1 Samuel 25:21-22

25:21 Now David had been thinking, ¹  “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the desert. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil. 25:22 God will severely punish David, ²  if I leave alive until morning even one male ³  from all those who belong to him!”

1 Samuel 25:2

David Marries Abigail the Widow of Nabal

25:2 There was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. This man was very wealthy; ⁴  he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At that time he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

1 Samuel 19:1

Saul Repeatedly Attempts to Take David’s Life

19:1 Then Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan liked David very much. ⁵ 

Esther 3:5-6

3:5 When Haman saw that Mordecai was not bowing or paying homage to him, he ⁶  was filled with rage. 3:6 But the thought of striking out against ⁷  Mordecai alone was repugnant to him, for he had been informed ⁸  of the identity of Mordecai’s people. ⁹  So Haman sought to destroy all the Jews (that is, the people of Mordecai) ¹⁰  who were in all the kingdom of Ahasuerus.

Proverbs 14:17

14:17 A person who has a quick temper ¹¹  does foolish things,

and a person with crafty schemes ¹²  is hated. ¹³ 

Proverbs 16:32

16:32 Better to be slow to anger ¹⁴  than to be a mighty warrior,

and one who controls his temper ¹⁵  is better than ¹⁶  one who captures a city. ¹⁷ 

Jonah 4:9

4:9 God said to Jonah, “Are you really so very angry ¹⁸  about the little plant?” And he said, “I am as angry ¹⁹  as I could possibly be!” ²⁰ 

Ephesians 4:26-27

4:26 Be angry and do not sin; ²¹  do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger. ²²  4:27 Do not give the devil an opportunity.

James 1:19

Living Out the Message

1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! ²³  Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.

[25:21]  ¹ tn Heb “said.”

[25:22]  ² tc Heb “Thus God will do to the enemies of David and thus he will add.” Most of the Old Greek ms tradition has simply “David,” with no reference to his enemies. In OT imprecations such as the one found in v. 22 it is common for the speaker to direct malediction toward himself as an indication of the seriousness with which he regards the matter at hand. In other words, the speaker invites on himself dire consequences if he fails to fulfill the matter expressed in the oath. However, in the situation alluded to in v. 22 the threat actually does not come to fruition due to the effectiveness of Abigail’s appeal to David in behalf of her husband Nabal. Instead, David is placated through Abigail’s intervention. It therefore seems likely that the reference to “the enemies of David” in the MT of v. 22 is the result of a scribal attempt to deliver David from the implied consequences of this oath. The present translation follows the LXX rather than the MT here.

[25:22]  ³ tn Heb “one who urinates against a wall” (also in v. 34); KJV “any that pisseth against the wall.”

[25:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “great.”

[19:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “delighted greatly in David.”

[3:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “Haman.” The pronoun (“he”) was used in the translation for stylistic reasons. Repeating the proper name here is redundant according to contemporary English style, although the name is repeated in NASB and NRSV.

[3:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “to send a hand against”; KJV, NRSV “to lay hands on.”

[3:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “they had related to him.” For stylistic reasons this has been translated as a passive construction.

[3:6]  ⁹ tc The entire first half of the verse is not included in the LXX.

[3:6]  ¹⁰ tc This parenthetical phrase is not included in the LXX. Some scholars emend the MT reading עַם (’am, “people”) to עִם (’im, “with”), arguing that the phrase is awkwardly placed and syntactically inappropriate. While there is some truth to their complaint, the MT makes sufficient sense to be acceptable here, and is followed by most English versions.

[14:17]  ¹¹ sn The proverb discusses two character traits that are distasteful to others – the quick tempered person (“short of anger” or impatient) and the crafty person (“man of devices”). C. H. Toy thinks that the proverb is antithetical and renders it “but a wise man endures” (Proverbs [ICC], 292). In other words, the quick-tempered person acts foolishly and loses people’s respect, but the wise man does not.

[14:17]  ¹² tn Heb “a man of devices.”

[14:17]  ¹³ tc The LXX reads “endures” (from נָשָׂא, nasa’) rather than “is hated” (from שָׂנֵא, sane’). This change seems to have arisen on the assumption that a contrast was needed. It has: “a man of thought endures.” Other versions take מְזִמּוֹת (mÿzimmot) in a good sense; but antithetical parallelism is unwarranted here.

[16:32]  ¹⁴ tn One who is “slow to anger” is a patient person (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT). This is explained further in the parallel line by the description of “one who rules his spirit” (וּמֹשֵׁל בְּרוּחוֹ, umoshel bÿrukho), meaning “controls his temper.” This means the person has the emotions under control and will not “fly off the handle” quickly.

[16:32]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “who rules his spirit” (so NASB).

[16:32]  ¹⁶ tn The phrase “is better than” does not appear in this line in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the parallelism.

[16:32]  ¹⁷ sn The saying would have had greater impact when military prowess was held in high regard. It is harder, and therefore better, to control one’s passions than to do some great exploit on the battlefield.

[4:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Does it burn so thoroughly to you?” or “Does it burn rightly to you?” See note on this expression in v. 4.

[4:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “It thoroughly burns to me” or “It rightly burns to me.”

[4:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “unto death.” The phrase עַד־מָוֶת (’ad-mavet, “unto death”) is an idiomatic expression meaning “to the extreme” or simply “extremely [angry]” (HALOT 563 s.v. מָוֶת 1.c). The noun מָוֶת (“death”) is often used as an absolute superlative with a negative sense, similar to the English expression “bored to death” (IBHS 267-69 §14.5). For example, “his soul was vexed to death” (לָמוּת, lamut) means that he could no longer endure it (Judg 16:16), and “love is as strong as death” (כַמָּוֶת, kammavet) means love is irresistible or exceedingly strong (Song 8:6). Here the expression “I am angry unto death” (עַד־מָוֶת) means that Jonah could not be more angry. Unfortunately, this idiomatic expression has gone undetected by virtually every other major English version to date (KJV, NKJV, RSV, NRSV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NJB, JPS, NJPS). The only English version that comes close to representing the idiom correctly is BBE: “I have a right to be truly angry.”

[4:26]  ²¹ 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).

[4:26]  ²² 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.

[1:19]  ²³ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.