Deuteronomy 29:20

29:20 The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ¹  will rage ²  against that man; all the curses ³  written in this scroll will fall upon him ⁴  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ⁵ 

Numbers 16:35

16:35 Then a fire ⁶  went out from the Lord and devoured the 250 men who offered incense.

Psalms 21:9

21:9 You burn them up like a fiery furnace ⁷  when you appear; ⁸ 

the Lord angrily devours them; ⁹ 

the fire consumes them.

Psalms 83:14

83:14 Like the fire that burns down the forest,

or the flames that consume the mountainsides, ¹⁰ 

Psalms 97:3

97:3 Fire goes before him;

on every side ¹¹  it burns up his enemies.

Isaiah 66:15-16

66:15 For look, the Lord comes with fire,

his chariots come like a windstorm, ¹² 

to reveal his raging anger,

his battle cry, and his flaming arrows. ¹³ 

66:16 For the Lord judges all humanity ¹⁴ 

with fire and his sword;

the Lord will kill many. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 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, ¹⁶ 

people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

If you do not, ¹⁷  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.”

Jeremiah 15:14

15:14 I will make you serve your enemies ¹⁸  in a land that you know nothing about.

For my anger is like a fire that will burn against you.”

Jeremiah 17:4

17:4 You will lose your hold on the land ¹⁹ 

which I gave to you as a permanent possession.

I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you know nothing about.

For you have made my anger burn like a fire that will never be put out.” ²⁰ 

Lamentations 2:3

ג (Gimel)

2:3 In fierce anger ²¹  he destroyed ²² 

the whole army ²³  of Israel.

He withdrew his right hand ²⁴ 

as the enemy attacked. ²⁵ 

He was like a raging fire in the land of Jacob; ²⁶ 

it consumed everything around it. ²⁷ 

Lamentations 4:11

כ (Kaf)

4:11 The Lord fully vented ²⁸  his wrath;

he poured out his fierce anger. ²⁹ 

He started a fire in Zion;

it consumed her foundations. ³⁰ 

Ezekiel 36:5

36:5 therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Surely I have spoken in the fire of my zeal against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who with great joy and utter contempt have made my land their property and prey, because of its pasture.’

Nahum 1:6

1:6 No one can withstand ³¹  his indignation! ³² 

No one can resist ³³  his fierce anger! ³⁴ 

His wrath is poured out like volcanic fire,

boulders are broken up ³⁵  as he approaches. ³⁶ 

Malachi 4:1-2

4:1 (3:19) ³⁷  “For indeed the day ³⁸  is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord who rules over all. “It ³⁹  will not leave even a root or branch. 4:2 But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication ⁴⁰  will rise with healing wings, ⁴¹  and you will skip about ⁴²  like calves released from the stall.

Mark 9:43-48

9:43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than to have ⁴³  two hands and go into hell, ⁴⁴  to the unquenchable fire. 9:44 [[EMPTY]] ⁴⁵  9:45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better to enter life lame than to have ⁴⁶  two feet and be thrown into hell. 9:46 [[EMPTY]] ⁴⁷  9:47 If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out! ⁴⁸  It is better to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than to have ⁴⁹  two eyes and be thrown into hell, 9:48 where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.

Mark 9:2

The Transfiguration

9:2 Six days later ⁵⁰  Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John and led them alone up a high mountain privately. And he was transfigured before them, ⁵¹ 

Mark 1:8

1:8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Hebrews 12:29

12:29 For our God is indeed a devouring fire. ⁵² 

[29:20]  ¹ tn Heb “the wrath of the Lord and his zeal.” The expression is a hendiadys, a figure in which the second noun becomes adjectival to the first.

[29:20]  ² tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”

[29:20]  ³ tn Heb “the entire oath.”

[29:20]  ⁴ tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”

[29:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”

[16:35]  ⁶ tn For a discussion of the fire of the Lord, see J. C. H. Laughlin, “The Strange Fire of Nadab and Abihu,” JBL 95 (1976): 559-65.

[21:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “you make them like a furnace of fire.” Although many modern translations retain the literal Hebrew, the statement is elliptical. The point is not that he makes them like a furnace, but like an object burned in a furnace (cf. NEB, “at your coming you shall plunge them into a fiery furnace”).

[21:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “at the time of your face.” The “face” of the king here refers to his angry presence. See Lam 4:16.

[21:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord, in his anger he swallows them, and fire devours them.” Some take “the Lord” as a vocative, in which case he is addressed in vv. 8-9a. But this makes the use of the third person in v. 9b rather awkward, though the king could be the subject (see vv. 1-7).

[83:14]  ¹⁰ sn The imagery of fire and flames suggests unrelenting, destructive judgment.

[97:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all around.”

