Judges 2:14

2:14 The Lord was furious with Israel ¹  and handed them over to robbers who plundered them. ²  He turned them over to ³  their enemies who lived around them. They could not withstand their enemies’ attacks. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 29:20-28

29:20 The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ⁵  will rage ⁶  against that man; all the curses ⁷  written in this scroll will fall upon him ⁸  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ⁹  29:21 The Lord will single him out ¹⁰  for judgment ¹¹  from all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant written in this scroll of the law. 29:22 The generation to come – your descendants who will rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who will come from distant places – will see ¹²  the afflictions of that land and the illnesses that the Lord has brought on it. 29:23 The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ¹³  29:24 Then all the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger ¹⁴  all about?” 29:25 Then people will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 29:26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship. ¹⁵  29:27 That is why the Lord’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses ¹⁶  written in this scroll. 29:28 So the Lord has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land, as is clear today.”

Deuteronomy 31:16-18

31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ¹⁷  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ¹⁸  are going. They ¹⁹  will reject ²⁰  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ²¹  31:17 At that time ²²  my anger will erupt against them ²³  and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome ²⁴  them ²⁵  so that they ²⁶  will say at that time, ‘Have not these disasters ²⁷  overcome us ²⁸  because our ²⁹  God is not among us ³⁰ ?’ 31:18 But I will certainly ³¹  hide myself at that time because of all the wickedness they ³²  will have done by turning to other gods.

Deuteronomy 32:16-22

32:16 They made him jealous with other gods, ³³ 

they enraged him with abhorrent idols. ³⁴ 

32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known;

to new gods who had recently come along,

gods your ancestors ³⁵  had not known about.

32:18 You have forgotten ³⁶  the Rock who fathered you,

and put out of mind the God who gave you birth.

A Word of Judgment

32:19 But the Lord took note and despised them

because his sons and daughters enraged him.

32:20 He said, “I will reject them, ³⁷ 

I will see what will happen to them;

for they are a perverse generation,

children ³⁸  who show no loyalty.

32:21 They have made me jealous ³⁹  with false gods, ⁴⁰ 

enraging me with their worthless gods; ⁴¹ 

so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, ⁴² 

with a nation slow to learn ⁴³  I will enrage them.

32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger,

and it burns to lowest Sheol; ⁴⁴ 

it consumes the earth and its produce,

and ignites the foundations of the mountains.

Joshua 23:15-16

23:15 But in the same way every faithful promise the Lord your God made to you has been realized, ⁴⁵  it is just as certain, if you disobey, that the Lord will bring on you every judgment ⁴⁶  until he destroys you from this good land which the Lord your God gave you. 23:16 If you violate the covenantal laws of the Lord your God which he commanded you to keep, ⁴⁷  and follow, worship, and bow down to other gods, ⁴⁸  the Lord will be very angry with you and you will disappear ⁴⁹  quickly from the good land which he gave to you.”

Psalms 74:1

Psalm 74 ⁵⁰ 

A well-written song ⁵¹  by Asaph.

74:1 Why, O God, have you permanently rejected us? ⁵² 

Why does your anger burn ⁵³  against the sheep of your pasture?

Nahum 1:2

God Takes Vengeance against His Enemies

1:2 The Lord is a zealous ⁵⁴  and avenging ⁵⁵  God;

the Lord is avenging and very angry. ⁵⁶ 

The Lord takes vengeance ⁵⁷  against his foes;

he sustains his rage ⁵⁸  against his enemies.

Nahum 1:6

1:6 No one can withstand ⁵⁹  his indignation! ⁶⁰ 

No one can resist ⁶¹  his fierce anger! ⁶² 

His wrath is poured out like volcanic fire,

boulders are broken up ⁶³  as he approaches. ⁶⁴ 

[2:14]  ¹ tn Or “The Lord’s anger burned [or “raged”] against Israel.”

[2:14]  ² tn Heb “robbers who robbed them.” (The verb שָׁסָה [shasah] appears twice in the verse.)

[2:14]  ³ tn Heb “sold them into the hands of.”

[2:14]  ⁴ tn The word “attacks” is supplied in the translation both for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[29:20]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”

[29:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “the entire oath.”

[29:20]  ⁸ tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”

[29:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”

[29:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “set him apart.”

