, yet they shall have stately mansions above, and, in the mean time, if they can but say as that heathen did, ’ Eíèá êáé ïé èåïé , God dwells here with me, this house of mine is a little church, a tabernacle of the God of Jacob; oh, how happy are they in that behalf, even above the Great Turk, with his harem. (which is two miles in compass); yea, with his whole empire, which (saith Luther) is but a crust cast by the great housekeeper of the world to his dogs.
And sat under it in the shadow] "Having food and raiment," saith the apostle, "let us therewith be content." Where the word óêåðáóìá , rendered raiment, signifieth any covering over head, if it be but a hair cloth. Some say it signifies domicilium, a house; others say that houses are not named, for that they wore not anywhere to fix, but to be ready to run from place to place, and to leave house and all behind them; or as soldiers burn their huts when the siege is ended, that they may go home to their houses, being discontentedly contented in the mean while; so should we, glad to hover and cover under the shadow of the Almighty by the grace of faith, quae te pullastrum, Christum gallinum facit, which makes Christ the hen and thee the chicken, saith Luther.
Till he might see what would become of the city] Whether God would not ratify his word by raining down hell from heaven upon it, as once he did upon sinful Sodom, or overwhelm it with the river Tigris, as once he did some part of it, saith Diodorus Siculus, so that two and a half miles of the town wall were thrown down by it. And the prophet Nahum threateneth, that with an overflowing flood God would make an end of the place thereof, Nah_1:8.
{a} A figure of speech in which the word or phrase that should properly come last is put first. ŒD