Once again, God “arranged,” but this time for a worm, which attacked the plant. This happened at dawn the next day, in other words, before the sun had risen. The word used here for worm is sometimes found in the singular in a collective sense as in Deut 28.39; Isa 14.11; 66.24, but in such cases the meaning is clearly not singular.

The order of expression in the sequence at dawn the next day, at God’s command, a worm may be quite awkward if translated literally. The relationships can be more satisfactorily expressed in some languages as “at dawn the next day God commanded a worm to attack” or “when the sun rose the next day, God commanded a worm, ‘Attack the plant.’ ”

The final clause and it died must often be set off from the command of God and introduced by some resultative particle; for example, “and so it died” or “and because of this it died.” In a number of languages, however, one must be very careful in the selection of a term meaning to die, since a word that is applicable to people may not be applicable to plants. For plants it may be necessary to say “dried up” or “withered.”

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 .