Ephesians 4:31-32

4:31 You must put away every kind of bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and evil, slanderous talk. 4:32 Instead, ¹  be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you. ² 

Exodus 11:8

11:8 All these your servants will come down to me and bow down ³  to me, saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow ⁴  you,’ and after that I will go out.” Then Moses ⁵  went out from Pharaoh in great anger.

Exodus 32:21-22

32:21 Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought on them so great a sin?” 32:22 Aaron said, “Do not let your anger burn hot, my lord; ⁶  you know these people, that they tend to evil. ⁷ 

Numbers 20:10-13

20:10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the community together in front of the rock, and he said to them, “Listen, you rebels, ⁸  must we bring ⁹  water out of this rock for you?” 20:11 Then Moses raised his hand, and struck the rock twice with his staff. And water came out abundantly. So the community drank, and their beasts drank too.

The Lord’s Judgment

20:12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough ¹⁰  to show me as holy ¹¹  before ¹²  the Israelites, therefore you will not bring this community into the land I have given them.” ¹³ 

20:13 These are the waters of Meribah, because the Israelites contended with the Lord, and his holiness was maintained ¹⁴  among them.

Numbers 20:24

20:24 “Aaron will be gathered to his ancestors, ¹⁵  for he will not enter into the land I have given to the Israelites because both of you ¹⁶  rebelled against my word ¹⁷  at the waters of Meribah.

Numbers 25:7-11

25:7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, ¹⁸  he got up from among the assembly, took a javelin in his hand, 25:8 and went after the Israelite man into the tent ¹⁹  and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen. ²⁰  So the plague was stopped from the Israelites. ²¹  25:9 Those that died in the plague were 24,000.

The Aftermath

25:10 The Lord spoke to Moses: 25:11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal ²²  for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. ²³ 

Nehemiah 5:6-13

5:6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. ²⁴  5:7 I considered these things carefully ²⁵  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ²⁶  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ²⁷  from your own countrymen!” ²⁸  Because of them I called for ²⁹  a great public assembly. 5:8 I said to them, “To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews ³⁰  who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, ³¹  so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.

5:9 Then I ³²  said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! ³³  Should you not conduct yourselves ³⁴  in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies? 5:10 Even I and my relatives ³⁵  and my associates ³⁶  are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this practice of seizing collateral! ³⁷  5:11 This very day return to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their houses, along with the interest ³⁸  that you are exacting from them on the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil.”

5:12 They replied, “We will return these things, ³⁹  and we will no longer demand anything from them. We will do just as you say.” Then I called the priests and made the wealthy and the officials ⁴⁰  swear to do what had been promised. ⁴¹  5:13 I also shook out my garment, ⁴²  and I said, “In this way may God shake out from his house and his property every person who does not carry out ⁴³  this matter. In this way may he be shaken out and emptied!” All the assembly replied, “So be it!” and they praised the LORD. Then the people did as they had promised. ⁴⁴ 

Psalms 4:4

4:4 Tremble with fear and do not sin! ⁴⁵ 

Meditate as you lie in bed, and repent of your ways! ⁴⁶  (Selah)

Psalms 37:8

37:8 Do not be angry and frustrated! ⁴⁷ 

Do not fret! That only leads to trouble!

Psalms 106:30-33

106:30 Phinehas took a stand and intervened, ⁴⁸ 

and the plague subsided.

106:31 This brought him a reward,

an eternal gift. ⁴⁹ 

106:32 They made him angry by the waters of Meribah,

and Moses suffered ⁵⁰  because of them,

106:33 for they aroused ⁵¹  his temper, ⁵² 

and he spoke rashly. ⁵³ 

Proverbs 14:29

14:29 The one who is slow to anger has great understanding,

but the one who has a quick temper ⁵⁴  exalts ⁵⁵  folly.

Proverbs 19:11

19:11 A person’s wisdom ⁵⁶  makes him slow to anger, ⁵⁷ 

and it is his glory ⁵⁸  to overlook ⁵⁹  an offense.

Proverbs 25:23

25:23 The north wind ⁶⁰  brings forth rain,

and a gossiping tongue ⁶¹  brings forth ⁶²  an angry look. ⁶³ 

Ecclesiastes 7:9

7:9 Do not let yourself be quickly provoked, ⁶⁴ 

for anger resides in the lap ⁶⁵  of fools.

Matthew 5:22

5:22 But I say to you that anyone who is angry with a brother ⁶⁶  will be subjected to judgment. And whoever insults ⁶⁷  a brother will be brought before ⁶⁸  the council, ⁶⁹  and whoever says ‘Fool’ ⁷⁰  will be sent ⁷¹  to fiery hell. ⁷² 

Mark 3:5

3:5 After looking around ⁷³  at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, ⁷⁴  he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁷⁵ 

Mark 10:14

10:14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ⁷⁶ 

Romans 12:19-21

12:19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, ⁷⁷  for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” ⁷⁸  says the Lord. 12:20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. ⁷⁹  12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

James 1:19

Living Out the Message

1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! ⁸⁰  Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.

[4:32]  ¹ tc ‡ Although most witnesses have either δέ (de; Ì⁴⁹ א A D² Ψ 33 1739^mg Ï lat) or οὖν (oun; D* F G 1175) here, a few important mss lack a conjunction (Ì⁴⁶ B 0278 6 1739* 1881). If either conjunction were originally in the text, it is difficult to explain how the asyndetic construction could have arisen (although the dropping of δέ could have occurred via homoioteleuton). Further, although Hellenistic Greek rarely joined sentences without a conjunction, such does occur in the corpus Paulinum on occasion, especially to underscore a somber point. “Instead” has been supplied in the translation because of stylistic requirements, not textual basis. NA²⁷ places δέ in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.

[4:32]  ² tn Or “forgiving.”

[11:8]  ³ sn Moses’ anger is expressed forcefully. “He had appeared before Pharaoh a dozen times either as God’s emissary or when summoned by Pharaoh, but he would not come again; now they would have to search him out if they needed help” (B. Jacob, Exodus, 289-90).

[11:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “that are at your feet.”

[11:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:22]  ⁶ sn “My lord” refers to Moses.

[32:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “that on evil it is.”

[20:10]  ⁸ tn The word is הַמֹּרִים (hammorim, “the rebels”), but here as a vocative: “you rebels.” It was a harsh address, although well-earned.

[20:10]  ⁹ tn The word order and the emphasis of the tense are important to this passage. The word order is “from this rock must we bring out to you water?” The emphasis is clearly on “from this rock!” The verb is the imperfect tense; it has one of the modal nuances here, probably obligatory – “must we do this?”

[20:12]  ¹⁰ tn Or “to sanctify me.”

[20:12]  ¹¹ sn Using the basic meaning of the word קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be separate, distinct, set apart”), we can understand better what Moses failed to do. He was supposed to have acted in a way that would have shown God to be distinct, different, holy. Instead, he gave the impression that God was capricious and hostile – very human. The leader has to be aware of what image he is conveying to the people.

[20:12]  ¹² tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[20:12]  ¹³ tn There is debate as to exactly what the sin of Moses was. Some interpreters think that the real sin might have been that he refused to do this at first, but that fact has been suppressed from the text. Some think the text was deliberately vague to explain why they could not enter the land without demeaning them. Others simply, and more likely, note that in Moses there was unbelief, pride, anger, impatience – disobedience.

[20:13]  ¹⁴ tn The form is unusual – it is the Niphal preterite, and not the normal use of the Piel/Pual stem for “sanctify/sanctified.” The basic idea of “he was holy” has to be the main idea, but in this context it refers to the fact that through judging Moses God was making sure people ensured his holiness among them. The word also forms a wordplay on the name Kadesh.

[20:24]  ¹⁵ sn This is the standard poetic expression for death. The bones would be buried, often with the bones of relatives in the same tomb, giving rise to the expression.

[20:24]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is in the second person plural form, and so it is Moses and Aaron who rebelled, and so now because of that Aaron first and then Moses would die without going into the land.

[20:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “mouth.”

[25:7]  ¹⁸ tn The first clause is subordinated to the second because both begin with the preterite verbal form, and there is clearly a logical and/or chronological sequence involved.

[25:8]  ¹⁹ tn The word קֻבָּה (qubbah) seems to refer to the innermost part of the family tent. Some suggest it was in the tabernacle area, but that is unlikely. S. C. Reif argues for a private tent shrine (“What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 [1971]: 200-206).

[25:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he thrust the two of them the Israelite man and the woman to her belly [lower abdomen].” Reif notes the similarity of the word with the previous “inner tent,” and suggests that it means Phinehas stabbed her in her shrine tent, where she was being set up as some sort of priestess or cult leader. Phinehas put a quick end to their sexual immorality while they were in the act.

[25:8]  ²¹ sn Phinehas saw all this as part of the pagan sexual ritual that was defiling the camp. He had seen that the Lord himself had had the guilty put to death. And there was already some plague breaking out in the camp that had to be stopped. And so in his zeal he dramatically put an end to this incident, that served to stop the rest and end the plague.

[25:11]  ²² tn Heb “he was zealous with my zeal.” The repetition of forms for “zeal” in the line stresses the passion of Phinehas. The word “zeal” means a passionate intensity to protect or preserve divine or social institutions.

[25:11]  ²³ tn The word for “zeal” now occurs a third time. While some English versions translate this word here as “jealousy” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), it carries the force of God’s passionate determination to defend his rights and what is right about the covenant and the community and parallels the “zeal” that Phinehas had just demonstrated.

