Jonah 4:5
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. 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.
Jonah left Nineveh behind and settled on its east side, where he put together a booth, a makeshift shelter, and sat beneath it in its shade to keep watch until he might see what would become of the city. His withdrawal and sheltered lookout came after the city's repentance and after God had decided to spare it, yet he still expected and desired to witness what would happen to its fate. He had not accepted the sparing as final, but lingered to observe whether destruction might still fall.
That waiting was charged with anger and dissatisfaction, with discouragement and grief, with disappointment that God had spared the city. He remained fixed on the question of whether Nineveh would be destroyed rather than rejoicing in the deliverance of its people. He had lost sight of their welfare and did not share God's concern for them. That loss came through concern for his own reputation and humiliation, and through selfish sorrow and discouragement that he should have set aside.
By fastening on his own humiliation he overlooked God's mercy in granting the people more time to prepare and to hear a warning. His grief and disappointment after Nineveh was spared stands as a parallel to the disappointment of those who expected the end in 1844. As with them, the unfulfilled expectation did not prove the message ungodly, since it fulfilled God's purpose.