What Does Jonah 4:4 Mean in the King James?

Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

Jonah 4:4 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The question turns anger from an unquestioned verdict into a claim that can be examined.

THE MEANING

This question meets your anger without pretending it is absent: it asks whether the anger fits what is happening. The feeling is real, but its presence alone does not settle whether its judgment is sound.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Anger does not, by itself, prove that you are right.

THE ROOT

חָרָה

ḥārâ

GROWS FROM

חָרָה

To burn or become hot; of a person, to burn with anger.

“angry” in this verse is ḥārâ. The Hebrew pictures anger as something that burns, not merely as a settled opinion. The question asks whether this inner heat is fitting, not whether it exists.

ALSO GROWS

wayyiḥar: “And it burned” or “and anger arose,” a conjugated form of ⁨חרה⁩.

וַיִּחַר

This form appears in Jonah 4:1 for Jonah’s anger, linking the question here to the heat that has already arisen in him.

yiḥar: “It burns” or “he becomes angry,” another conjugated form of ⁨חרה⁩.

יִחַר

The final ⁨ה⁩ of this weak verb drops in conjugated forms; the remaining form belongs to the same root and keeps the image of anger as heat.

THE PATTERN

Scripture brings anger into the open and tests its claim rather than treating it as self-justifying.

And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?

Genesis 4:6 · KJVCain’s anger is met with a question that makes its presence visible and invites examination.

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Ephesians 4:26 · KJVAnger is acknowledged, while the verse distinguishes the feeling from what may follow from it.

THE THREAD

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

Jonah 4:1 · KJV

The Hebrew word rendered “angry” here comes from the same root, ⁨חרה⁩, used for Jonah’s anger in the preceding verse. The question therefore meets the very heat the story has just named and asks whether it is fitting.

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