[5:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “words.”

[5:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “my heart was advised upon me.”

[5:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “nobles.”

[5:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “taking a creditor’s debt.” The Hebrew noun מַשָּׁא (masha’) means “interest; debt” and probably refers to the collateral (pledge) collected by a creditor (HALOT 641-42 s.v.). This particular noun form appears only in Nehemiah (5:7, 10; 10:32); however, it is related to מַשָּׁאָה (masha’ah, “contractual loan; debt; collateral”) which appears elsewhere (Deut 24:10; Prov 22:26; cf. Neh 5:11). See the note on the word “people” at the end of v. 5. The BHS editors suggest emending the MT to מָשָׂא (masa’, “burden”), following several medieval Hebrew MSS; however, the result is not entirely clear: “you are bearing a burden, a man with his brothers.”

[5:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “his brothers.”

[5:7]  ²⁹ tn Heb “I gave.”

[5:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “our brothers, the Jews.”

[5:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “your brothers.”

[5:9]  ³² tc The translation reads with the Qere and the ancient versions וָאוֹמַר (va’omar, “and I said”) rather than the MT Kethib, וַיֹּאמֶר (vayyo’mer, “and he said”).

[5:9]  ³³ tn Heb “not good.” The statement “The thing…is not good” is an example of tapeinosis, a figurative expression which emphasizes the intended point (“The thing…is wrong!”) by negating its opposite.

[5:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “[should you not] walk.”

[5:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “brothers.”

[5:10]  ³⁶ tn Heb “lads.”

[5:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “this debt.” This expression is a metonymy of association: “debt” refers to the seizure of the collateral of the debt.

[5:11]  ³⁸ tc The MT reads וּמְאַת (umÿ’at, “and the hundredth”) which is somewhat enigmatic. The BHS editors suggest emending to וּמַשַּׁאת (umasha’t, “and the debt”) which refers to the interest or collateral (pledge) seized by a creditor (Deut 24:10; Prov 22:26; see HALOT 641-42 s.v. מַשָּׁא). The term מַשַּׁאת (masha’t) is related to the noun מָשָּׁא (masha’, “debt”) in 5:7, 10.

[5:12]  ³⁹ tn The words “these things” are not included in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “took an oath from them”; the referents (the wealthy and the officials, cf. v. 7) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:12]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “according to this word.”

[5:13]  ⁴² tn Heb “my bosom.”

[5:13]  ⁴³ tn Heb “cause to stand.”

[5:13]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “according to this word.”

[4:4]  ⁴⁵ sn The psalmist warns his enemies that they need to tremble with fear before God and repudiate their sinful ways.

[4:4]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “say in your heart(s) on your bed(s) and wail/lament.” The verb דֹמּוּ (dommu) is understood as a form of דָמָם (“wail, lament”) in sorrow and repentance. Another option is to take the verb from II דָמָם (damam, “be quiet”); cf. NIV, NRSV “be silent.”

[37:8]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “Refrain from anger! Abandon rage!”

[106:30]  ⁴⁸ sn The intervention of Phinehas is recounted in Num 25:7-8.

[106:31]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and it was reckoned to him for righteousness, to a generation and a generation forever.” The verb חָשַׁב (khashav, “to reckon”) is collocated with צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”) only in Ps 106:31 and Gen 15:6, where God rewards Abram’s faith with a land grant.

[106:32]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “there was harm to Moses.”

[106:33]  ⁵¹ tn The Hebrew text vocalizes the form as הִמְרוּ (himru), a Hiphil from מָרָה (marah, “to behave rebelliously”), but the verb fits better with the object (“his spirit”) if it is revocalized as הֵמֵרוּ (hemeru), a Hiphil from מָרַר (marar, “to be bitter”). The Israelites “embittered” Moses’ “spirit” in the sense that they aroused his temper with their complaints.

[106:33]  ⁵² tn Heb “his spirit.”

[106:33]  ⁵³ tn The Hebrew text adds “with his lips,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:29]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “hasty of spirit” (so KJV, ASV); NRSV, NLT “a hasty temper.” One who has a quick temper or a short fuse will be evident to everyone, due to his rash actions.

[14:29]  ⁵⁵ sn The participle “exalts” (מֵרִים, merim) means that this person brings folly to a full measure, lifts it up, brings it to the full notice of everybody.

[19:11]  ⁵⁶ tn Or “prudence,” the successful use of wisdom in discretion. Cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT “good sense.”

[19:11]  ⁵⁷ tn The Hiphil perfect of אָרַךְ (’arakh, “to be long”) means “to make long; to prolong.” Patience and slowness to anger lead to forgiveness of sins.

