As noted in connection with 3.5, some (for example, Moffatt) would transpose this verse to follow 3.4. But in spite of the grammatical form, which suggests that the events in this verse follow directly on 3.4, the author may here be using once again the technique of the flashback noticed in earlier chapters (for example, 1.10). The reason for introducing this statement here rather than earlier in the narrative, which would be its logical position, may have been the link between the shelter that Jonah makes for his own protection and the similar action on God’s part described in the next verse. In any case, this verse would be needed as an introduction to verse 6.
If verse 5 involves a flashback, the verbs need to be understood as pluperfects, “Jonah had gone out … He had made….” Grammatically the Hebrew is of the same form as in 1.17, where the meaning of the first verb is also pluperfect.
In a high percentage of languages east is expressed simply as “in the direction of the rising sun,” or even “toward the sun,” or “toward the morning sun.”
The significance of Jonah’s sitting down on the east side of the city may lie in the fact that he had approached it from the west, delivered his message, and then continued through to the far side. Perhaps, however, there is an allusion here to the east wind mentioned in verse 8. The author presumably expects Jonah to be far enough to the east of the city to avoid being involved in any disaster that might overtake it while he waited to see what would happen to Nineveh.
There is a serious contradiction in some languages in translating verse 5 literally, for it would suggest that Jonah sat down and then made a shelter for himself. It would be better, therefore, in a number of languages to translate “Jonah went out east of the city; there he made a shelter for himself and sat down in its shade, waiting to see….”
The nature of the shelter that Jonah constructed is not described, but presumably it was something quite fragile and easily constructed. The word is the same as that which occurs in Isa 1.8 and in the regulations for the Festival of Shelters in Lev 23.42, 43. In a number of languages the closest equivalent of shelter is the type of temporary shelter often built in fields as protection against the noonday sun or as a place where persons may remain while guarding a harvest, equivalent to what is called in English a “lean-to.”
Sat in its shade may simply be rendered as “sat beneath it” or “sat protected by it.”
The addition of “sulking” in Living Bible is not justified in terms of the text.
Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. et al. A Handbook on the Book of Jonah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1982, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .