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up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; thou hast
drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling …” (Isa. 51:17).
Thus, God as the Almighty Potentate is angered by the sins and the pride of His
people, as they are an insult to His holiness. In a derived sense, the rulers on earth are
also described as those who are angered, but their “anger” is aroused from circumstances
over which they have no control. Naaman was angry with Elisha’s advice (2 Kings 5:11-
12); Ahasuerus became enraged with Vashti’s refusal to display her beauty before the
men (Esth. 1:12).
)
also denotes man’s reaction to everyday circumstances. Man’s “rage” is a
dangerous expression of his emotional state, as it inflames everybody who comes close to
the person in rage. “Wrath” may arise for many reasons. Proverbs speaks strongly against
, as jealousy (6:34); cf. “Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able
to stand before envy?” (Prov. 27:4; cf. Ezek. 16:38). The man in rage may be culpable of
crime and be condemned: “Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments
of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment” (Job 19:29). The wise response to
“rage” is a soft answer: “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up
anger” (Prov. 15:1).
)
is associated with
%
, “jealousy,” and also with
%
, “vengeance,” as
the angered person intends to save his name or avenge himself on the person who
provoked him. In God’s dealing with Israel He was jealous of His Holy name, for which
reason He had to deal justly with idolatrous Israel by avenging Himself: “That it might
cause fury to come up to take vengeance; I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that
it should not be covered” (Ezek. 24:8); but He also avenges His people against their
enemies: “God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the
Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies”
(Nah. 1:2). Other synonyms of
are
, “anger,” and
%
, “wrath,” as in Deut.
29:27 and Jer. 21:5.
There are two special meanings of
: One is “heat,” as in “the Spirit lifted me
up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of
the Lord was strong upon me” (Ezek. 3:14). The other is “poison,” or “venom,” as in
Deut. 32:33: “Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.”
The Septuagint gives the following translations:
(“anger; indignation; wrath”)
and
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(“passion; anger; wrath; rage”). The KVJ gives these senses: “fury; wrath;
poison.”
B. Verb.
(
, 3179), “to be fiery, be hot.” This verb, which occurs only 10 times in
biblical Hebrew, is the root of the noun
.
In Deut. 19:6
means “to be hot”: “Lest the avenger of the blood pursue the
slayer while his heart is hot, and overtake him.…”
TO WRITE
A. Verb.