Jonah fled because he did not want Nineveh to receive mercy. He later says he ran because he knew the LORD is “gracious and merciful” and relents from disaster Jonah 4:2. His flight to Tarshish is reported at the start of the story Jonah 1:3.
Jonah 4:1–3 shows Jonah reacting badly to God’s decision to spare Nineveh. Instead of relief, Jonah feels intense displeasure and anger. He turns that anger into a complaint-prayer, insisting he predicted this outcome back home and that it was why he tried to escape to Tarshish. This scene follows the narrative turning point where Nineveh responds to Jonah’s warning and God decides not to carry out the announced disaster (see Jonah 3:10). Jonah 4 then shifts the focus from Nineveh’s response to Jonah’s response, exposing the prophet’s inner conflict.
Jonah 4:1–3 presents a prophet who is not comforted by God’s mercy but outraged by it. The text explicitly says Jonah is intensely displeased and angry (verse 1). He brings that anger to Yahweh in prayer, but the prayer functions as a protest (verse 2). Jonah also explains his earlier flight.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Jonah 4:2, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
2He prayed to Yahweh, and said, "Please, Yahweh, wasn`t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and you repent of the evil.