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ANGER, BURNING
A. Verb.
(
, 2734), “to get angry, be angry.” This verb appears in the Bible 92
times. In the basic stem, the word refers to the “burning of anger” as in Jonah 4:1. In the
causative stem,
means “to become heated with work” or “with zeal for work”
(Neh. 3:20).
B. Noun.
(
, 2740), “burning anger.” The 41 occurrences of this word cover every
period of the Bible. This word refers exclusively to divine anger as that which is
“burning.”
)
first appears in Exod. 32:12: “Turn from thy fierce wrath [
],
and repent of this evil against thy people.”
TO ANOINT
A. Verb.
(
, 4886), “to anoint, smear, consecrate.” A common word in both
ancient and modern Hebrew,
is also found in ancient Ugaritic. It occurs
approximately 70 times in the Hebrew Old Testament.
The word is found for the first time in the Old Testament in Gen. 31:13: “… where
thou anointedst the pillar, and … vowedst a vow unto me …” This use illustrates the idea
of anointing something or someone as an act of consecration. The basic meaning of the
word, however, is simply to “smear” something on an object. Usually oil is involved, but
it could be other substances, such as paint or dye (cf. Jer. 22:14). The expression “anoint
the shield” in Isa. 21:5 probably has more to do with lubrication than consecration in that
context. When unleavened bread is “tempered with oil” in Exod. 29:2, it is basically
equivalent to our act of buttering bread.
The Old Testament most commonly uses
to indicate “anointing” in the
sense of a special setting apart for an office or function. Thus, Elisha was “anointed” to
be a prophet (1 Kings 19:16). More typically, kings were “anointed” for their office (1
Sam. 16:12; 1 Kings 1:39). Vessels used in the worship at the sacred shrine (both
tabernacle and temple) were consecrated for use by “anointing” them (Exod. 29:36;
30:26; 40:9-10). In fact, the recipe for the formulation of this “holy anointing oil” is
given in detail in Exod. 30:22-25.
B. Noun.
(
, 4899), “anointed one.” A word that is important both to Old
Testament and New Testament understandings is the noun
, which gives us the
term
. As is true of the verb,
implies an anointing for a special office or
function. Thus, David refused to harm Saul because Saul was “the Lord’s anointed” (1
Sam. 24:6). The Psalms often express the messianic ideals attached to the Davidic line by
using the phrase “the Lord’s anointed” (Ps. 2:2; 18:50; 89:38, 51).
Interestingly enough, the only person named “messiah” in the Old Testament was
Cyrus, the pagan king of Persia, who was commissioned by God to restore Judah to her
homeland after the Exile (Isa. 45:1). The anointing in this instance was more figurative