Job 20:23

20:23 “While he is ¹  filling his belly,

God ²  sends his burning anger ³  against him,

and rains down his blows upon him. ⁴ 

Job 27:22

27:22 It hurls itself against him without pity ⁵ 

as he flees headlong from its power.

Deuteronomy 32:22

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

and it burns to lowest Sheol; ⁶ 

it consumes the earth and its produce,

and ignites the foundations of the mountains.

Psalms 78:49-50

78:49 His raging anger lashed out against them, ⁷ 

He sent fury, rage, and trouble

as messengers who bring disaster. ⁸ 

78:50 He sent his anger in full force; ⁹ 

he did not spare them from death;

he handed their lives over to destruction. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 144:6

144:6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter them!

Shoot your arrows and rout them! ¹¹ 

Romans 2:8-9

2:8 but ¹²  wrath and anger to those who live in selfish ambition ¹³  and do not obey the truth but follow ¹⁴  unrighteousness. 2:9 There will be ¹⁵  affliction and distress on everyone ¹⁶  who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek, ¹⁷ 

[20:23]  ¹ tn D. J. A. Clines observes that to do justice to the three jussives in the verse, one would have to translate “May it be, to fill his belly to the full, that God should send…and rain” (Job [WBC], 477). The jussive form of the verb at the beginning of the verse could also simply introduce a protasis of a conditional clause (see GKC 323 §109.h, i). This would mean, “if he [God] is about to fill his [the wicked’s] belly to the full, he will send….” The NIV reads “when he has filled his belly.” These fit better, because the context is talking about the wicked in his evil pursuit being cut down.

[20:23]  ² tn “God” is understood as the subject of the judgment.

[20:23]  ³ tn Heb “the anger of his wrath.”

[20:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “rain down upon him, on his flesh.” Dhorme changes עָלֵימוֹ (’alemo, “upon him”) to “his arrows”; he translates the line as “he rains his arrows upon his flesh.” The word בִּלְחוּמוֹ (bilkhumo,“his flesh”) has been given a wide variety of translations: “as his food,” “on his flesh,” “upon him, his anger,” or “missiles or weapons of war.”

[27:22]  ⁵ tn The verb is once again functioning in an adverbial sense. The text has “it hurls itself against him and shows no mercy.”

[32:22]  ⁶ 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.”

[78:49]  ⁷ tn Heb “he sent against them the rage of his anger.” The phrase “rage of his anger” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

[78:49]  ⁸ tn Heb “fury and indignation and trouble, a sending of messengers of disaster.”

[78:50]  ⁹ tn Heb “he leveled a path for his anger.” There were no obstacles to impede its progress; it moved swiftly and destructively.

[78:50]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps “[the] plague.”

[144:6]  ¹¹ sn Arrows and lightning bolts are associated in other texts (see Pss 18:14; 77:17-18; Zech 9:14), as well as in ancient Near Eastern art (see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” [Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983], 187).

[2:8]  ¹² tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

[2:8]  ¹³ tn Grk “those who [are] from selfish ambition.”

[2:8]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “are persuaded by, obey.”

[2:9]  ¹⁵ tn No verb is expressed in this verse, but the verb “to be” is implied by the Greek construction. Literally “suffering and distress on everyone…”

[2:9]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “every soul of man.”

[2:9]  ¹⁷ sn Paul uses the term Greek here and in v. 10 to refer to non-Jews, i.e., Gentiles.