Jonah 4:5

4:5 Jonah left the city and sat down east ¹  of it. ²  He made a shelter for himself there and sat down under it in the shade to see what would happen to the city. ³ 

Jonah 4:8

4:8 When the sun began to shine, God sent ⁴  a hot ⁵  east wind. So the sun beat down ⁶  on Jonah’s head, and he grew faint. So he despaired of life, ⁷  and said, “I would rather die than live!” ⁸ 

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¹ tn Heb “from the east” or “from the front.” When used to designate a location, the noun קֶדֶם (qedem) may mean “front” (BDB 869 s.v. קֶדֶם 1.a) or “east” (BDB 869 s.v. 1.b). The construction קֶדֶם + preposition מִן (min, “from”) means “from the front” = “in front of” (Job 23:8; Ps 139:5; Isa 9:11) or “from the east” = “eastward, on the east side” (Gen 3:21; 12:8; Num 34:11; Josh 7:2; Ezek 11:23). Because the morning sunrise beat down upon Jonah (v. 8) and because the main city gate of Nineveh opened to the east, the term probably means “on the east side” of the city. But “in front of” the city would mean the same in this case.

² tn Heb “of the city.” For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, the noun “city” has been replaced here by the pronoun (“it”) in the translation.

³ sn Apparently Jonah hoped that he might have persuaded the Lord to “change his mind” again (see 3:8-10) and to judge Nineveh after all.

⁴ tn Or “appointed.” See preceding note on v. 7.

⁵ tc The MT adjective חֲרִישִׁית (kharishit, “autumnal”) is a hapax legomenon with an unclear meaning (BDB 362 s.v. חֲרִישִׁי); therefore, the BHS editors propose a conjectural emendation to the adjective חֲרִיפִית (kharifit, “autumnal”) from the noun חֹרֶף (khoref, “autumn”; see BDB 358 s.v. חרֶף). However, this emendation would also create a hapax legomenon and it would be no more clear than relating the MT’s חֲרִישִׁית to I חָרַשׁ (kharash, “to plough” [in autumn harvest]).

tn Heb “autumnal” or “sultry.” The adjective חֲרִישִׁית is a hapax legomenon whose meaning is unclear; it might mean “autumnal” (from I חָרַשׁ, kharash; “to plough” [in the autumn harvest-time]), “silent” = “sultry” (from IV. חרשׁ, “to be silent”; BDB 362 s.v. חֲרִישִׁי). The form חֲרִישִׁית might be an alternate spelling of חֲרִיסִית (kharisit) from the noun חֶרֶס (kheres, “sun”) and so mean “hot” (BDB 362 s.v.).

⁶ tn Heb “attacked” or “smote.”

⁷ tn Heb “he asked his soul to die.”

⁸ tn Heb “better my death than my life.”

sn Jonah repeats his assessment, found also in 4:3.