[66:15]  ¹² sn Chariots are like a windstorm in their swift movement and in the way that they kick up dust.

[66:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “to cause to return with the rage of his anger, and his battle cry [or “rebuke”] with flames of fire.”

[66:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “upon all men”; TEV “all the people of the world.”

[66:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “many are the slain of the Lord.”

[4:4]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “lest.”

[15:14]  ¹⁸ tc This reading follows the Greek and Syriac versions and several Hebrew mss. Other Hebrew mss read “I will cause the enemy to pass through a land.” The difference in the reading is between one Hebrew letter, a dalet (ד) and a resh (ר).

[17:4]  ¹⁹ tc Or “Through your own fault you will lose the land…” As W. McKane (Jeremiah [ICC], 1:386) notes the ancient versions do not appear to be reading וּבְךָ (uvÿkha) as in the MT but possibly לְבַדְּךָ (lÿvaddÿkha; see BHS fn). The translation follows the suggestion in BHS fn that יָדְךָ (yadÿkha, literally “your hand”) be read for MT וּבְךָ. This has the advantage of fitting the idiom of this verb with “hand” in Deut 15:2 (see also v. 3 there). The Hebrew text thus reads “You will release your hand from your heritage.”

[17:4]  ²⁰ tc A few Hebrew mss and two Greek mss read “a fire is kindled in my anger” (reading קָדְחָה, qodkha) as in 15:14 in place of “you have kindled a fire in my anger” (reading קָדַחְתֶּם, qadakhtem) in the majority of Hebrew mss and versions. The variant may be explained on the basis of harmonization with the parallel passage.

[2:3]  ²¹ tc The MT reads אַף (’af, “anger”), while the ancient versions (LXX, Syriac Peshitta, Latin Vulgate) reflect אַפּוֹ (’appo, “His anger”). The MT is the more difficult reading syntactically, while the ancient versions are probably smoothing out the text.

[2:3]  ²² tn Heb “cut off, scattered.”

[2:3]  ²³ tn Heb “every horn of Israel.” The term “horn” (קֶרֶן, qeren) normally refers to the horn of a bull, one of the most powerful animals in ancient Israel. This term is often used figuratively as a symbol of strength, usually in reference to the military might of an army (Deut 33:17; 1 Sam 2:1, 10; 2 Sam 22:3; Pss 18:3; 75:11; 89:18, 25; 92:11; 112:9; 1 Chr 25:5; Jer 48:25; Lam 2:3, 17; Ezek 29:21) (BDB 901 s.v. 2), just as warriors are sometimes figuratively described as “bulls.” Cutting off the “horn” is a figurative expression for destroying warriors (Jer 48:25; Ps 75:10 [HT 11]).

[2:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he caused his right hand to turn back.” The implication in such contexts is that the Lord’s right hand protects his city. This image of the right hand is consciously reversed in 2:4.

[2:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “from the presence of the enemy.” This figurative expression refers to the approach of the attacking army.

[2:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he burned in Jacob like a flaming fire.”

[2:3]  ²⁷ tn Or “He burned against Jacob, like a raging fire consumes all around.”

[4:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “has completed.” The verb כִּלָּה (killah), Piel perfect 3rd person masculine singular from כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete”), has a range of closely related meanings: (1) “to complete, bring to an end,” (2) “to accomplish, finish, cease,” (3) “to use up, exhaust, consume.” Used in reference to God’s wrath, it describes God unleashing his full measure of anger so that divine justice is satisfied. This is handled admirably by several English versions: “The Lord has given full vent to his wrath” (NIV), “The Lord gave full vent to his wrath” (RSV, NRSV), “The Lord vented all his fury” (NJPS), “The Lord turned loose the full force of his fury” (TEV). Others miss the mark: “The Lord has accomplished his wrath/fury” (KJV, NKJV, ASV, NASB).

[4:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the heat of his anger.”

[4:11]  ³⁰ tn The term יְסוֹד (yÿsod, “foundation”) refers to the ground-level and below ground-level foundation stones of a city wall (Ps 137:7; Lam 4:11; Mic 1:6).

[1:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “stand before” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV, NLT). The Hebrew verb עָמַד (’amad, “stand”) here denotes “to resist, withstand.” It is used elsewhere of warriors taking a stand in battle to hold their ground against enemies (Judg 2:14; Josh 10:8; 21:44; 23:9; 2 Kgs 10:4; Dan 11:16; Amos 2:15). It is also used of people trying to protect their lives from enemy attack (Esth 8:11; 9:16). Like a mighty warrior, the Lord will attack his enemies, but none will be able to make a stand against him; none will be able to hold their ground against him; and none will be able to protect themselves from his onslaught (Pss 76:7[8]; 147:17; Mal 3:2).

