Yeremia 4:4

4:4 Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin

as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment,

you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord

and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me, ¹ 

people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

If you do not, ²  my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you

that no one will be able to extinguish.

That will happen because of the evil you have done.”

Yeremia 7:20

7:20 So,” the Lord God ³  says, “my raging fury will be poured out on this land. ⁴  It will be poured out on human beings and animals, on trees and crops. ⁵  And it will burn like a fire which cannot be extinguished.”

Yeremia 21:5

21:5 In anger, in fury, and in wrath I myself will fight against you with my mighty power and great strength! ⁶ 

Yeremia 21:12

21:12 O royal family descended from David. ⁷ 

The Lord says:

‘See to it that people each day ⁸  are judged fairly. ⁹ 

Deliver those who have been robbed from those ¹⁰  who oppress them.

Otherwise, my wrath will blaze out against you.

It will burn like a fire that cannot be put out

because of the evil that you have done. ¹¹ 

Yeremia 36:7

36:7 Perhaps then they will ask the Lord for mercy and will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. ¹²  For the Lord has threatened to bring great anger and wrath against these people.” ¹³ 

Yeremia 42:18

42:18 For ¹⁴  the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁵  says, ‘If you go to Egypt, I will pour out my wrath on you just as I poured out my anger and wrath on the citizens of Jerusalem. ¹⁶  You will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ¹⁷  You will never see this place again.’ ¹⁸ 

Imamat 26:28

26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you ¹⁹  and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins.

Yesaya 51:17

51:17 Wake up! Wake up!

Get up, O Jerusalem!

You drank from the cup the Lord passed to you,

which was full of his anger! ²⁰ 

You drained dry

the goblet full of intoxicating wine. ²¹ 

Yesaya 51:20

51:20 Your children faint;

they lie at the head of every street

like an antelope in a snare.

They are left in a stupor by the Lord’s anger,

by the battle cry of your God. ²² 

Yehezkiel 5:13

5:13 Then my anger will be fully vented; I will exhaust my rage on them, and I will be appeased. ²³  Then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy ²⁴  when I have fully vented my rage against them.

Yehezkiel 6:12

6:12 The one far away will die by pestilence, the one close by will fall by the sword, and whoever is left and has escaped these ²⁵  will die by famine. I will fully vent my rage against them.

Yehezkiel 8:18

8:18 Therefore I will act with fury! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare ²⁶  them. When they have shouted in my ears, I will not listen to them.”

Yehezkiel 20:33

20:33 As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm, ²⁷  and with an outpouring of rage, I will be king over you.

Yehezkiel 24:8

24:8 To arouse anger, to take vengeance,

I have placed her blood on an exposed rock so that it cannot be covered up.

Yehezkiel 24:13

24:13 You mix uncleanness with obscene conduct. ²⁸ 

I tried to cleanse you, ²⁹  but you are not clean.

You will not be cleansed from your uncleanness ³⁰ 

until I have exhausted my anger on you.

Daniel 9:12

9:12 He has carried out his threats ³¹  against us and our rulers ³²  who were over ³³  us by bringing great calamity on us – what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven!

Nahum 1:2

God Takes Vengeance against His Enemies

1:2 The Lord is a zealous ³⁴  and avenging ³⁵  God;

the Lord is avenging and very angry. ³⁶ 

The Lord takes vengeance ³⁷  against his foes;

he sustains his rage ³⁸  against his enemies.

[4:4]  ¹ tn Heb “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskin of your heart.” The translation is again an attempt to bring out the meaning of a metaphor. The mention of the “foreskin of the heart” shows that the passage is obviously metaphorical and involves heart attitude, not an external rite.

[4:4]  ² tn Heb “lest.”

[7:20]  ³ tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.

[7:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “this place.” Some see this as a reference to the temple but the context has been talking about what goes on in the towns of Judah and Jerusalem and the words that follow, meant as a further explanation, are applied to the whole land.

[7:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “the trees of/in the field and the fruit of/in the ground.”

[21:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “with outstretched hand and with strong arm.” These are, of course, figurative of God’s power and might. He does not literally have hands and arms.

[21:5]  sn The phrases in this order are unique but a very similar phrase “by strong hand and outstretched arm” are found several times with reference to God’s mighty power unleashed against Egypt at the exodus (cf., Deut 4:34; 5:15; 26:8; Jer 32:21; Ps 136:12). Instead of being directed at Israel’s enemies it will now be directed against her.

[21:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “house of David.” This is essentially equivalent to the royal court in v. 11.

[21:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “to the morning” = “morning by morning” or “each morning.” See Isa 33:2 and Amos 4:4 for parallel usage.

[21:12]  ⁹ sn The kings of Israel and Judah were responsible for justice. See Pss 122:5. The king himself was the final court of appeals judging from the incident of David with the wise woman of Tekoa (2 Sam 14), Solomon and the two prostitutes (1 Kgs 3:16-28), and Absalom’s attempts to win the hearts of the people of Israel by interfering with due process (2 Sam 15:2-4). How the system was designed to operate may be seen from 2 Chr 19:4-11.

[21:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from the hand [or power] of.”

[21:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Lest my wrath go out like fire and burn with no one to put it out because of the evil of your deeds.”

[36:7]  ¹² tn Heb “will turn each one from his wicked way.”

[36:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “For great is the anger and the wrath which the Lord has spoken against this people.” The translation uses the more active form which is more in keeping with contemporary English style.

[42:18]  ¹⁴ tn Or “Indeed.”

[42:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study note on 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title.

[42:18]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[42:18]  ¹⁷ tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

[42:18]  ¹⁸ tn Or “land.” The reference is, of course, to the land of Judah.

[26:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; NASB “with wrathful hostility”; NRSV “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; CEV “I’ll get really furious.”

