Комментарий о цитате к Йона 4:4

The action in Perek 4 is bold and furious. Yonah boldly issues his complaint of Hashem’s excessive compassion for the people of Nineveh and asks to die. Hashem’s response is no less shocking - he tells Yonah (4:4) “HaHeiteiv Charah Lach,” “are you sufficiently fed up?” The Abarbanel wonders what sort of a response this is to Yonah’s complaint. Torah Academy of Bergen County Talmid Ezra Finkelstein, a certified first responder, adds to the question noting that this is hardly an appropriate response to someone with suicidal ideation!

HORGEINI NA HAROG’ (KILL ME, I PRAY THEE). This means that Thou should send upon me those that kill by the sword, for it is better for me to die¹⁸⁷Jonah 4:3. even by the sword of man than to live¹⁸⁷Jonah 4:4. with this grief. It is possible that the sense [of the term horgeini] is “take my life” [and not, as explained before, that it means death by human agency]. A similar [usage of the term is found in these verses]: and let their men be ‘harugei maveth’ (slain of death), and their young men smitten of the sword in battle;¹⁸⁸Jeremiah 18:21. and breathe ‘baharugim ha’eileh’ (upon these slain).¹⁸⁹Ezekiel 37:9. The reference there [according to the plain meaning of Scripture] is to those who died a natural death in the exile (see in R’dak’s commentary there). According to the tradition of the Sages, that the dry bones were those of the tribe of Ephraim who left Egypt thirty years before the exodus and were killed on the way by the men of Gath (see Ramban Vol. II, p. 157), the term baharugim is to be understood literally: “upon those that were killed [by the sword]” (R’dak).