[1:6]  ³² tn Heb “Who can stand before his indignation?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer; it is translated here as an emphatic denial. The Hebrew noun זַעַם (za’am, “indignation, curse”) connotes the angry wrath or indignant curse of God (Isa 10:5, 25; 13:5; 26:20; 30:27; Jer 10:10; 15:17; 50:25; Ezek 21:36; 22:24, 31; Hab 3:12; Zeph 3:8; Pss 38:4; 69:25; 78:49; 102:11; Lam 2:6; Dan 8:19; 11:36). It depicts anger expressed in the form of punishment (HALOT 276 s.v.; TWOT 1:247).

[1:6]  ³³ tn Heb “Who can rise up against…?” The verb יָקוּם (yaqum, “arise”) is here a figurative expression connoting resistance. Although the adversative sense of בְּ (bet) with יָקוּם (yaqum, “against him”) is attested, denoting hostile action taken against one’s enemy (Mic 7:6; Ps 27:12), the locative sense (“before him”) is preferred due to the parallelism with לִפְנֵי (lifney, “before him”).

[1:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Who can rise up against the heat of his anger?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer which is translated as an emphatic denial to clarify the point.

[1:6]  ³⁵ tn Or “burst into flames.” The Niphal perfect נִתְּצוּ (nittÿtsu) from נָתַץ (natats, “to break up, throw down”) may denote “are broken up” or “are thrown down.” The BHS editors suggest emending the MT’s נִתְּצוּ (nittÿtsu) to נִצְּתּוּ (nitsÿtu, Niphal perfect from יָצַת [yatsat, “to burn, to kindle, to burst into flames”]): “boulders burst into flames.” This merely involves the simple transposition of the second and third consonants. This emendation is supported by a few Hebrew mss (cited in BHS apparatus). It is supported contextually by fire and heat motifs in 1:5-6. The same metathesis of נִתְּצוּ and נִצְּתּוּ occurs in Jer 4:26.

[1:6]  ³⁶ tn Heb “before him” (so NAB, NIV, TEV).

[4:1]  ³⁷ sn Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:6 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 4:1 ET = 3:19 HT, 4:2 ET = 3:20 HT, etc., through 4:6 ET = 3:24 HT. Thus the book of Malachi in the Hebrew Bible has only three chapters, with 24 verses in ch. 3.

[4:1]  ³⁸ sn This day is the well-known “day of the Lord” so pervasive in OT eschatological texts (see Joel 2:30-31; Amos 5:18; Obad 15). For the believer it is a day of grace and salvation; for the sinner, a day of judgment and destruction.

[4:1]  ³⁹ tn Heb “so that it” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons a new sentence was begun here in the translation.

[4:2]  ⁴⁰ tn Here the Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah), usually translated “righteousness” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT; cf. NAB “justice”), has been rendered as “vindication” because it is the vindication of God’s people that is in view in the context. Cf. BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 6; “righteousness as vindicated, justification, salvation, etc.”

[4:2]  ⁴¹ sn The point of the metaphor of healing wings is unclear. The sun seems to be compared to a bird. Perhaps the sun’s “wings” are its warm rays. “Healing” may refer to a reversal of the injury done by evildoers (see Mal 3:5).

[4:2]  ⁴² tn Heb “you will go out and skip about.”

[9:43]  ⁴³ tn Grk “than having.”

[9:43]  ⁴⁴ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36). This Greek term also occurs in vv. 45, 47.

[9:44]  ⁴⁵ tc Most later mss have 9:44 here and 9:46 after v. 45: “where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched” (identical with v. 48). Verses 44 and 46 are present in A D Θ Ë¹³ Ï lat sy^p,h, but lacking in important Alexandrian mss and several others (א B C L W Δ Ψ 0274 ˹ 28 565 892 2427 pc co). This appears to be a scribal addition from v. 48 and is almost certainly not an original part of the Greek text of Mark. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.

[9:45]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “than having.”

[9:46]  ⁴⁷ tc See tc note at the end of v. 43.

[9:47]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “throw it out.”

[9:47]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “than having.”

[9:2]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “And after six days.”

[9:2]  ⁵¹ sn In 1st century Judaism and in the NT, there was the belief that the righteous get new, glorified bodies in order to enter heaven (1 Cor 15:42-49; 2 Cor 5:1-10). This transformation means the righteous will share the glory of God. One recalls the way Moses shared the Lord’s glory after his visit to the mountain in Exod 34. So the disciples saw Jesus transfigured, and they were getting a sneak preview of the great glory that Jesus would have (only his glory is more inherent to him as one who shares in the rule of the kingdom).

[12:29]  ⁵² sn A quotation from Deut 4:24; 9:3.