[51:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[you] who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his anger.”

[51:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “the goblet, the cup [that causes] staggering, you drank, you drained.”

[51:20]  ²² tn Heb “those who are full of the anger of the Lord, the shout [or “rebuke”] of your God.”

[5:13]  ²³ tn Or “calm myself.”

[5:13]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew noun translated “jealousy” is used in the human realm to describe suspicion of adultery (Num 5:14ff.; Prov 6:34). Since Israel’s relationship with God was often compared to a marriage this term is appropriate here. The term occurs elsewhere in Ezekiel in 8:3, 5; 16:38, 42; 23:25.

[6:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the one who is left, the one who is spared.”

[8:18]  ²⁶ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[20:33]  ²⁷ sn This phrase occurs frequently in Deuteronomy (Deut 4:34; 5:15; 7:19; 11:2; 26:8).

[24:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in your uncleanness (is) obscene conduct.”

[24:13]  ²⁹ tn Heb “because I cleansed you.” In this context (see especially the very next statement), the statement must refer to divine intention and purpose. Despite God’s efforts to cleanse his people, they resisted him and remained morally impure.

[24:13]  ³⁰ tn The Hebrew text adds the word “again.”

[9:12]  ³¹ tn Heb “he has fulfilled his word(s) which he spoke.”

[9:12]  ³² tn Heb “our judges.”

[9:12]  ³³ tn Heb “who judged.”

[1:2]  ³⁴ tn Heb “jealous.” The Hebrew term קַנּוֹא (qanno’, “jealous, zealous”) refers to God’s zealous protection of his people and his furious judgment against his enemies. The root קָנָא (qana’) can denote jealous envy (Gen 26:14; 30:1; 37:11; Pss 37:1; 73:3; 106:16; Prov 3:31; 23:17; 24:1, 19; Ezek 31:9), jealous rivalry (Eccl 4:4; 9:6; Isa 11:13), marital jealousy (Num 5:14, 15, 18, 25, 30; Prov 6:34; 27:4), zealous loyalty (Num 11:29; 25:11, 13; 2 Sam 21:2; 1 Kgs 19:10, 14; 2 Kgs 10:16; Ps 69:10; Song 8:6; Isa 9:6; 37:32; 42:13; 59:17; 63:15; Zech 1:14; 8:2), jealous anger (Deut 32:16, 21; Ps 78:58), and zealous fury (Exod 34:14; Deut 5:9; 29:19; 1 Kgs 14:22; Job 5:2; Pss 79:5; 119:139; Prov 14:30; Isa 26:11; Ezek 5:13; 8:3; 16:38, 42; 23:25; 35:11; 36:5, 6; 38:19; Zeph 1:18). See BDB 888 s.v. קָנָא; E. Reuter, TDOT 13:47-58.

[1:2]  ³⁵ tn The syntax of this line has been understood in two ways: (1) as a single clause with the Lord as the subject: “A jealous and avenging God is the Lord” (NRSV; NASB) or “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God” (NIV); and (2) as two parallel clauses: “God is jealous, and the Lord avenges” (KJV). The LXX reflects the latter. Masoretic accentuation and Hebrew syntax support the former. Accentuation links קַנּוֹא וְנֹקֵם (qano’ vÿnoqem, “jealous and avenging”) together rather than dividing them into separate clauses. Normal word order suggests that קַנּוֹא וְנֹקֵם (“jealous and avenging”) are attributive adjectives modifying אֵל (’el, “God”). In verbless clauses such as this, the predicate normally precedes the subject; thus, “a jealous and avenging God” (אֵל קַנּוֹא וְנֹקֵם, ’el qanno’ vÿnoqem) is the predicate and “the Lord” (יְהוָה, yÿhvah) is the subject.

[1:2]  ³⁶ tn Or “exceedingly wrathful”; Heb “a lord of wrath.” The idiom “lord of wrath” (וּבַעַל חֵמָה, uva’al khemah) means “wrathful” or “full of wrath” (Prov 22:24; 29:22). The noun “lord” (בַעַל) is used in construct as an idiom to describe a person’s outstanding characteristic or attribute (e.g., Gen 37:19; 1 Sam 28:7; 2 Kgs 1:8; Prov 1:17; 18:9; 22:24; 23:2; 24:8; Eccl 7:12; 8:8; 10:11, 20; Isa 41:15; 50:8; Dan 8:6, 20); see IBHS 149-51 §9.5.3.

[1:2]  ³⁷ tn The term נָקַם (naqam, “avenge, vengeance”) is used three times in 1:2 for emphasis. The Lord will exact just retribution against his enemies (the Assyrians) to avenge their wickedness against his people (Judah).

[1:2]  ³⁸ tn The verb “rage” (נָטַר, natar) is used elsewhere of keeping a vineyard (Song 1:6; 8:11-12) and guarding a secret (Dan 7:28). When used of anger, it does not so much mean “to control anger” or “to be slow to anger” (HALOT 695 s.v.) but “to stay angry” (TWOT 2:576). It describes a person bearing a grudge, seeking revenge, and refusing to forgive (Lev 19:18). It is often used as a synonym of שָׁמַר (shamar, “to maintain wrath, stay angry”) in collocation with לְעוֹלָם (lÿ’olam, “forever, always”) and לָעַד (la’ad, “continually”) to picture God harboring rage against his enemies forever (Jer 3:5, 12; Amos 1:11; Ps 103:9). The long-term rage depicted by נָטַר (“maintain rage”) serves as an appropriate bridge to the following statement in Nahum that the Lord is slow to anger but furious in judgment. God seeks vengeance against his enemies; he continually rages and maintains his anger; he is slow to anger, but will eventually burst out with the full fury of his wrath.