Fathers

Jonah 4

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But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? 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. And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

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What the Fathers say

Jonah 4:11

Eastern Fathers

Cyril of Alexandria

And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, in which dwell more than twelve myriads of people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle? For these things are somehow indistinguishable among those who are still infants, to whom it was fitting, even before others, to grant kindness, having sinned in nothing. For one who does not yet know his own hands, with what faults could he be charged? And if he names also the cattle and deems them worthy of being spared, this too is from love of goodness. …

Commentary on the Twelve Minor Prophets: Jonah ↗

Western Saints

Ambrose of Milan

On the following day the Book of Jonah was read according to custom, after the completion of which I began this discourse. A book has been read, brethren, in which it is foretold that sinners shall be converted. Their acceptance takes place because that which is to happen is looked forward to at present. I added that the just man had been willing even to incur blame, in order not to see or denounce the destruction of the city. And because the sentence was mournful he was also saddened that the gourd had withered up. …

Letters, Epistle 20 ↗

Jerome

We read of Eli the priest that he became displeasing to God on account of the sins of his children. And we are told that a man may not be made a bishop if his sons are loose and disorderly. It is written of the woman that "she shall be saved in childbearing, if she continues in faith and charity and holiness with chastity." If then parents are responsible for their children when these are of ripe age and independent, how much more must they be responsible for them when, still unweaned and weak, they cannot, in the Lord's words, …

Letter 107.6 ↗