[29:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for evil”; NAB “for doom”; NASB “for adversity”; NIV “for disaster”; NRSV “for calamity.”

[29:22]  ¹² tn Heb “will say and see.” One expects a quotation to appear, but it seems to be omitted. To avoid confusion in the translation, the verb “will say” is omitted.

[29:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.

[29:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”

[29:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “did not assign to them”; NASB, NRSV “had not allotted to them.”

[29:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the entire curse.”

[31:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”

[31:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.

[31:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:16]  ²⁰ tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).

[31:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ²² tn Heb “on that day.” This same expression also appears later in the verse and in v. 18.

[31:17]  ²³ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ²⁴ tn Heb “find,” “encounter.”

[31:17]  ²⁵ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ²⁷ tn Heb “evils.”

[31:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[31:17]  ²⁹ tn Heb “my.”

[31:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[31:18]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “certainly.”

[31:18]  ³² tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[32:16]  ³³ tc Heb “with strange (things).” The Vulgate actually supplies diis (“gods”).

[32:16]  ³⁴ tn Heb “abhorrent (things)” (cf. NRSV). A number of English versions understand this as referring to “idols” (NAB, NIV, NCV, CEV), while NLT supplies “acts.”

[32:17]  ³⁵ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[32:18]  ³⁶ tc The Hebrew text is corrupt here; the translation follows the suggestion offered in HALOT 1477 s.v. שׁיה. Cf. NASB, NLT “You neglected”; NIV “You deserted”; NRSV “You were unmindful of.”

[32:20]  ³⁷ tn Heb “I will hide my face from them.”

[32:20]  ³⁸ tn Heb “sons” (so NAB, NASB); TEV “unfaithful people.”

[32:21]  ³⁹ sn They have made me jealous. The “jealousy” of God is not a spirit of pettiness prompted by his insecurity, but righteous indignation caused by the disloyalty of his people to his covenant grace (see note on the word “God” in Deut 4:24). The jealousy of Israel, however (see next line), will be envy because of God’s lavish attention to another nation. This is an ironic wordplay. See H. Peels, NIDOTTE 3:938-39.

[32:21]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “their empty (things).” The Hebrew term used here to refer pejoratively to the false gods is הֶבֶל (hevel, “futile” or “futility”), used frequently in Ecclesiastes (e.g., Eccl 1:1, “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher, “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”).

[32:21]  ⁴² tn Heb “what is not a people,” or a “nonpeople.” The “nonpeople” (לֹא־עָם, lo’-’am) referred to here are Gentiles who someday would become God’s people in the fullest sense (cf. Hos 1:9; 2:23).

[32:21]  ⁴³ tn Heb “a foolish nation” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “a nation that has no understanding”; NLT “I will provoke their fury by blessing the foolish Gentiles.”

[32:22]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “to the lowest depths of the earth”; cf. NAB “to the depths of the nether world”; NIV “to the realm of death below”; NLT “to the depths of the grave.”

[23:15]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “and it will be as every good word which the Lord your God spoke to you has come to pass.”

[23:15]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “so the Lord will bring every injurious [or “evil”] word [or “thing”] upon you.”

[23:16]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “when you violate the covenant of the Lord your God which he commanded you.”

[23:16]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and you walk and serve other gods and bow down to them.”

[23:16]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “perish.”

[74:1]  ⁵⁰ sn Psalm 74. The psalmist, who has just experienced the devastation of the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem in 586 b.c., asks God to consider Israel’s sufferings and intervene on behalf of his people. He describes the ruined temple, recalls God’s mighty deeds in the past, begs for mercy, and calls for judgment upon God’s enemies.

[74:1]  ⁵¹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[74:1]  ⁵² sn The psalmist does not really believe God has permanently rejected his people or he would not pray as he does in this psalm. But this initial question reflects his emotional response to what he sees and is overstated for the sake of emphasis. The severity of divine judgment gives the appearance that God has permanently abandoned his people.

[74:1]  ⁵³ tn Heb “smoke.” The picture is that of a fire that continues to smolder.

[1:2]  ⁵⁴ 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]  ⁵⁵ 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]  ⁵⁶ 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]  ⁵⁷ 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]  ⁵⁸ 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.

[1:6]  ⁵⁹ 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]  ⁶⁰ 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]  ⁶¹ 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]  ⁶² 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]  ⁶³ 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]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “before him” (so NAB, NIV, TEV).