Jonah 4:11, commentary and pictures

God's question presents Nineveh as that great city, holding more than 120,000 persons who could not discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle or many animals. Those unable to discern are people in ignorance and need, who have not been taught to know right from wrong and are especially in need of care. His compassion for those lives is the reason He would spare it, valuing the people and extending His care even to the cattle and animals.

Sparing the city was right and merciful, especially after its people repented and turned from evil. The verse contrasts Jonah's pity for a plant that he did not grow or make grow with God's rightful care for the people and creatures of the city. Jonah valued his reputation, comfort, and feelings above people's lives, and grieved and felt humiliated because the city he had warned was not destroyed. He thereby exposed his failure to care about people who might perish, when he should have joined God's merciful purpose.

God's sparing granted the city a longer probation and more time, so that delay in judgment allowed the warning to reach more widely and gave people greater light by which to be tested and to prepare for His coming and be brought to repentance and salvation. Nineveh's reprieve is a parallel to the delay after the 1844 expectation, which was a reprieve for the world to allow more time for people to prepare, hear the warning of judgment, and come to repentance and salvation. God's concern for those who lack understanding calls His people to care for them, help them, and give them compassionate instruction rather than cruel treatment. This is illustrated by the ignorance of enslaved Black people who scarcely knew God's Word; God sees the injustice done to them and will judge those who inflict it.