The paradox is not really Jonah's. It is more in God's ways as depicted by the anonymous poet, but for a title that would have been a bit uppity.

These old texts are real voyagers, have been everywhere, seen everything, and this one now sounds fragmented, the way a traveller sounds when he has repeated his story one too many times.

[For somebody like me who does not speak Italian, the Italian text sounds even more extraordinary, especially when Jonah starts swearing at "l'Eterno Dio"]:

6 Allora l'Eterno Dio preparò una pianta che crebbe al di sopra di Giona per fare ombra al suo capo e liberarlo del suo male; e Giona provò una grandissima gioia per quella pianta.

7 Allo spuntar dell'alba del giorno seguente DIO preparò un verme che colpí la pianta, e questa si seccò.

"The LORD made a vine grow up to shade Jonah's head and protect him from the sun. Jonah was very happy to have the vine, but early the next morning the LORD sent a worm to chew on the vine, and the vine dried up."

(the worm that "chewed"! the translator was a poet, too.)
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