4:11a

So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh: The book ends with another rhetorical question to which the implied answer is “Yes, I [the LORD] am right to have compassion for the people in Nineveh.” If you cannot use rhetorical questions in this way in your language, you can use a statement instead. See 4:11d in the Display.

care about: This is the same Hebrew verb ḥus as in 4:10b. See the comments there. You should translate the verb in the same way in the two verses.

4:11b-c

which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left: Here the LORD contrasted Jonah’s compassion for an insignificant plant with his own compassion for the people of Nineveh. If Jonah could feel compassion for a plant, which only lived a day, it was even more fitting that the LORD should have compassion on the people of Nineveh, who were much more important.

more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left: Scholars do not agree about to whom this refers. The two possibilities are:

(1) This refers to all the people living in Nineveh. In this case the expression who cannot tell their right hand from their left is a Hebrew idiom which means that the people cannot tell right from wrong.#

(2) This refers only to the small children living in Nineveh, children too young to be able to tell their right hand from their left hand. (Good News Translation)

It is recommended that you follow the first interpretation (1), as do the majority of English versions and commentaries.

Some versions make explicit the meaning of the Hebrew idiom who cannot tell their right hand from their left. For example, New Century Version has:

which has more than one hundred twenty thousand people who do not know right from wrong (New Century Version)

You need to decide whether you should do the same or keep the literal expression with perhaps a footnote to explain its meaning.

4:11d

and many cattle as well: God not only had compassion on the people of Nineveh, he also had compassion on the animals and spared them as well.

cattle: The Hebrew word behemah which the Berean Standard Bible translates as cattle can also be a general term for domestic animals and is not limited to cattle. Here is a more general way to translate this word:

animals (Good News Translation)

General Comment about 4:11

In some languages it may be more natural to reorder 4:11, so that God’s statement about the size of the city comes before his rhetorical question about his concern for them. One model for this would be the New International Version:

But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city? (New International Version)

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