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Jonah 4

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1 And it was·​·evil to Jonah, a great evil, and he was·​·incensed by it.

2 And he prayed to Jehovah, and said, I pray Thee, O Jehovah, was not this my word, when I was yet upon my own ground? Therefore I went·​·before to run·​·away to Tarshish, for I knew that Thou art a God gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and of much mercy, and repenting concerning the evil.

3 And now, O Jehovah, take, I pray Thee, my soul from me; for my death is better than my life.

4 And Jehovah said, Doest· thou ·well to be·​·incensed?

5 And Jonah went·​·out from the city, and sat from the east to the city, and there made for himself a shelter, and sat under it in the shadow, until he might see what would become of the city.

6 And Jehovah God provided a kikajon*, and it went·​·up over Jonah, and it was a shade over his head, to rescue him from his evil. And Jonah was·​·glad on·​·account·​·of the kikajon, with great gladness.

7 But God provided a worm when the dawn came·​·up on the morrow, and it smote the kikajon, and it dried·​·up.

8 And it was, as the sun rose, that God provided a drying east wind; and the sun smote upon the head of Jonah, and he was·​·fatigued, and asked·​·for his soul to die, and said, My death would be better than my living.

9 And God said to Jonah, Doest· thou ·well to be·​·incensed for the kikajon? And he said, I do·​·well to be·​·incensed, even·​·to death.

10 And Jehovah said, Thou wouldst spare the kikajon, on which thou hast not labored, and didst not cause to grow·​·up; which is the son of a night, and the son of a night perishes;

11 and should not I spare Nineveh, the great city, in which are multiplied more than twelve myriads* of man* who knows not between his right·​·hand and his left; and also many beasts?

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Mercy

  
‘Brother Juniper and the Beggar,’ by Spanish Baroque painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Juniper, one of the original followers of St. Francis of Assissi, was renowned for his generosity. When told he could no longer give away his clothes, he instead simply told the needy, like the beggar in the painting, that he couldn’t give them his clothes, but wouldn’t stop them from taking them.

In regular language, "mercy" means being caring and compassionate toward people in poor states. That's a position we are all in relative to the Lord, all the time. Without Him we would be unable to choose what is good; without Him we would be unable to formulate a reasonable thought. Without Him, in fact, we would instantly cease to exist; we have life only because He constantly gives us life. So we are, quite literally, at His mercy. Fortunately, the Lord is caring and compassionate to a degree we cannot fathom. He is the source of all caring and all compassion, and of love itself. His mercy toward us never lessens, never abates, never ends; His whole purpose is to bring each of us, individually, to heaven. The meaning of "mercy" in the Bible is closely tied to this idea: it represents love in a general sense, and the desire for good that comes from love. It can also represent the desire for good and the ideas that describe it when those thoughts and desires are inspired by love of the Lord.