4:6a

the LORD God appointed a vine: This phrase means that God caused a plant to grow. The Hebrew verb minneh used here is the same one that was translated appointed in 1:17a. There the LORD provided a great fish to save Jonah, now he provided a plant to shelter him. The rapid growth of this plant indicates that this was miraculous.

the LORD God: In the book of Jonah, God is usually called the LORD (Yahweh) or God (ʾelohim), although in chapter 2 he is called “the LORD his God” and “the LORD my God.” Here the two names for God are joined together without any pronoun. The use of LORD God without a possessive pronoun is fairly rare in the OT. It is found mainly in Genesis 2–3 and in 1 and 2 Chronicles. How you translate this phrase will depend on the term you have chosen for Yahweh. See the note in the Introduction.

vine: The word translated vine by Berean Standard Bible only occurs in this passage in the OT and no one has been able to identify for certain what sort of plant is being referred to. So most English versions translate it as “plant”. You should use as generic a term as possible for “plant” in your translation here rather than using the name of a specific plant from your area which possibly did not grow in Nineveh. The important thing about this plant is that it was leafy and provided enough shade to protect Jonah’s head and to ease the discomfort he was experiencing from the hot sun. This made Jonah very happy.

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