John Trapp on Jonah 4:6

Verſe 6. And the Lord God prepared a gourd] ſc. after that his booth was dried up, and the leaves withered, God by his providence, and not without a miracle (becauſe without ſeed, and ſo ſuddenly) furniſhed Ionah with this gourd or ivybuſh, or white vine, or the plant called Palma Chriſti, or Pentadactylon, becauſe it reſembleth a mans hand with five fingers: ſomething it was, but what, is not certainely known. Kimchi thus deſcribeth it: Eſt herba longis & altis frondibus umbroſa. It is an herb or plant that yeeldeth good ſhade with its long and large leaves. And many yeares before him, one Rabba ſon of Hanna ſaid, that it growes by the waters ſide, is commonly ſet for ſhade-ſake, before tavern doores: and that oyle is made of the ſeeds of it.

and made it to come up over Ionah] Not only to refreſh him, (who having been ſo lately in the whales-belly was haply more tender-skinned then before, and not ſo well able to endure the heate of the Sun) but alſo to make way to that reproof he afterwards gave him ver. 10. Hoc enim exierno ſigno, ſaith Mercer, for by this outward ſigne, God ſporting with him, as it were, clearly convinceth him of his impatiency, & admoniſheth him of his duty: & this He thinketh was not done till the forty dayes wore over.

to deliver him from his grief] from his head-ach, cauſed by the heat of the Sun; which yet he curſed not as the ſcorched Atlantes are ſaid to doe. Or to exhilarate and refreſh his ſpirits after his ſelf-vexing: for the haſty man never wants woe, and the envious perſon, becauſe he cannot come at another mans heart, feedeth upon his own.Eſa. 5.7. Now though God chide him for his fault, yet as a father he tendereth his infirmity, and taketh care that the ſpirit faile not before him and the ſoule that he had made. And it is as if he ſhould ſay: Ionah goeth on frowardly in the way of his heart; I have ſeen his wayes and will heale him: I will leade him alſo, and reſtore comforts unto him Eſay 57.16, 17, 18 As it is a rule in Phyſick, ſtill to maintaine nature.

ſo Ionah was exceeding glad] Heb. rejoyced with great joy, that is, ſupra modum, he was exceſſive in all his paſſions, which ſpeakes him a weake man. Some think he rejoyced the more in the gourd, as conceiving that God thereby voted with him, and for him. This was alſo Leahs errour, when rejoycing in that whereof ſhe ſhould have repented rather, ſhe ſaid Gen. 30.18. God hath given me my hire, becauſe I have given my maiden to my husband, and ſhe hath borne me a fiſt ſon. So much miſtaken are the beſt ſometimes: and ſo bladder-like, is mans ſoule; that filled with earthly vanityes though but wind, and gone with a wind, it growes great, and ſwels in pride and folly: but if prickt with the leaſt pin of piercing grief, it ſhriveleth to nothing.