[19:11]  ⁵⁸ sn “Glory” signifies the idea of beauty or adornment. D. Kidner explains that such patience “brings out here the glowing colours of a virtue which in practice may look drably unassertive” (Proverbs [TOTC], 133).

[19:11]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “to pass over” (so KJV, ASV); NCV, TEV “ignore.” The infinitive construct עֲבֹר (’avor) functions as the formal subject of the sentence. This clause provides the cause, whereas the former gave the effect – if one can pass over an offense there will be no anger.

[25:23]  ⁶⁰ sn One difficulty here is that it is the west wind that brings rain to Israel (e.g., 1 Kgs 18:41-44). C. H. Toy suggests that the expression is general, referring to a northwest wind – unless it is an error (Proverbs [ICC], 468). J. P. M. van der Ploeg suggests that the saying originated outside the land, perhaps in Egypt (“Prov 25:23,” VT 3 [1953]: 189-92). But this would imply it was current in a place where it made no sense. R. N. Whybray suggests that the solution lies with the verb “brings forth” (תְּחוֹלֵל, tÿkholel); he suggests redefining it to mean “repels, holds back” (cf. KJV “driveth away”). Thus, the point would be that the north wind holds back the rain just as an angry look holds back slander (Proverbs [CBC], 149). But the support for this definition is not convincing. Seeing this as a general reference to northerly winds is the preferred solution.

[25:23]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “a tongue of secret” or “a hidden tongue,” referring to someone who goes around whispering about people behind their backs (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV “a backbiting tongue”).

[25:23]  ⁶² tn The phrase “brings forth” does not appear in Hebrew in this line but is implied by the parallelism with the previous line; it is supplied here in the translation for clarity.

[25:23]  ⁶³ sn The verse implies a comparison between the two parts to make the point that certain things automatically bring certain results. Gossiping words will infuriate people as easily as the northerly winds bring the cold rain.

[7:9]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “Do not be hasty in your spirit to become angry.”

[7:9]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “bosom.”

[5:22]  ⁶⁶ tc The majority of mss read the word εἰκῇ (eikh, “without cause”) here after “brother.” This insertion has support from א² D L W Θ 0233 Ë^1,13 33 Ï it sy co Ir^lat Or^mss Cyp Cyr. Thus the Western, Caesarean, and Byzantine texttypes all include the word, while the best Alexandrian and some other witnesses (Ì⁶⁴ א* B 1424^mg pc aur vg Or Hier^mss) lack it. The ms evidence favors its exclusion, though there is a remote possibility that εἰκῇ could have been accidentally omitted from these witnesses by way of homoioarcton (the next word, ἔνοχος [enocos, “guilty”], begins with the same letter). An intentional change would likely arise from the desire to qualify “angry,” especially in light of the absolute tone of Jesus’ words. While “without cause” makes good practical sense in this context, and must surely be a true interpretation of Jesus’ meaning (cf. Mark 3:5), it does not commend itself as original.

[5:22]  ⁶⁷ tn Grk “whoever says to his brother ‘Raca,’” an Aramaic word of contempt or abuse meaning “fool” or “empty head.”

[5:22]  ⁶⁸ tn Grk “subjected,” “guilty,” “liable.”

[5:22]  ⁶⁹ tn Grk “the Sanhedrin.”

[5:22]  ⁷⁰ tn The meaning of the term μωρός (mwros) is somewhat disputed. Most take it to mean, following the Syriac versions, “you fool,” although some have argued that it represents a transliteration into Greek of the Hebrew term מוֹרֵה (moreh) “rebel” (Deut 21:18, 20; cf. BDAG 663 s.v. μωρός c).

[5:22]  ⁷¹ tn Grk “subjected,” “guilty,” “liable.”

[5:22]  ⁷² tn Grk “the Gehenna of fire.”

[3:5]  ⁷³ tn The aorist participle περιβλεψάμενος (peribleyameno") has been translated as antecedent (prior) to the action of the main verb. It could also be translated as contemporaneous (“Looking around…he said”).

[3:5]  ⁷⁴ tn This term is a collective singular in the Greek text.

[3:5]  ⁷⁵ sn The passive was restored points to healing by God. Now the question became: Would God exercise his power through Jesus, if what Jesus was doing were wrong? Note also Jesus’ “labor.” He simply spoke and it was so.

[10:14]  ⁷⁶ sn The kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Children are a picture of those whose simple trust illustrates what faith is all about. The remark illustrates how everyone is important to God, even those whom others regard as insignificant.

[12:19]  ⁷⁷ tn Grk “the wrath,” referring to God’s wrath as the remainder of the verse shows.

[12:19]  ⁷⁸ sn A quotation from Deut 32:35.

[12:20]  ⁷⁹ sn A quotation from Prov 25:21-22.

[1:19]  ⁸⁰ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.