85:5 Will you stay mad at us forever?
Will you remain angry throughout future generations? 1
7:9 Do not let yourself be quickly provoked, 2
for anger resides in the lap 3 of fools.
57:16 For I will not be hostile 4 forever
or perpetually angry,
for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me, 5
the life-giving breath I created.
7:18 There is no other God like you! 6
You 7 forgive sin
and pardon 8 the rebellion
of those who remain among your people. 9
You do not remain angry forever, 10
but delight in showing loyal love.
5:1 Therefore, be 13 imitators of God as dearly loved children
1 tn Heb “Will your anger stretch to a generation and a generation?”
2 tn Heb “Do not be hasty in your spirit to become angry.”
3 tn Heb “bosom.”
4 tn Or perhaps, “argue,” or “accuse” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
5 tn Heb “for a spirit from before me would be faint.”
6 tn Heb “Who is a God like you?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one!”
7 tn Heb “one who.” The prayer moves from direct address (second person) in v. 18a to a descriptive (third person) style in vv. 18b-19a and then back to direct address (second person) in vv. 19b-20. Due to considerations of English style and the unfamiliarity of the modern reader with alternation of persons in Hebrew poetry, the entire section has been rendered as direct address (second person) in the translation.
8 tn Heb “pass over.”
9 tn Heb “of the remnant of his inheritance.”
10 tn Heb “he does not keep hold of his anger forever.”
11 sn A quotation from Ps 4:4. Although several translations render the phrase Be angry and do not sin as “If you are angry, do not sin” such is unlikely on a grammatical, lexical, and historical level (see D. B. Wallace, “᾿Οργίζεσθε in Ephesians 4:26: Command or Condition?” CTR 3 [1989]: 352-72). The idea of vv. 26-27 is as follows: Christians are to exercise a righteous indignation over sin in the midst of the believing community (v. 26a; note that v. 25 is restricting the discussion to those in the body of Christ). When other believers sin, such people should be gently and quickly confronted (v. 26b), for if the body of Christ does not address sin in its midst, the devil gains a foothold (v. 27). “Entirely opposite of the ‘introspective conscience’ view, this text seems to be a shorthand expression for church discipline, suggesting that there is a biblical warrant for δικαία ὀργή [dikaia orgh] (as the Greeks put it) – righteous indignation” (ExSyn 492).
12 tn The word παροργισμός (parorgismo"), typically translated “anger” in most versions is used almost exclusively of the source of anger rather than the results in Greek literature (thus, it refers to an external cause or provocation rather than an internal reaction). The notion of “cause of your anger” is both lexically and historically justified. The apparently proverbial nature of the statement (“Do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger”) finds several remarkable parallels in Pss. Sol. 8:8-9: “(8) God laid bare their sins in the full light of day; All the earth came to know the righteous judgments of God. (9) In secret places underground their iniquities (were committed) to provoke (Him) to anger” (R. H. Charles’ translation). Not only is παροργισμός used, but righteous indignation against God’s own people and the laying bare of their sins in broad daylight are also seen.
13 tn Or “become.”